soc.feminism References (part 3 of 3)
Cindy Tittle Moore
Version: 2.2
Last-modified: 15 February 1993
This posting contains useful feminist references for the newsgroup
soc.feminism.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
[1-8 in part I, 9-17 in part II]
18. Public Policies Regarding Women.
19. Reactions to Feminism.
20. Religion.
21. Sex and/or Violence, Sexual Abuse.
22. Sexual Harassment and Discrimination.
23. Test Biases.
24. Women of Color.
25. Women's Health.
(Auto)Biographies.
Miscellaneous.
Acknowledgements.
[continuing from part II]
18. Public Policies Regarding Women.
-------------------------------------
Abramovitz, Mimi. _Regulating the Lives of Women. Social Welfare Policy
from Colonial Times to the Present_.
An analysis of the impact of US social welfare policy, documents
how the family ethic has been translated into punitive welfare
approaches toward women
Baldock, Cora V., and Bettina Cass, eds. _Women, Social Welfare, and the
State in Australia_. Allen & Unwin, Sydney and Boston. 1983.
Dahl, Tove Stang. _Women's Law: An Introduction to Feminist
Jurisprudence_. Oxford University Press. 1987.
Proposal for a "women's law" by Norwegian sociologist of law.
Diamond, Irene, ed. _Families, Politics, and Public Policy_. New
York. Longman. 1983.
Enloe, Cynthia. _Bananas, Beaches and Bases_.
A radical analysis of international politics revealing the crucial
role of women in implementing government foreign policies. It
deals with several problems, one of which is prostitution especially
in asia, and also with regard to US military bases.
Freeman, Michael D.A. . _The State, the Law, and the Family: Critical
Perspectives_. Tavistock Publications, New York. 1984.
A collection of articles, many British, on the interrelationship
between the family, the state and patriarchy.
Glendon, Mary Ann. _Abortion and Divorce in Western Law_. Harvard
University Press, Cambridge MA. 1987.
Overview and analysis of abortion and divorce laws in several
western countries.
Gordon, Linda, ed. _Women, the State, and Welfare_. University of
Wisconsin Press. 1990.
Collection on women and the welfare state. Includes articles by
Elizabeth Schneider on rights, and Frances Fox Piven.
Hernes, Helga Maria. _Welfare State and Woman Power: Essays in State
Feminism_. Scandinavian Library series. Norwegian University Press,
Oxford. Distributed by Oxford University Press. 1987.
Critique of the patriarchal nature of the Scandinavian welfare state.
Mason, Mary Ann. _The Equality Trap_. Simon & Schuster, New York.
1988.
Discusses how the push for equality laws has actually been to the
detriment of women, particularly in the area of family law. The
author is a lawyer.
Mueller, Carol M., ed. _The Politics of the Gender Gap: The Social
Construction of Political Influence_. SAGE Publications, Newbury
Park, CA. 1988.
Ruggie, Mary. _The State and Working Women: A Comparative Study of
Britain and Sweden_. Princeton University Press. 1984.
Pateman, Carole. _The Sexual Contract_. Stanford University
Press. 1988.
The meaning of the social "contract" for women.
Pateman, Carole. _The Disorder of Women: Democracy, Feminism
and Political Theory_. Stanford University Press. 1989.
A discussion of women's role in the rise of democratic theory.
The meaning of consent.
Paul, Ellen Frankel. _Equity and Gender: the Comparable Worth Debate_.
1990.
Begins by explaining how comparable worth -- or pay equity imposed
by law -- is a full frontal assault on the free market by those
who scoff at the market's ability to provide justice, and argues
that the free market, not the state, is the better ally of
feminism.
Petchesky, Rosalind. _Abortion: A Woman's Choice_. 1990.
Excellent study of abortion politics in America. Examines the
patriarchal and capitalist roots underlying the abortion
controversy, as well as (in 1990 edition) the meaning of the
rights discourse for women. Re-imagining "rights."
Tribe, Laurence H. _Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes_. W.W. Norton,
New York, London. 1990. ISBN: 0-393-30699-2.
Tribe is a professor of constitutional law and brings this
expertise to his evaluation of the constitutional question of
abortion. Besides drawing a sympathetically balanced view of the
two extremes, he shows what that consequences for the constitution
would be upon defining a fetus as a "person." Excellent and very
readable, unlike many constitutional analyses of any sort.
Sassoon, Anne Showstack, ed. _Women and the State_. Unwin Hyman,
Winchester, MA. 1988.
An international collection of articles on women and the welfare
state.
Stetson, Dorothy McBride. _Women's Rights in the USA. Policy Debates
and Gender Roles_. Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, Pacific Grove, CA.
1991. ISBN: 0-534-14898-0.
The author examines the hottest current topics in the US that
relate to women, and how the mjor controversies and policies
affect gender roles and being female in this country.
Wilson, Elizabeth. _Women and the Welfare State_. Tavistock
Publications, London. 1977.
19. Reactions to Feminism.
---------------------------
Faludi, Susan. _Backlash. The Undeclared War Against American Women_,
(1991).
Gives an overview of the reaction to feminism in America today.
It is an incredible compendium of incorrect facts, bogus
statistics, false logic and unfounded theories, all of which which
are presented by society and the media in particular as "true" and
"factual" in order to keep women subordinate. One caveat about
this book is that the author seems unsympathetic to the difficult
choices a woman must make if she wants to combine career and
family.
Kamen, Paula, "Feminism, a Dirty Word", The New York Times,
November 23, 1990, page A37.
Leidholdt, Dorchen and Janice G. Raymond, eds. _The Sexual Liberals
and the Attack on Feminism_. Pergamon Press, New York. 1990.
Essays which originated as speeches and panel presentations at a
conferences on April 6, 1987, at the New York University Law
School. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Smith, Joan. _Misogynies: Reflections on Myths and Malice_. Fawcett
Columbine Book, Ballantine Books, Publishers. 1989. ISBN:0-449-90591-8.
From blurb: "Joan Smith has written a witty and bold collection
of essays on the alarming subject of women-hating. She observes
the phenomenon wryly and never succumbs to the fatuous
generalizations which characterize misogyny itself...Misogyny,
unlike sexism, grows in this way behind women's backs, which may
be why we sometimes optimistcially believe it is no longer
prevalent. It is aptly, intelligently and compassionately put
before us again in this well-written book." (Literary Review).
20. Religion.
--------------
Adler, Margot. _Drawing Down the Moon_. Revised edition. Beacon
Press, Boston. 1986. ISBN: 0-8070-3253-0.
This has a chapter on "Women, Feminism, and the Craft". It places
feminist wicca in one of its contexts. Otherwise the book is
mainly about neopaganism.
Armstrong, Karen. _The Gospel According to Woman_. Anchor Books,
Doubleday. 1987. ISBN: 0-385-24079-1 (trade paperback).
A provocative interpretation of the history of women in
Christianity. In particular, there are interesting parallels
between the Virgins (who could stay separate from men) of
Christian history and latter-day feminists.
Beck, Evelyn Torton, ed. _Nice Jewish Girls. A Lesbian Anthology_.
Revised and updated. Beacon Press, Boston. 1989.
Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schussler. _Bread Not Stone_. Beacon Press,
Boston. 1984. ISBN: 0-8070-1103-7 (trade paperback).
Feminist biblical interpretation.
Greenberg, Blu. _On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition_. Jewish
Publication Society of America, Philadelphia. 1981.
This discusses conflicts between Orthodox Judaism and feminism,
and suggests resolutions of the conflicts within the boundaries of
Jewish law.
Hampson, Daphne. _Theology and Feminism_. Basil Blackwell Ltd/Inc.
