Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Nicholas Kristoff & Sheryl WuDunn (Knopf Books)
Kristoff’s and WuDunn’s new book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is the kind of book that could change the course of history.
In the West, it’s sometimes easy to assume that the battle for women’s rights has largely been won (an assumption, perhaps, that is easier for men to make than women). But any victory declaration would certainly be premature for other parts of the world. Half the Sky makes the case, in fact, that the plight of women is getting worse in much of the world and will continue on its downward slide unless we do something about it. Read more…
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present
Gail Collins (Little Brown & Company)
Gail Collins is one of the most insightful – and certainly the wittiest – writers on the American political scene. She was the Editorial Page Editor of the N.Y. Times for six years and now a leading columnist on the editorial page. But even Collins would admit that she couldn’t have gotten a job in 1960, in the year her story opens:
“A would-be journalist named Madeleine Kunin, looking for her first reporting job, applied to the Providence Journal and was rebuffed by an editor, who said, ‘The last woman we hired got raped in the parking lot.’ She applied to the Washington Post and was told she was a finalist, and then later was notified that ‘we decided to give the job to a man.’ After going to Columbia Journalism School for further training, she applied to the New York Times, hoping to become a copy editor. ‘We don’t have anything in the newsroom for you, but I could see if we could get you a waitressing job in the Times cafeteria,’ said the personnel director.’
Collins’ writing style is measured and brilliant, letting the events of the women’s revolution speak largely for themselves. It’s quite a story. Read more…
Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire
Lisa M. Diamond (Harvard Press)
Most men probably don’t think too hard about why a woman might be attracted to them. Maybe they subscribe to Henry Kissinger’s off-quoted (and totally self-serving) idea that “power is an aphrodisiac” – if you’re strong and virile enough, women will love you. Or maybe they fall back on the idea that opposites attract. They know what they find attractive in a woman, so women must be attracted by the opposite – right?
After you’ve read Lisa Diamond’s book, you might throw away those assumptions. Diamond, a leading academic in the field of sexuality, says that “one of the fundamental, defining features of female sexual orientation is its fluidity.” She followed the lives of women over ten years, concluding that there is an important “situation-dependant flexibility in women’s sexual responsiveness.”
“This flexibility makes it possible for some women to experience desires for either men or women under certain circumstances, regardless of their overall sexual orientation.” Read more…
Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters
Jessica Valenti (Seal Press)
Memo to men: The first thing to remember is that Valenti is aiming her book at young women — not at you. The second thing to remember: that makes the book all the more important for you to read.
Valenti, who is the founder of the influential blog feministing.com, writes with a breezy, engaging style that befits her message. Feminism for her is a form of survival. Young women need to understand its basic tenets, she argues, because those ideas will help you take control of your life.
“When you’re a feminist, day-do-day life is better. You make better decisions. You have better sex. You understand the struggles you’re up against and how to best handle them.”
She dispels the false notion that feminism is somehow academic, angry, or uncool. As she slices her way through a weed patch of cultural myths, she comes across as someone who is fully in touch with both the serious and the fun sides of life. In short, Jessica Valenti is a woman that any man with an ounce of self-confidence would love to have a beer with. Read more…