Gender

The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth about Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood, and Marriage

Editura: Harper Perennial

Anul aparitiei: 2003

Virginia Woolf introduced us to the "Angel in the House", now prepare to meet... The Bitch In the House.Women today have more choices than at any time in history, yet many smart, ambitious, contemporary women are finding themselves angry, dissatisfied, stressed out. Why are they dissatisfied? And what do they really want? These questions form the premise of this passionate, provocative, funny, searingly honest collection of original essays in which twenty-six women writers--ranging in age from twenty-four to sixty-five, single and childless or married with children or four times divorced--invite readers into their lives, minds, and bedrooms to talk about the choices they've made, what's working, and what's not.With wit and humor, in prose as poetic and powerful as it is blunt and dead-on, these intriguing women offer details of their lives that they've never publicly revealed before, candidly sounding off on: - The difficult decisions and compromises of living with lovers, marrying, staying single and having children- The perpetual tug of war between love and work, family and career- The struggle to simultaneously care for ailing parents and a young family- The myth of ...

Anne Kingston

The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-First Century

Editura: Picador USA

Anul aparitiei: 2006

Delving into the complex, troubling, and sometimes humorous contradictions, illusions, and realities of contemporary wifehood, this book takes the reader on a journey into the wedding industrial complex. Anne Kingston looks at wife backlash, and the new wave of neo-traditionalism that urges women to marry young; explores the apotheosis of abused wives and the strange celebration of wives who kill; and muses on the fact that Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart, two of the world's wealthiest and most influential women, are both unmarried. The result is an entertaining mix of social, sexual, historical, and economic commentary that is bound to stir debate even as it reframes our view of both women and marriage.

Estelle B. Freedman

No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women

Editura: Ballantine Books

Anul aparitiei: 2003

"On the situations of women around the world today, this one book provides more illumination and insight than a dozen others combined. . . . Freedman's survey is a triumph of global scope and informed precision." -NANCY F. COTT Professor of History, Harvard University Repeatedly declared dead by the media, the women's movement has never been as vibrant as it is today. Indeed as Stanford professor and award-winning author Estelle B. Freedman argues in her compelling book, feminism has reached a critical momentum from which there is no turning back. Freedman examines the historical forces that have fueled the feminist movement over the past two hundred years-and explores how women today are looking to feminism for new approaches to issues of work, family, sexuality, and creativity. Drawing examples from a variety of countries and cultures, from the past and the present, this inspiring narrative will be required reading for anyone who wishes to understand the role women play in the world. Searching in its analysis and global in its perspective, No Turning Back will stand as a defining text in one of the most important social movements of all time.

Nancy Etcoff

Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty

Editura: Anchor Books

Anul aparitiei: 2000

A provocative and thoroughly researched inquiry into what we find beautiful and why, skewering the myth that the pursuit of beauty is a learned behavior. In Survival of the Prettiest , Nancy Etcoff, a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and a practicing psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, argues that beauty is neither a cultural construction, an invention of the fashion industry, nor a backlash against feminism--it's in our biology. Beauty, she explains, is an essential and ineradicable part of human nature that is revered and ferociously pursued in nearly every civilization--and for good reason. Those features to which we are most attracted are often signals of fertility and fecundity. When seen in the context of a Darwinian struggle for survival, our sometimes extreme attempts to attain beauty--both to become beautiful ourselves and to acquire an attractive partner--suddenly become much more understandable. Moreover, if we understand how the desire for beauty is innate, then we can begin to work in our own interests, and not just the interests of our genetic tendencies.

Suzanne Braun Levine

Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood

Editura: Plume Books

Anul aparitiei: 2006

New brain research is proving it: Women at midlife really do start to see the world differently. Some 37 million women now entering their fifties and sixties--a unique generation--are refashioning their lives, with dramatic results. They have fulfilled all the prescribed roles--daughter, wife, mother, employee, but they're not ready to retire. They want to experience more . Suzanne Braun Levine gives us a fun, smart, and tremendously informative road map through the challenging and uncharted territory that lies ahead.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The Woman's Bible: A Classic Feminist Perspective

Editura: Dover Publications

Anul aparitiei: 2003

The publication of The Woman's Bible in 1895 and 1898 represented the last crusade of pioneer feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton to strike at the roots of the ideology behind her gender's subordinate role in society. In the tradition of radical individualism that guided her philosophy, Stanton's attack on religious orthodoxy is more a forceful political treatise than a scholarly work. This clarion call to action, assembled by Stanton and a committee of prominent feminists, consists of a book-by-book examination of the Bible, placing events in their historical context, interpreting passages as both allegory and fact, and comparing them with the myths of other cultures. Over a century later, it endures as an extraordinary document because of the questions it addresses, the topics it covers, and the still-resonant sincerity of its righteous indignation. Readers with an interest in theology, women's studies, or American history will find this milestone of religious and feminist literature an ever-relevant source of information and inspiration.