1990. ISBN: 0-631-14944-9.
Discusses the limitations of Christianity from a feminist
perspective, and suggests ways for moving beyond Christianity.
Heine, Susanne. _Women and Early Christianity: A Reappriasal_.
Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis. 1988. ISBN: 0-8066-2359-4.
Documents the strength of influence women had in early
Christianity, uses this as basis for concluding that Christianity
need not be anti-woman. Originally published in German under
_Frauen der Fru:hen Christenheit_.
Heschel, Susannah. _On Being a Jewish Feminist: A Reader_. Schocken,
1984.
Kaye/Kantrowitz, Melanie and Irena Klepfisz. _The Tribe of Dina:
A Jewish Women's Anthology_. Beacon Press. 1989.
Koltun, Elizabeth. _The Jewish Woman: New Perspectives_. Schocken
Books, 1976.
Miles, Margaret R. . _Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness and Religious
Meaning in the Christian West_. Beacon Press, Boston. 1989.
Looks at how images of the female body have shaped and been shaped
by religious and social forces. Although most of the emphasis is
mediaeval, It has a final chapter that looks at a modern
perspective. Has an excellent section on Hildegard von Bingen,
one of the few female writers of the middle ages.
Pagel, Elaine. _Adam, Eve, and The Serpent_. Random House, New York.
1988. Also, _The Gnostic Gospels_. Vintage Books edition, Random
House, New York. 1989.
The former is a thorough exploration of how the Genesis myth is
inextricably interwined with western culture views of women. The
latter shows how the early Christian church although initially
receptive to women became patriarchal.
Plaskow, Judith. _Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism From A Feminist
Perspective_. Harper Collins, 1990. ISBN 0-06-066684-6.
Plaskow discusses conflicts between Judaism and feminism, and
suggests ways to make Judaism into a feminist religion.
Ruther, Rosmary Radford. _Women-Church. Theology and Practice of
Feminist Liturgical Communities_. ISBN 0-06-066834-2.
This is a collection of liturgies for unconventional purposes
(i.e. A Coming-Out rite for a Lesbian). They are not so much pagan
as they are feminist. They ignore the distinctions between
Christian and non-Christian. The thesis of the book is in part
that women should create their own ritual without waiting for the
"church" to catch up with their reality. Ruther has written other
books with similar themes.
Schneider, Susan Weidman. _Jewish and Female_. Simon & Schuster.
ISBN: 0-671-60439-2.
Sprentak, Charlene, ed. _The Politics of Women's Spirituality:
Essays on the Rise of Spiritual Power within the Feminist Movement_.
1982. ISBN. 0-385-17241-9.
This is a thick (590pp) sampler with short pieces by a number of
important authors. A few are written as responses to others which
gives a bit more sense of the dialog.
Starhawk. _The Spiral Dance_. 10th anniversary edition, revised.
Harper & Row, San Francisco. 1989. ISBN 0-06-250814-8.
This has clearly been a very influential book. Z. Budapest is
another mother of feminist wicca from the same era; Starhawk seems
a bit more readable and less cookbook-like.
Stone, Merlin. _When God Was a Woman_. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
Publishers. 1976. ISBN: 0-15-696158-X (trade paperback).
Historical revisionist view of early matriarchal & female-based
worship.
21. Sex and/or Violence and Sexual Abuse.
------------------------------------------
*"Sexual Abuse as a Precursor to Prostitution and Victimization Among
Adolescent and Adult Homeless Women." Journal of Family Issues. v12 n3
p361.
*"Four Theories of Rape: A Macrosociological Analysis". _Social
Problems_ 34, No. 5 (1986)
General-social-disinhibition theory is used to model the
correlation between sexual magazines and rape.
*_Pornography and Sexual Aggression_
Barry, Kathleen. _Female Sexual Slavery_. Prentice-Hall, Englewood
Cliffs, NJ, 1979; New York University Press, London and New York, 1984.
Bart, Pauline and Patricia O'Brien. _Stopping Rape: Successful
Survival Strategies_. Pergamon Press, New York. 1985.
Browne, Angela. _When Battered Women Kill_. Collier Macmillian,
London; Free PRess, New York. 1987.
Brownmiller, Susan. _Against Our Will_. Bantam. 1975.
This is a disturbing, contradictory work. It is misrepresented
both by feminist and anti-feminist camps; feminists lauding it as
a quintessentially accurate portrayal of rape, the anti-feminists
denouncing it as a virulently anti-male piece of propoganda.
A landmark work that first documented the social and historical
consequences of rape in our society.
Caputi, Jane. _The Age of Sex Crime_. Bowling Green State University
Popular Press, Bowling Green, OH. 1987.
Case studies on murder and sex crimes.
Ellis, Lee and Charles Beattie. "The Feminist Explanation for Rape. An
Empirical Test," _Journal of Sex Research_, 19(1).74-93, Feb 1983.
Abstract. The feminist explanation for rape includes the
proposition that it derives from traditions of male domination in
social, political, and economic matters. As a test of this thesis,
official FBI and victimization statistics on rape were compared
across 26 large United States central cities relative to various
indicators of these cities' degree of social, political, and
economic inequality between the sexes. Of 14 correlations, 4 were
significant, 3 with a sign opposite to that predicted by the
feminist explanation. When presumed effects of the two strongest
control variables were removed by partial correlation techniques,
only one coefficient was significant, and it was in the direction
contrary to the feminist explanation. Rape rates appear unrelated
to inequalities of earnings, education, occupational prestige, or
employment. The belief that reducing sex disparities in social,
political, and economic terms will reduce rape is not supported. 3
Tables, 55 References.
Finkelhor, David and Kersti Yllo. _License to Rape: Sexual Abuse of
Wives_. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York, 1985; Free Press, New
York, 1987.
Gauthier and Saucier. "Preliminary Study of Early Sexual Abuse."
Canadian _Journal of Psychiatry_. 1991. v36 n6 p422. (In French)
This paper is in french, but they have an English abstract in
Medline. They compared sexually abused adolescents with
non-abused. From the abstract: "...[of abused children] their
perception of self and of the ideal self was not affected by the
sexual abuse, a finding that will spark discussion."
Griffin, Susan. _The Politics of Rape_. Third revision and updated
edition. Harper and Row, San Francisco, 1986.
Original copyright 1970.
"Another canon in the apologetics of rape is that, if it were not
for learned social controls, all men would rape."..."But in truth
rape is not universal to the human species."
Griffin, Susan. "Rape: The All-American Crime" in _Rape: The Power of
Consciousness_, Harper & Row, 1979.
Haber, Joel D. "Abused Women and Chronic Pain," in _American Journal
of Nursing_, v85, Sept. 1985, pp1010-1012.
Study shows that abused women have more health problems than
non-abused ones.
Jones, Anne. _Women Who Kill_. Fawcett Crest, Ballantine Books, New
York. 1981.
From blurb: "When battered and abused women began to fight back --
and kill --- men began to fear that this would becom an epidemic.
Some felt that women were getting away with murder: But were they?
They were not. In fact, in many cases their punishment was
harsher than that of men. But this book is much more than a
desription of battered women who kill in self-defense. It is a
social history and a fascinating story of women on the edge of
society -- women driven to kill for a multitude of reasons. Here
are tales of crime and punishment that reveal hard truths about
American society and women's place in it."
Kelly, Liz. _Surviving Sexual Violence_. University of Minnesota
Press, Minneapolis; Polity Press, Cambridge UK. 1988.
Kilpatrick, D.G. et al., "Mental health correlates of criminal
victimization. A random community survey," _Journal of Consulting &
Clinical Psychology_, Vol. 53, 866-873. 1985.
Koss, M.P. "Hidden rape. sexual aggression and victimization in
a national sample of students in higher education." Chapter 1. In A.W.
Burgess, ed, _Rape and sexual assault II_ (pp. 3-25). NY. Garland. 1988.
Controversial. This was a study that showed a good percentage of
the men surveyed believed certain things could be expected if they
paid for dinner, etc. There were questions designed in such a way
that would find out if the men had raped without using the word
rape. They would answer yes to these questions but no to the
questions containing the word rape.
McFarlane, Judith. "Violence During Teen Pregnancy: Health
Consequences for Mother and Child," in Levy, Barrie, ed, _Dating
Violence_, Seal Press, 1991, pp136-141.
A study that found 26% of prengant teens were currently in an
abusive relationship; many noted the abuse began when the
pregnancy did.
Mercy JA., Saltzman LE., Intentional Injury Section, Centers for
Disease Control, Atlanta, GA 30333. May 1989. "Fatal violence among
spouses in the United States," 1976-85. _American Journal of Public
Health_. 79(5).595-9.
Abstract. In this paper we examine patterns and trends in
homicides between marriage partners in the United States for 1976
through 1985 using data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's
Supplemental Homicide Reports (FBI-SHR). We identified 16,595
spouse homicides accounting for 8.8 per cent of all homicides
reported to the FBI-SHR during this 10-year period. The rate of
spouse homicide for this 10-year period was 1.6 per 100,000
married persons. The risk of being killed by one's spouse was 1.3
times greater for wives than for husbands. Black husbands were at
greater risk of spouse homicide victimization than Black wives or
White spouses of either sex. The risk of victimization was greater
for spouses in interracial than in intraracial marriages and
increased as age differences between spouses increased. From 1976
through 1985, the risk of spouse homicide declined by more than
45.0 per cent for both Black husbands and wives but remained
relatively stable for White husbands and wives. Demographic
patterns in the risk of spouse homicide were similar to those
reported for nonfatal spouse abuse suggesting that the causes of
spouse homicide and nonfatal spouse abuse may be similar.
Morgan, Robin. _The Demon Lover: On the Sexuality of Terrorism_.
W.W. Norton and Company. 1989. ISBN: 0-393-02642-6 (hardback).
Controversial. Blurb: "Something in each of us, no matter how we
deny it and no matter how much we may deplore terrorist tactics,
is fascinated by the terrorist. We might even ambivalently admire
such a figure: a fanatic of dedication, a mixture of volatile
impetuosity and severe discipline, an archetype of self-sacrifice.
...In this brilliant marriage of theory and personal experience,
Robin Morgan...sets forth the first feminist analysis of the
phenomenon of terrorism."
Quigley, Paxton. _Armed and Female_. E.P. Dutton, New York. 1989.
Paperback may be ordered from Second Amendment Foundation, 12500
NE Tenth Place, Bellavue WA 98005 for US$5.00, includes postage.
Former anti-gun activist tells why she joined millions of other
women in choosing a firearm for self-defense.
Randall, Teri. "Domestic Violence Intervention Calls for More than
Treating Injuries," in _Journal of the American Medical Association_,
264(8), August 22-29, 1990, pp939-940.
"Battery appears to be the single most common cause of injury to
women -- more common that automobile accidents, muggings and rapes
combined."
Russell, Diana H. _Sexual Exploitation: Rape, Child Sexual Abuse, and
Workplace Harassment_. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA. 1984.
Russell, Diana E. H. and Nancy Howell. "The Prevalence of Rape
in the United States Revisited," _Signs_, 8(4). 688-695, 1983.
Lead author is in the Department of Social Sciences, Mills
College, Oakland CA, and has written several books on sexual
violence. According to survey findings, assuming that the rape
rate remains the same, there is a 26% probability that woman will
be the victim of a completed rape, increasing to 46% for attempted
rape.
Seng. "Child Sexual Abuse and Adolescent Prostitution: A Comparative
Study." _Adolescence_. 1989. v24 n95(really 95??) p665.
Abstract: "...findings suggest that the relationship
[abuse>prostitution] is not directed, but invokes runaway behavior
as an intervening variable. It is not so much that sexual abuse
leads to prostitution as it is that running away leads to
prostitution."
Scully, Diana. _Understanding Sexual Violence: A Study of Convicted
Rapists_. Series: Perspectives on Gender, vol 3. Unwin Hyman, Boston.
1990.
Stark, Evan, Anne Flitcraft and William Frazier. "Medicine and
Patriarchal Violence: The Social Construction of a 'Private'
Event," in _International Journal of Health Services_, 9(3), 1979,
pp461-493.
A study that found that medical records included the labels
"neurotic," "hysteric," "hypochondriac," or "a well-known patient
with multiple vague complaints" for one in four battered women
compared to one in fifty non-battered women; one in four battered
women are given pain medications/tranquilizers as compared to one
in ten non-battered women.
Strauss, M.A., Gelles, R.J., and Steinmetz, S.K. _Behind closed doors:
Violence in American families_. Doubleday, New York, 1980. Followup
work "Intimate Violence" (no detailed reference).
These studies show that spousal violence levels are relatively
independent of gender. They do not, however, include any
consideration of motivation or the issues of 'self defense'.
Warshaw, Robin. _I Never Called It Rape: The Ms. report on
Recognizing, Fighting, and Surviving Date and Acquaintance Rape_.
Afterword by Mary P. Koss. Harper and Row, New York. 1988.
Wolfgang Marvin E., _Patterns in Criminal Homicide_. University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 1958. Also (*Curtis 1974), (*Mercy &
Saltzman 1989).
The situation appears to bethat the rate that men kill women and
that women kill men, and also the rate at which husbands kill
wives and wives kill husbands, are nearly *equal* when looked at
from a mortality point of view, and ignoring the issue of 'who
started it'.
Yllo, Kerst, and Michele Bograd, eds. _Feminist Perspectives on Wife
Abuse_. Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA. 1988.
Includes important discussion of what statistics can or cannot
show. Bibliographies.
_National Crime Survey_ (NCS)
This is an attempt to measure the actual victimization rates of
how often people are affected by crimes. The survey is given to a
population representative of all people over 12 years of age who
live in a residence. There are two parts to the survey. a
screening to determine who has been the victim of a crime; and a
detailed questionnaire given to victims. The detailed
questionnaire includes the details and date of the crime, and
helps insure that crimes are classified properly (e.g., crimes
falling outside the survey 'time window' are properly excluded).
It is a large scale survey, covering approximately 60,000
households with 101,000 people. Approximately 96% of the selected
population agreed to participate in the survey.
_Statistical Abstracts of the U.S. - 1990_. Department of Commerce
(Bureau of the Census), put out yearly.
Cites the incidence of reported forcible rape as 37.6 per 100,000
total (i.e., men and women) population.
_Uniform Crime Report_ (UCR)
Based solely on police reports and is not intended to be a
statistical measure of victimization The Uniform Crime Report is
based on police reports. The data given by the UCR includes
_only_ murder, not killings in self defense or deaths due to
negligence - and the interpretation of which is which is left to
the officer filing the report.
_Uniform Crime Statistics_ (UCS, from the FBI)
This derives the "one in four" figure given for the rate of rape
among women. It used to be "one in five" until the FBI decided
that marital rape counted as rape (in the mid 1980s). The FBI's
definition of rape involves penetration of any orifice without
consent. 1 in 4 is the rate at which girls are sexually abused
(rape and molestation); 1 in 6 is the rate at which the same
occurs for boys.
22. Sexual Harassment and Discrimination.
------------------------------------------
Baker, Douglas D., David E. Terpstra, and Kinley Larantz. "The
Influence of Individual Characteristics and Severity of Harassing
Behavior on Reactions to Sexual Harassment", _Sex Roles: A Journal of
Research_, 5/6 (1990) 305-325.