Audrey Hepburn

How to Be Lovely: The Audrey Hepburn Way of Life

Editura: Dutton Books

Anul aparitiei: 2004

A rare glimpse into the woman behind the mystique and the definitive guide to living genuinely with glamour and grace. "Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book and remembering--because you can't take it all in at once."--Audrey Hepburn On many occasions, Audrey Hepburn was approached to pen her autobiography, the definitive book of Audrey, yet she never agreed. A beloved icon who found success as an actress, a mother, and a humanitarian, Audrey Hepburn perfected the art of gracious living. More philosophy than biography, How to Be Lovely revisits the many interviews Audrey gave over the years, allowing us to hear her voice directly on universal topics of concern to women the world over: careers, love lives, motherhood and relationships. Enhanced by rarely seen photographs, behind-the-scenes stories, and insights from the friends who knew her well, How to Be Lovely uncovers the real Audrey, in her own words.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812

Editura: Vintage Books USA

Anul aparitiei: 1991

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER - Drawing on the diaries of one woman in eighteenth-century Maine, "A truly talented historian unravels the fascinating life of a community that is so foreign, and yet so similar to our own" ( The New York Times Book Review). Between 1785 and 1812 a midwife and healer named Martha Ballard kept a diary that recorded her arduous work (in 27 years she attended 816 births) as well as her domestic life in Hallowell, Maine. On the basis of that diary, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich gives us an intimate and densely imagined portrait, not only of the industrious and reticent Martha Ballard but of her society. At once lively and impeccably scholarly, A Midwife's Tale is a triumph of history on a human scale.

Alexandra Robbins

Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities

Editura: Hyperion Books

Anul aparitiei: 2005

Alexandra Robbins wanted to find out if the stereotypes about sorority girls were actually true, so she spent a year with a group of girls in a typical sorority. The sordid behavior of sorority girls exceeded her worst expectations -- drugs, psychological abuse, extreme promiscuity, racism, violence, and rampant eating disorders are just a few of the problems. But even more surprising was the fact that these abuses were inflicted and endured by intelligent, successful, and attractive women. Why is the desire to belong to a sorority so powerful that women are willing to engage in this type of behavior -- especially when the women involved are supposed to be considered 'sisters'? What definition of sisterhood do many women embrace? Pledged combines a sharp-eyed narrative with extensive reporting and the fly-on-the-wall voyeurism of reality shows to provide the answer.

Noelle Cleary, Dini Von Mueffling

The Art and Power of Being a Lady

Editura: Grove Press

Anul aparitiei: 2002

Lady. Let's face it: the word brings to mind a host of associations' many of which call to mind costume dramas or tea-sipping debutantes. That is, until The Art and Power of Being a Lady' the book that brushes the cobwebs off and makes lady relevant to every girl and woman -- whether her role model is Audrey Hepburn, Oprah Winfrey, Madeleine Albright, Lauryn Hill, or Mia Hamm. In an era when looking out for one another and taking the high road is too often lost in the shuffle, today's lady has not forgotten what's important. She is kind and considerate without being a doormat. She's assertive, but never a bully. She is sexy without being vulgar. She has great style but is never superficial. She gives back without asking for kudos. And from now on, the perfect word to describe her is lady.

Susan Tucker

Telling Memories Among Southern Women: Domestic Workers and Their Employers in the Segregated South

Editura: Louisiana State University Press

Anul aparitiei: 2002

In Telling Memories Among Southern Women, Susan Tucker presents a revealing collection of oral-history narratives that explore the complex, sometimes enigmatic bond between black female domestic workers and their white employers from the turn of the twentieth century to the civil rights revolution of the 1960s. Based on interviews with forty-two women of both races from the Deep South, these narratives express the full range of human emotions and successfully convey the ties that united--and the tensions and conflicts that separated--these two mutually dependent groups of women.