Bem, Sandra L. and Daryl J. Bem. "Does Sex-biased Job Advertising
'Aid and Abet' Sex Discrimination?", _Journal of Applied Social
Psychology_, 3 (1973): 6-18.
Chestler, Phyllis. [book review in psychology today, statistics
on child custody awards]
Dale, R.R. _Mixed or Single-sex Schools_. Vols. I & II. 1969.
Wide range of research on secondary schools.
Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs, and William J. Goode, eds. _The other half;
roads to women's equality_. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
1971.
Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs, and Rose Laub Coser, eds. _Access to power :
cross-national studies of women and elites_. Allen & Unwin, London
and Boston. 1981.
Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs. _Deceptive distinctions : sex, gender, and
the social order_. Yale University Press, New Haven; Russell Sage
Foundation, New York. c1988.
Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs. _Woman's place; options and limits in
professional careers_. University of California Press, Berkeley.
1970.
*Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs. "Bringing Women In: Rewards, Punishments,
and the Structure of Achievement", pages 13-22.
Game, Ann and Rosemary Pringle. _Gender at Work_. Allen and Unwin,
Sydney and Boston. 1983.
Sex discrimination in employment against women in Australia.
*Goldberg, Philip, "Are Women Prejudiced Against Women?", _Trans-
Action_, 5 (1986), 28-80. [am not sure what "Trans-Action" is]
Gornick, Vivian and Barbara K. Moran, eds. _Women in Sexist Society_.
New York: Basic Books, 1972.
Kaschak, Ellyn. "Sex Bias in Student Evaluations of College Professors",
_Psychology of Women Quarterly_, 2 (1978), 235-242.
LaPlante, Alice. "Sexist Images Persist at Comdex", _Infoworld_,
November 27, 1989, page 58.
Lattin, Patricia Hopkins. "Academic Women, Affirmative Action, and
Middle-America in the Eighties", in Resa L. Dudovitz, ed., _Women in
Academe_. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 1984. 223-230.
MacKinnon, Catharine. _Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of
Sex Discrimination_. Yale University Press, New Haven. 1979.
MacKinnon, Catharine. "Reflections on Sex Equality Under Law," in
_Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review_. Vol. 20, no. 2.
1985.
Paludi, Michele A. and William D. Bauer. "Goldberg Revisited: What's
in an Author's Name", _Sex Roles: A Journal of Research_, 9 (1983) 387-
390.
Paludi, Michele A. and Lisa A. Strayer. "What's in an Author's Name?
Different Evaluations of Performance as a Function of Author's
Name", _Sex Roles: A Journal of Research_, 12 (1985) 353-361.
Pringle, Rosemary. _Secretaries Talk: Sexuality, Power and Work_,
Verso, New York and London. 1989.
Sex discrimination and sexual harrassment of women.
Rowe, Mary P. "Barriers to Equality: The Power of Subtle
Discrimination to Maintain Unequal Opportunity", _Employee
Responsibilities and Rights Journal_, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1990. 153-163.
Rowe, Mary P. "Dealing with Sexual Harassment", _Harvard Business
Review_, May-June 1981, 42-47.
Russ, Joanna. _How to Suppress Women's Writing_. University of Texas
Press, 1983, ISBN 0-292-72445-4 (pbk).
This book analyzes the multitude of subtle and not-so-subtle ways
in which women writers have been given less than full credit for
their work throughout history. It is the perfect companion volume
to Ellen Moers's _Literary Women_.
Sadker, Myra and David Sadker. "Sexism in the Schoolroom of the
80's", _Psychology Today_, March 1985.
Selvin, Paul. "Does the Harrison Case Reveal Sexism in Math?",
_Science_ 252 (June 28, 1991), 1781-1783.
Simeone, Angela. _Academic Women: Working Towards Equality_. Bergin
and Garvey Publishers, Inc., Massachusetts. 1987.
Sproull, Lee, Sara Kiesler, and David Zubrow, eds. "Encountering an
Alien Culture", in _Computing and Change on Campus_. Cambridge
University Press, UK. 1987, pages 173-194.
Stewart, Elizabeth, Nancy Hutchinson, Peter Hemmingway, and Fred
Bessai. "The Effects of Student Gender, Race, and Achievement on
Career Exploration Advice Given by Canadian Preservice Teachers",
_Sex Roles: A Journal of Research_, 21 (1989) 247-262.
Sumrall, Amber Coverdale and Dena Taylor, eds. _Sexual Harassment:
Women Speak Out_. The Crossing Press, Freedom, CA 95019, 1992. ISBN
0-89594-544-4. ($10.95)
Highly recommended. This book consists of short (2-4 pages) essays
by women about their experiences with Sexual Harassment, everything
from taunts and whistles to rape and other physical abuse. Stories
are interspersed with comics drawn by women and some poetry. Many
of the stories describe the early conditioning that women receive
that makes us put up with so much. The book is dedicated to Anita
Hill.
Top, Titia J., "Sex Bias in the Evaluation of Performance in the
Scientific, Artistic, and Literary Professions: A Review.", Sex Roles: A
Journal of Research, 24 (1991) 73-106.
Weinraub, Marsha and Lynda M. Brown, "The Development of Sex-
Role Stereotypes in Children: Crushing Realities", Franks and
Rothblum, editors, _The Stereotyping of Women: Its Effects on Mental
Health_, Springer Publishing Company, New York. 1983, pages 30-58.
Weitzman, Lenore. _The Marriage Contract_.
"...child care decisions. Twentieth century case law has
established the presumption that prefers mothers as the custodians
of their children after divorce, particularly if the children are
of "tender years." [Mnookin, "Custody Adjudication," p. 235.]
This maternal presumption WAS ESTABLISHED ALMOST ENTIRELY THROUGH
JUDICIAL DECISIONS RATHER THAN BY STATUTES. For while most
statues have put the wife on an equal footing with the husband,
and have instructed the courts to award custody in the best
interest of the child, judges typically have held that *it is
in the child's best interest not to be separated from the mother*
--unless she has been shown to be unfit. [Ibid.]
"The child's best interest" has thus evolved into a judicially
constructed presumption that the love and nurturance of a fit
mother is always in the child's (and society's) best interest.
The result has been a consistent pattern of decisions that both
justify and further reinforce the maternal presumption....
"Over the past fifty years the assumption that the mother is the
natural and proper custodian of the children has been so widely
accepted that it has rarely been questioned, and even more rarely
challenged. As Alan Roth asserts, many of the rationales offered
by the courts for the maternal preference have the ring of
divine-right doctrine [Alan Roth, "The Tender Years Presumption in
Child Custody Disputes," _Journal_of_Family_Law_ 15, no. 3 (1972)]"
"More recently the social science adduced to support the maternal
presumption has been challenged, but the presumption itself has
been considered wise because it avoids "the social costs" of
contested cases. [See, for example, R. Levy and P. Ellsworth
"Legislative Reform of Child Custody Adjudication,"
_Law_and_Society_Review_, Nov. 1969, p. 4]
23. Test Biases.
-----------------
Brush, Stephen. _ibid_.
When the SAT is used by college admissions to predict academic
performance, it underpredicts the grades of women compared with
those on men. If a man and a woman have the same SAT scores, the
woman will tend to get higher grades in college. Thus an
admissions process that gives the SAT significant weight will
reject some women who would have done better than men who were
accepted.
In a reply to letters to the editor in the Jan-Feb 1992
_American Scientist_, Brush wrote:
[A]ccording to Phyllis Rosser's study, "The SAT Gender Gap," the
following question was answered correctly by males 27 percent more
often than by females (a difference of 6 percent is significant to
the 0.05 level of confidence).
A high school basketball team has won 40 percent of its first
15 games. Beginning with the 16th game, how many games in a
row does the team now have to win in order to have a 55
percent winning record?
A) 3 B) 5 C) 6 D) 11 E) 15
With a strict time limit, the advantage goes to students who can
quickly guess and verify the right answer without having to set up
the equation first.
Rosser, Phillis. "The SAT Gender Gap. Identifying the Causes,"
(Washington, D.C.: Center for Women Policy Studies, 1989).
According to Phyllis Rosser, much of the SAT gender gap is an
artifact of sex-biased test questions. Rosser points out that men
have always received higher scores, on average, but their
advantage in the mathematics part of the test was once offset by
women's higher scores on the verbal part. Women lost this
compensating factor in the early 1970s because of the gradual
introduction of test questions about science, business and
"practical affairs," and the elimination of some questions about
human relations, the arts, and the humanities. There was no
compensating change in the mathematics section.
Block, Ned, ed. _The IQ Controversy_.
Information on biases of all sorts found in IQ tests.
24. Women of Color.
--------------------
Anzaldua, Gloria. _Borderlands: The New Mestiza = La Frontera_.
Spinsters/Aunt Lute, San Francisco. 1987.
Anzaldua, Gloria, ed. _Making face, making soul = Haciendo caras :
creative and critical perspectives by women of color_. Aunt Lute
Foundation Books, San Francisco. c1990.
Collins, Patricia Hill. _Black Feminist Thought_. Unwin Hyman,
Boston. 1990. Series title: Perspectives on Gender; v. 2.
Maps out standpoint epistemology from African American feminist
perspective. May also include under feminist epistemology.
Davis, Angela. _Women, Race, and Class_. Random House, New York, 1981.
DuBois, Ellen Carol and Vicki L. Ruiz, eds. _Unequal Sisters. A
Multi-Cultural Reader in U.S. Women's History_. Routledge, New York.
1990.
Excellent collection of articles, many historical studies and some
narratives.
Hooks, Bell. _Ain't I A Woman_. South End Press, 116 St. Botolph St.,
Boston, Mass. 02115. 1981. ISBN 0-89608-128-1.
Examines the impact of sexism on black women during slavery, the
historic devaluation of black womanhood, black male sexism, racism
within the recent women's movement, and black women's involvement
with feminism. The title comes from an address on the subject
given by Sojourner Truth.
Hooks, Bell. _Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black_.
South End Press, Boston. 1989.
Moraga, Cherrie, and Gloria Anzaldua, eds. _This Bridge Called My
Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color_. Persephone Press,
Watertown, MA, 1981. Kitchen Table Press, New York, 1983.
Anthology of writings by women of color.
Smith, Barbara, ed. _Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology_. First
edition. Kitchen Table -- Women of Color Press, New York. 1983.
25. Women's Health.
--------------------
Boston Women's Health Book Collective. _Our Bodies, Ourselves_.
Simon and Schuster, New York, 1973.
A very practical guide to women & our bodies.
Boston Women's Health Collective. _The New Our Bodies, Ourselves_.
Simon and Schuster, New York. 1984.
Updated.
Boston Women's Health Collective. _Our Bodies, Ourselves. Growing Older_.
Oriented toward the 40+ crowd.
ACT UP/New York Women and AIDS Book Group. _Women, AIDS, and Activisim_.
South End Press, Boston, MA. 1990.
New book on women and aids and politics.
Corea, Gena. _The Hidden Malpractice_.
A (sometimes alarmist) look at how medical practices overlooks and
mistreats women.
Raymond, Janice G., Renate Klein, and Lynette J. Dumble. _RU 486:
Misconceptions, Myths and Morals_. Institute on Women and Technology,
Cambridge, MA. 1991.
Abortion, moral and ethical aspects; medical ethics. Includes
bibliographical references.
(Auto)Biographies.
------------------
Bateson, Mary Catherine. _Composing a Life_. Penguin Books.
ISBN 0-452-26505-3 (paperback, $9.95).
Bateson profiles five women in a wide variety of fields in an
examination of how their careers happened to develop the way they
did.
Bennett, Betty T, )Mary Diana Dods, A Gentleman and a Scholar_.
William Morrow and Company, New York. 1991. ISBN 0-688-08717-5
(hardcover).
Komisar, Lucy. _Corazon Aquino: The Story of a Revolution_. G.
Braziller, New York. 1987.
Marlow, Joan. _The Great Women_. A&W Publishers, New York. 1979.
ISBN: 0-89479-056-0.
A compilation of 60 women of diverse ages and nations.
Moers, Ellen, ed. _Literary Women_. Reprint. The Great Writers series.
Oxford University Press, New York, 1985.
Copywrite 1977. Describes women authors.
Morgan, Robin. _Going Too Far: The Personal Chronicle of a Feminist_.
Random House, New York. 1977.
Perl, Teri. _Math Equals: Biographies of Women Mathematicians and
Related Activities_. Addison-Wesley. 1978.
Miscellaneous.
--------------
"Women on the Verge of an Athletic Showdown" in _Science News_, Jan
11, 1992, Vol 141, No. 2, p 141.
Female track athletes are improving their performances at faster
rates than men and, if the trend continues, should be running
marathons as fast as men by 1998, says Brian J. Whipp, a
physiologist at the University of California, Lost Angeles. He and
UCLA co-worker Susan A. Ward predict that women will catch up with
men in most track events by early next century.
Adrian, M.J.: _Sports Women_. Medicine and Sport Science Vol. 24
Interesting essays ranging from physiology to Ancient Greece.
Chopin, Kate, _The Awakening_. Capricorn Books. 1964. Garrett Press,
Inc., New York, 1970. Norton, New York, 1976. Women's Press, London 1979.
Cixous, Helene and Catharine Clement. _The Newly Born Woman_.
University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. 1986. (Published in French
in 1975).
Dyer, K.F.: _Catching up the Men -- Women in Sport_. Junction Books (UK),
1982. ISBN 086245-075-X.
This book debunks a lot of myths about female inferiority and
fragility by careful investigation and documentation, another
must read.
Ehrenreich, Barbara and Deirdre English, "For Her Own Good: 150
Years of the Experts' Advice to Women", New York: Anchor
Press/Doubleday, 1978.
|Kramarae and Treichler: _A Feminist Dictionary_. 1985.
| Defines many things from a feminist's point of view. Includes
| a good deal of history, figures in the movement, etc.
Lenskij, Helen: _Out of Bounds: Women, Sport and Sexuality_. Women's
Press, Toronto, 1986. ISBN 0-88961-105-X.
Very powerful book about the 20th century changes in how female
sexuality, gender roles, and the waves of female athleticism have
been perceived, and about how these factors influence each other.
A must read.
Mangan/Park (Eds.): _From Fair Sex to Feminism_. Frank Cass & Company Lim.
1987. ISBN 0-7146-4049-2.
|Marine, Gene: _A Male Guide to Women's Liberation_. 1972.
Sabo/Runfola (Eds.): _Jock -- Sports & Male Identity_.
Spectrum/Prentice-Hall 1980. ISBN 0-13-510131-X.
This book also contains several essays on female identity and sports.
Steinem, Gloria. _Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions_.
_Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem_
This is a collection of articles and essays written by her that
was published sometime in the early 1980's. Some of them are a
result of her earlier career as a journalist. The articles cover
such things as:
* Her becoming a Playboy Bunny (seriously!) in the early 1960's.
* The presidential campaigns of 1968 and 1972.
* "If Men Could Menstruate", a satirical piece in the vein of
"If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament".
* What present-day anti-abortionists have in common with Nazi Germany.
Tuana, Nancy, ed. _Rereading the Canon_. Series. Penn State Press.