A Patchwork Shawl: Chronicles of South Asian Women in America

Editura: Rutgers University Press

Anul aparitiei: 1998

A Patchwork Shawl sheds light on the lives of a segment of the U.S. immigrant population that has long been relegated to the margins. It focuses on women's lives that span different worlds: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and the United States. This collection of essays by and about South Asian women in America challenges stereotypes by allowing women to speak in their own words. Together they provide discerning insights into the reconstruction of immigrant patriarchy in a new world, and the development of women's resistance to that reconstruction. Shamita Das DasGupta's introduction also acquaints readers with the psychological topography of the South Asian community. A Patchwork Shawl considers topics from re-negotiation of identity to sexuality, violence to intimacy, occupations to organizing within the community. The essays bear witness to women's negotiations for independent identities, their claim to their own bodies, and the right to choose relationships based on their own histories and truths. They bring new understanding to the intersection of gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality, and class.

Jessica Taft

Rebel Girls: Youth Activism and Social Change Across the Americas

Editura: New York University Press

Anul aparitiei: 2010

Explores how teenage girls across the world--Mexico City, Vancouver, Buenos Aires, San Francisco--reject the patriarchy and redefine their girlhood to claim their political authority and become activists From anti-war walkouts to anarchist youth newspapers, rallies against educational privatization, and workshops on fair trade, teenage girls are active participants and leaders in a variety of social movements. Rebel Girls: Youth Activism and Social Change Across the Americas illuminates the experiences and perspectives of these uniquely positioned agents of social change. Jessica K. Taft introduces readers to a diverse and vibrant transnational community of teenage girl activists in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mexico City, Caracas, Buenos Aires, and Vancouver. Expansive in scope and full of rich details, Taft brings to life the voices of these inspiring activists who are engaged in innovative and effective organizing for global and local social justice, highlighting their important contributions to contemporary social movements and social theory.Rebel Girls explores how teenage girls construct activist identities, rejecting and redefining girlhood and claiming political authority ...

Sangtin Writers

Playing with Fire: Feminist Thought and Activism Through Seven Lives in India

Editura: University of Minnesota Press

Anul aparitiei: 2006

Seven voices contribute to this rare glimpse of the work being done on the front lines of the fight for social change in India. Playing with Fire is written in the collective voice of women employed by a large NGO as activists in their communities and is based on diaries, interviews, and conversations among them. Together their personal stories reveal larger themes and questions of sexism, casteism, and communalism, and a startling picture emerges of how NGOs both nourish and stifle local struggles for solidarity. The Hindi edition of the book, Sangtin Yatra, published in 2004, created controversy that resulted in backlash against the authors by their employer. The publication also drew support for the women and instigated a public conversation about the issues exposed in the book. Here, Richa Nagar addresses the dispute in the context of the politics of NGOs and feminist theory, articulating how development ideology employed by aid organizations serves to reinforce the domination of those it claims to help. The Sangtin Writers, Anupamlata, Ramsheela, Reshma Ansari, Richa Singh, Shashibala, Shashi Vaish, Surbala, and Vibha Bajpayee, are grassroots activists and members of a small ...

Aaron Kipnis

Knights Without Armor

Editura: Indigo Phoenix Books

Anul aparitiei: 2004

Knights Without Armor: A Guide to The Inner Lives of Men By Aaron R. Kipnis, Ph.D. A powerful volume and helpful guide - Publishers Weekly Thoughtful and provocative - San Francisco Chronicle Kipnis' elegant portraits of men offer poignant support for his claims - Los Angeles Times A fresh vision that points the way for a new male psychology (from foreword by Robert A. Johnson) From the publisher: This completely revised and new edition offers any reader real insights into the often-private thoughts of men. It represents many years of practice, research and consulting devoted to educating parents, teachers and counselors about key aspects of male psychology that are often poorly understood in treatment and education. For women who want to better understand their relationships with men and for men who want to hear some straight talk from men who are courageously revisioning their lives, this book will be quite helpful. Dr Aaron Kipnis is a psychologist and full time professor in Santa Barbara, CA. He is the author of Angry Young Men, What Women and Men Really Want, and many other works about the inner lives of men and boys. For more information, online articles, vitae and press kit ...