This new series will consist of edited collections of essays, some
original and some previously published, offering feminist
reinterpretations of the writings of major figures in the Western
philosophical tradition. Each volume will contain essays covering
the full range of a single philosopher's thought and representing
the diversity of approaches now being used by feminist critics.
The series will begin with a volume on Plato; other early volumes
will focus on Aristotle, Locke, Marx, Wittgenstein, de Beauvoir,
Foucault, and Derrida. Inquiries should be directed to Nancy
Tuana, School of Arts and Humanities, University of Texas at
Dallas, Box 830688, Richardson, TX 75083-0688.
|Tuttle, Lisa: _Encyclopedia of Feminism_. 1986.
Velden, Lee van der & James H. Humphrey: Psychology and sociology of sport,
vol. 1. AMS Press Inc., NY 1986. ISBN 0-404-63401-X.
Woolf, Virginia. _Three Guineas_. 1938. Extensively reprinted.
Written 50 years ago and sadly still very relevant.
Woolf, Virginia. _A Room of One's Own_. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New
York. 1981, c1957.
Winterson, Jeanette. _Oranges are not the only fruit_. Pandora Press
(Unwin Hyman Limited, 15-17 Broadwick SAtreet, London). 1987.
Acknowledgments.
----------------
My thanks to: Joseph Albert, Leslie Anderson, Rich Berlin, Mik Bickis,
Anita Borg, Ed Blachman, Bob Blackshaw, Cindy Blank-Edelman, L.A.
Breene, Janet L. Carson, Robert Coleman, Mats Dahlgren, David
desJardins, Jublie DiBiase, Jym Dyer, Ellen Eades, Marc R. Ewing,
Ronnie Falcao, Lisa Farmer, Sharon Fenick, Bob Freeland, Debbie
Forest, Susan Gerhart, Jonathan Gilligan, Thomas Gramstad, Ron Graham,
David Gross, Mary W. Hall, Stacy Horn, Kathryn Huxtable, Joel Jones,
Bonita Kale, Joanne M. Karohl, Corinna Lee, Nancy Leveson, l...@s1.gov
(Loren), Jim Lippard, Albert Lunde, Jill Lundquist, Brian McGuinness,
Fanya S. Montalvo, Tori Nasman, Mirjana Obradovic, Vicki O'Day, Diane
L. Olsen, Joann Ordille, Jan Parcel, J. Rollins, Stewart Schultz,
Mary Shaw, Anne Sjostrom, Ellen Spertus, Jon J. Thaler, Dave Thomson,
Carolyn Turbyfill, Sarah Ullman, Max Meredith Vasilatos, Bronis
Vidiguris, Paul Wallich, Sharon Walter, Karen Ward, Marian Williams,
Celia Winkler, Michael Winston Woodring, Sue J. Worden, and Daniel
Zabetakis.
Especial thanks to the MLVL library catalogue system.
--------------
Please mail in comments, additions, corrections, suggestions, and so
on to feminism...@ncar.ucar.edu.
--Cindy Tittle Moore
"If an aborigine drafted an IQ test, for example, all of Western
Civilization would probably flunk."
Cindy Tittle Moore
Version: 2.2
Last-modified: 15 February 1993
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
[1-8 in part I]
9. History.
10. Implications of Beauty.
11. Lesbian Feminism.
12. Literary Writings.
13. Media Depiction of Women.
14. Military, Law Enforcement.
15. Patriarchy.
16. Pornography.
17. Positive Children's Books.
[18-25 in part III]
[continuing from part I]
9. History.
------------
Adamson, Nancy, Linda Briskin, and Margaret McPhail. _Feminist
Organizing For Change: The Contemporary Women's Movement in Canada_.
Oxford University Press (Don Mills, Ontario). 1988.
Blurb: "Beginning with a detailed history of the `second wave'
(post-1960), it makes a primary distinction between grass-roots
and institutionalized feminism, and by emphasizing the former
reveals a part of feminist organizing that has most often been
invisible."
Anderson, Bonnie S. and Judith P. Zinsser. _A History of Their Own:
Women in Europe from Prehistory to Present_. Vols I and II. Harper
and Row, Publishers, New York. 1988.
Blurb: "...A groundbreaking and controversial history of European
women -- the first to approach the past from the perspective of
women and to be organized by role."
Bridenthal, Renate, and Claudia Koonz, eds. _Becoming Visible, Women
in European History_.
An anthology going from prehistory to present day.
Carden, Maren. _The New Feminist Movement_. 1974.
Coote and Campbell. _Sweet Freedom: The Struggle for Women's
Liberation_. 1982.
DuBois, Ellen Carol and Vicki L. Ruiz, eds. _Unequal Sisters: A Multi-
Cultural Reader in U.S. Women's History_. Routledge, New York. 1990.
DuBoise, Ellen Carol. _Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an
Independent Women's Movement in America 1848-1869_. Third printing.
Cornell Paperbacks, Cornell University Press. 1985. ISBN:
0-8014-9182-7 (trade paperback).
Blurb: "...Duboise provides a framework and an analysis which link
present concerns with political events more than a century ago,
and by so doing illuminates both our contemporary situation and
our past. Hers is a rare blend of relevance and solid
scholarship..."
Eisler, Riane. _The Chalice and the Blade_. Harper, San Francisco.
1987.
An interesting revisionist view of history; describes a conflict
between "gylanic" (cooperative, giving of life honored,
stereotypically feminine) and "androcratic" (competitive, taking
of life honored, stereotypically masculine) tendencies in Western
history. She suggests that the problem with the latter system is
not men _per se_, but the expectation that men dominate women and
a few men dominate all the rest. She follows Marija Gimbutas on
European prehistory, suggesting that her "Old Europe" was a good
example of the former system. Caution: any attempt at finding
all-encompassing principles, as she does, is probably an
oversimplification.
Fraser, Antonia. _The Weaker Vessel_. Vintage Books, Random House,
New York. 1985. ISBN: 0-394-73251-0.
Blurb: "Fraser gives us life after woman's life in choice and
telling detail. This is 'hidden history'...the history of
ordinary women, and therefore of ordinary men. As such it is both
tantalizingly familliar and utterly exotic, close and yet distant
to our own lives."
Fraser, Antonia. _The Warrior Queens_. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
1989. ISBN: 0-394-54939-2 (hardback).
Blurb: "...Fraser gives us a singularly rich and provocative study
of the Warrior Queens. Dramatising the often astonishing ways in
which the world has perceived -- and still perceives -- women who
wield power, she examines the paradox and the politics, the mythic
and the real lives of the sovereign women who have led their
nations in war."
Gimbuta, Marija. _The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe_. c1974, 1982.
Documents Neolithic Europe in detail, describing such things as
settlement patterns, burial rites, a sacred script and inferences
on its social structure. She proposes that "Old Europe" featured
parity between the sexes, lack of interest in warfare, well-developed
artistic traditions, and a belief system centered on female
generative powers.
Gimbuta, Marija. _The Language of the Goddess_(1989) and _The
Civilization of the Goddess_(1991). Harper, San Francisco.
Expands on the belief system proposed in the first book.
Goreau, Angeline, ed. _The Whole Duty of a Woman: Female Writers in
Seventeenth Century England_. Dial Press, Garden City, New York.
1985.
Heilbrun, Carolyn G. _Writing a Woman's Life_. Ballantine Books.
ISBN 0-345-36256-X.
Blurb: "With subtlety and great eloquence, Carolyn Heilbrun shows
how, throughout the centuries, those who write about women's lives
-- biographers AND autobiographers -- have suppressed the truth of
the female experience, in order to make the "written life" conform
to society's expectations of what that life should be."
Hiley, Michael. _Victorian Working Women: Portraits from Life_.
Gordon Fraser, London. 1979.
A collection of Arther Munby's photography. It was his firm
belief that women should be free to take on any job they wished.
A fascinating compendium.
Karlsen, Carol F. _The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in
Colonial New England_. W.W. Norton and Company, New York and London.
1987.
Blurb: "A pioneer work in what might be called the sex<ual
structuring of society. this is not just another book about
witchcraft. Carol Karlsen has uncovered the assumptions, explicit
and implicit, that goverened the everyday relationships of men and
women in early New England...The 'witches' come alive in this
book, not as stereotypes, but as real women living in a society
that suspected and feared their independence and combativeness."
Miles, Rosalind. _The Women's History of the World_. Perennial
Library, Harper and Row, Publishers. 1990. ISBN: 0-06-097317-X.
Rossi, Alice S., ed. _The Feminist Papers: From Adams to de
Beauvoir_. 1st Northeastern University Press ed. Boston :
Northeastern University Press, 1988, c1973. Reprint. Originally
published: New York : Columbia University Press, 1973.
Women, feminism and history: sources.
Rothschild, Joan, ed. _Women, Technology, and Innovation_. Pergamon
Press, Oxford and New York. 1982.
Includes bibliography. Discusses technology and innovation on the
part of women throughout history, with essays on current feminist
thought on pedagogy and technology.
Scharff, Virginia. _Taking the Wheel: Women and the Coming of the
Motor Age_. The Free Press, Macmillian, Inc. 1991. ISBN: 0-02928135-0.
Blurb: "Most men did not want or expect women to drive the new
gasoline powered automobiles of the early 1900's. Women took the
wheel anyway. As Virginia Scharff explains in this engaging
survey, the constraints of gender affected the ways in which women
met the new automotive technology but seldom slowed them down.
Car culture, Scharff shows with her precise scholarship and
thoughtful commentarty, was women's culture, too."
Scott, Joan Wallach. _Gender and the Politics of History_. Series
title: Gender and Culture. Columbia University Press, New York.
1988.
She uses postructural philosophies (Michel Foucault and Jacques
Derrida - the latter almost considered the father of
postructuralism) to analyse Gender and the way that History has
been written. She "deconstructs" the texts hoping to find their
biases, and so understand why they cannot be "correct," taking the
position that history has repressed what it means to be a woman.
Sullivan, Sorayan, translator. _Stories by Iranian Women_.
Introduction by Fazaneh Milani. Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
University of Texas at Austin. ISBN: 0-292-77649-7.
Wilson, Katharina M., ed. _Women Writers of the Renaissance and
Reformation_. University of Georgia Press. ISBN: 0-8203-0866-8.
Wilson, Vincent Jr. _The Book of Distinguished American Women_.
American HIstory Research Associates, PO BOX 140, Brookeville, MD
20833, 1983. ISBN 0-910086-05-2. (100p paperback)
Brief but inspiring biographies of 50 (!) women who made names for
themselves in fields from astronomy to public health to literature.
10. Implications of Beauty.
---------------------------
Brownmiller, Susan. _Femininity_. Fawcett Columbine, New York. 1984.
ISBN: 0-449-90142-4 (trade paperback).
A mild (for Brownmiller) but earnest book that explores the effect
that demands of "femininity" have on women.
Freedman, Rita. _Beauty Bound_. Lexington Books, D.C. Heath and
Company. 1988. ISBN: 0-669-11141-4 (hardback).
Explores the effects that conventional notions of beauty and
womens' efforts to meet them have on women.
Wolf, Naomi. _The Beauty Myth_. Chatto & Windus, London, 1991. W.
Morrow, New York, 1991.
Examines the impact that conventional notions of feminine beauty
have on women from a feminist perspective.
11. Lesbian Feminism.
----------------------
Darty, Trudy and Sandee Potter, eds. _Women-Identified Women_.
Mayfield Pub. Co., Palo Alto, CA. 1984.
Faderman, Lillian. _Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship
and Love between Women from the Renaissance to the Present_ New York:
Quill (A division of William Morrow & Co.), 1981.
Faderman, Lillian. _Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History
of Lesbian Life in Twentieth Century America_.
Pharr, Suzanne. _Homophobia: A Weapon Of Sexism_. Chardon Press,
Inverness, CA. 1988.
If there is anyone out there who *doesn't* understand the
connection between homophobia and sexism, I urge that person
to read this fairly short book.
Phelan, Shane. _Identity Politics: Lesbian Feminism and the Limits of
Community_. Series Title: Women in the Political Economy. Temple
University Press, Philadelphia. 1989.
Rich, Adrienne. _On Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian
Existence_. Onlywomen Press, London, 1981; Antelope Publications,
Denver Co., 1982.
First appeared in _Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society_,
Vol. 5, no. 5, 1980.
Douglas, Carol Anne. _Love and Politics: Radical Feminist and Lesbian
Theories_. Ism Press, San Francisco, 1990.
12. Literary Writings.
-----------------------
Atwood, Margaret. _The Handmaid's Tale_. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1986.
ISBN 0395404258.
Description of future in which women's reproduction is completely
state-controlled.
Charnas, Suzy McKee. _Walk to the End of the World_. In _Radical
Utopias_, Quality Paperback Book Club, New York, 1990.
Charnas has also written excellent young adult fiction (_The
Bronze King_, etc). This is an exploration of a post-apolcalyptic
world, in which women are blamed for the apocolypse and treated
accordingly.
Delany, Samuel R. _Triton_. In _Radical Utopias_, Quality Paperback
Book Club, New York, 1990.
An exploration of gender and gender roles set in the future.
Lefanu, Sarah. _Feminism and Science Fiction_. Indiana University
Press. 1989. ISBN: 0-253-23100-0.
From back: "Through intriguing literary criticism of the works of
writers such as Joanna Russ, Ursula Le Guin, Suzy McKee Charnas,
James Tiptree, Jr., and Josephine Saxton, Lefanu explores the ways
in which feminsit ideas have been stealthily at work, subverting
male authority in one of its strongholds." A penetrating and very
interesting book.
LeGuin, Ursula K. _The Left Hand of Darkness_. Ace Science Fiction
Books, New York. c1969. 29th printing, 1984. ISBN: 0-441-47810-7
(paperback).
Constructs a world inhabited by non-gendered people that shift
from one sex to the other only for purposes of reproduction. A
fascinating exploration of gender, gender roles, and gender
identity. Lyrical and well written.
LeGuin, Ursula K. _Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on
Words, Women, Places_. Perennial Library, Harper & Row, Publishers.
1989. ISBN 0-06-097289-0.
A collection of articles written by the author. Well worth
reading.
Russ, Joanna. "When It Changed." Originally published in _Again,
Dangerous Visions_ edited by Harlan Ellison, in 1972. It was
reprinted in _Kindred Spirits_ edited by Jeffrey M. Elliot, in 1984
(Alyson Publications). Also reprinted in _The Arbor House Treasury of
Science Fiction_ compiled by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg
(Arbor House, New York, 1980, ISBN 0-87795-246-9).
From introduction in Arbor House edition: "The planet that is the
setting for Ms. Russ's story is completely devoid of men, and
although this situation has been dealt with in science fiction
before, it was usually in the form of 'men to the rescue' and/or a
reaffirmation of the 'natural' need of one sex for the other.
This is not the case here. The physiological problmes of a
single-sex situation have been solved and the social system and
the satisfactions deriving therefrom are perfectly logical. Like
all fine science fiction, 'When it Changed' has much to tell us
about the present." (p 513).
Russ, Joanna. _The Female Man_. In _Radical Utopias_, Quality
Paperback Book Club, New York, 1990.
This is an extension of the work begun in "When it Changed."