Gwendolyn D. Pough

Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere

Editura: Northeastern University Press

Anul aparitiei: 2004

Hip-hop culture began in the early 1970s as the creative and activist expressions -- graffiti writing, dee-jaying, break dancing, and rap music -- of black and Latino youth in the depressed South Bronx, and the movement has since grown into a worldwide cultural phenomenon that permeates almost every aspect of society, from speech to dress. But although hip-hop has been assimilated and exploited in the mainstream, young black women who came of age during the hip-hop era are still fighting for equality.In this provocative study, Gwendolyn D. Pough explores the complex relationship between black women, hip-hop, and feminism. Examining a wide range of genres, including rap music, novels, spoken word poetry, hip-hop cinema, and hip-hop soul music, she traces the rhetoric of black women "bringing wreck." Pough demonstrates how influential women rappers such as Queen Latifah, Missy Elliot, and Lil' Kim are building on the legacy of earlier generations of women -- from Sojourner Truth to sisters of the black power and civil rights movements -- to disrupt and break into the dominant patriarchal public sphere. She discusses the ways in which today's young black women struggle against the ...

Transforming a Rape Culture

Editura: Milkweed Editions

Anul aparitiei: 2005

Originally published in 1993, this pioneering anthology is a powerful polemic for fundamental cultural change: the transformation of basic attitudes about power, gender, race, and sexuality. This edition adds new pieces on Internet pornography, the role of sports in sexual violence, and rape as a calculated instrument of war. The diverse contributors, which include bell hooks, Andrea Dworkin, Michael Messner, Yvette Flores, and Ntozake Shange, are activists, opinion leaders, theologians, policymakers, educators, and authors of both genders who tackle such hot-button issues as pornography and the intersection of race and rape. The book's statistics have been thoroughly updated, as have essays about sexual violence in K-12 schools and in the church. New pieces from within America's immigrant communities depict struggles with domestic violence, sexual harassment, and community stigmas against reporting rape. This violence, not limited to one race, creed, or nationality, has its roots in cultural biases that are still much in need of change.

The Cost of Choice: Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion

Editura: Encounter Books

Anul aparitiei: 2004

Captures the moral, legal, medical and political complexities surrounding abortion.

Elaine F. Weiss

Fruits of Victory: The Woman's Land Army of America in the Great War

Editura: Potomac Books

Anul aparitiei: 2008

Imagine a more controversial Rosie the Riveter--a generation older and more outlandish for her time. She was the "farmerette" of the Woman's Land Army of America (WLA), doing a man's job on the home front during World War I. From 1917 to 1920 the WLA sent more than twenty thousand urban women into rural America to take over farm work after the men went off to war and food shortages threatened the nation. These women, from all social and economic strata, lived together in communal camps and did what was considered "men's work" plowing fields, driving tractors, planting, harvesting, and hauling lumber. The Land Army was a civilian enterprise organized and financed by women. It insisted on fair labor practices and pay equal to male laborers' wages for its workers and taught women not only agricultural skills but also leadership and management techniques. Despite their initial skepticism, farmers became the WLA's loudest champions, and the farmerette was celebrated as an icon of American women's patriotism and pluck. The WLA's short but spirited life foreshadowed some of the most significant social issues of the twentieth century: women's changing roles, the problem of class ...

Felice Picano, Charles Silverstein

The Joy of Gay Sex: Fully Revised and Expanded Third Edition

Editura: Harper Paperbacks

Anul aparitiei: 2004

For a new century and a new generation of readers comes a fully revised and expanded edition of a classic guide to gay sex, love, and life. Featuring 50 new illustrations. One of the touchstones of the emerging gay consciousness when it was first published in the 70's, and a standard reference for gay men throughout the 80's and 90's, The Joy of Gay Sex has informed countless men about the ins and outs of gay life, love, and pleasure. A full decade has now passed since the last update, and while the gay community has seen improved treatments for AIDS, more positive media coverage, new forums for the expression of community, and more favorable laws, there continues to be an urgent need for this book's brand of positive and responsible advice. Invaluable not only as a sex guide but as a resource on building self-esteem, and a coming out guide for young gay men, The Joy of Gay Sex addresses the many emotional and relationship-oriented issues in gay life, from long-term couples and one-night stands, to loneliness and growing older. It also serves as a general reference on a number of diverse topics, including living wills and insurance. ...