Spender, Dale. _Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Novelists before
Jane Austen_. Pandora Press, 1986. ISBN 0-86358-081-5.
Puts the lie to every thing you learned in high school and
university literature classes about how only men create LITERATURE.
Tiptree, James Jr. [Alice Sheldon]. "The Women Men Don't See," in
Silverberg, Robert and Martin H. Greenberg, eds, _THe Arbor House
Treasury of Science Fiction. Arbor House, New York. 1980. ISBN
0-87795-246-9.
From introduction: "We listen, but we don't hear. We see, but we
don't understand. We reach, but we don't grasp. These human
failings are a part of life for all of us and not always because
of lack of effort or talent. Some things are mysterious, and life
is the richer for it. Science fiction has always explored the
things that are not what they seem and the things that are more
than they appear to be, but rarely as disturbingly and profoundly
as in this outstanding story by 'James Tiptree, Jr' (Alice
Sheldon)."
13. Media Depiction of Women.
------------------------------
Mayor's Task Force on the Status of Women in Toronto. _Final Report:
Issues: day care, birth control, health care, property law, sexual
discrimination, equal pay for work of equal value,
advertising--degrading women, affirmative action, political power,
recreation, etc. etc. [Toronto: The Task Force] 1974.
Adelson, Andrea, "Study Attacks Women's Roles in TV", The New
York Times, November 19, 1990, page C18.
Courtney, Alice E. and Thomas W. Whipple. _Sex Stereotyping in
Advertising_. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. 1983.
Edwardsen, Mary, ed. _The Corporate Influence on the Images of Women
in Advertising: A Transcript of Public Hearings Held by the Interfaith
Center on Corporate Responsibility, October 7 & 8, 1976, New York
City_. The Center, New York, 1977.
Fraser, Laura. "Behind the New Abortion Scam: How the New Right Uses
Deceptive Advertising and Heavy-Handed Tactics to Prevent Pregnant
WOmen from Choosing and Abortion". _The San Francisco Bay Guardian_.
Vol 20, no 39. (July 16-23, 1986).
Kilbourne, Jean, Joseph Vitagliano, Patricia Stallone. _Killing Us
Softly: Advertising's Image of Women_. Videocassette. Cambridge
Documentary Films, Cambridge, MA. 1979.
A study of the psychological and sexual themes that pervade
today's advertising for products. With a mixture of fact,
insight, humor, and outrage, we are shown just how easily we
are led astray by these advertisements.
Kilbourne, Jean and Cambridge Documentary Films. Producer and
Directory, Margaret Lazarus. _Still Killing Us Softly: Advertising's
Image of Women_. Videocassette. Cambridge Documentary Films,
Cambridge MA. 1987.
Discusses the manner in which women are portrayed by advertising
and the effects this has on women and their images of themselves.
*Komisar, Lucy, "The Image of Woman in Advertising"
Schwartz, L. A. and W. T. Markham, "Sex Stereotyping in Children's Toy
Advertisements", _Sex Roles: A Journal of Research_, 12 (1985) 157-170.
14. Military, Law Enforcement.
-------------------------------
The University Conversion Project, in the September 1992 issue,
published a 32-page booklet with bibliographies, articles, list of
organizations, and organizing ideas pertaining to the links between
"Masculinity, War, Feminism and Non-Violence." Articles include
"White Men in Ties Discussing Missile Size," by Carol Cohn, "Male
Violence and Imperialism," by Lundy Bancroft, "Prostitution and the
Military," by Suniti Kumar, etc. The Guide is available for $3 plus
$1 postage from UCP, P.O. Box 748, Cambridge, MA 02142. You can get
more information by calling (617) 354-9363 from 10am to 6pm.
*Edwards, Paul N., "The Army and the Microworld: Computers and the
Politics of Gender Identity"
Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs. _Women in law_. Basic Books, New York, 1981;
Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, NY, 1983.
Stirling, S.M. "The Woman Warrior," in _New Destinies_, vol IV,
Summer 1988. Baen Books.
This is a well thought-out article by S.M. Stirling entitled _The
Woman Warrior_. Stirling defends the idea of women serving in the
military. This is a response to opinions expressed by editors who
had negative comments about female warriors in fantasy stories.
Although _New Destinies_ is aimed at science fiction readers, this
article is factual and interesting. There is a list of references
at the end of the article.
McNeil, D. G. "Should Women Be Sent Into Combat?" _The New
York Times_, July 21, 1991, page E3.
A summary of the arguments for and against allowing women to serve
in combat positions. It includes the statistic that even with
pregnancy leave, enlisted women spend less time off work that
enlisted men.
15. Patriarchy.
----------------
Connel, R.W. _Gender and Power: Society, The Person, and Sexual
Politics_. Stanford University Press. 1987.
Dinnerstein, Dorothy. _The Mermaid and the Minotaur: Sexual Arrangements
and Human Malaise_. Harper & Row, New York. 1976.
Examines the roots of patriarchy.
Figes, Eva. _Patriarchal Attitudes: Women in Society_. Reprint.
Persea Books, New York. 1986. ISBN: 0-89255-122-4 (trade paperback).
Examines factors which have placed women in subservient roles in
most societies, including Christianity, capitalism, Freud, and
sexual taboos.
Millet, Kate. _Sexual Politics_. New edition. Touchstone Books,
Simon and Schuster Inc. 1990 (orig. 1969). ISBN: 0-671-70740-X
(trade paperback).
From blurb: "With searing eloquence, it traces the evolution of
the women's movement starting from 1830, focusing on the profound
changes in fundamental values that were -- and are -- its goal.
In the tradition of feminist criticism pioneered by Simone de
Beauvoir and Doris Lessing, Millett examines four key figures --
D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Norman Mailer, and Jean Genet -- to
illuminate how patriarchial bias and myth are reflected in the
exploitation of women in literature."
Perelberg, Rosine Josef, and Ann C. Miller, eds. _Gender and Power in
Families_. Tavistock/Routledge, London and New York. 1990.
Sargent, Lydia, ed. _Women and Revolution. A Discussion of the Unhappy
Marriage of Marxism and Feminism_. South End Press, Boston, 1981.
Pluto Press, London, 1981.
An edited collection of articles on the nature of the relationship
between capitalism and patriarchy.
16. Pornography.
-----------------
"Dealing With Pornography in Academia: Report on a Grassroots
Action", CMU Computer Science Graduate Students and Staff.
unpublished, 1989.
Baird, Robert M. and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, eds. _Pornography: Private
Right or Public Menace?_. Prometheus Books.
A wide and relatively unbiased collection of positions on
pornography. Chapters are devoted to feminist, religious, and
Libertarian perspectives. Some familiar names in the book:
Brownmiller, Dworkin, and Steinem, as well as excerpts from the
two US commission reports.
Ben-Veniste, Richard. "Pornography and Sex Crime -- the Danish
Experience." In Vol. 8, USCOP [U.S. Commision on Obscenity and
Pornography] Technical Report, 1970.
Califia, Pat. "Among Us, Against Us: The New Puritans," in _The
Advocate_ (4/17/80, 14-18); reprinted in _Caught Looking_ (recently
reprinted) Also. "See No Evil: The Anti-Porn Movement," in _The
Advocate_ (9/3/85, 35-39); and "The Obscene, Disgusting and Vile Meese
Commission Report," in _The Advocate_ (10/14/86, 42-46, 108-109).
Challenges to the well-known feminist anti-pornographic
and anti-sex stance.
Downs, Donald Alexander. _The New Politics of Pornography_.
University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 1989. ISBN 0226161625.
Explores the contemporary antipornography movement, documents the
weaknesses of both absolutist sides of the conflict.
Dworkin, Andrea. _Woman Hating_. Dutton, New York, 1974.
Dworkin, Andrea. _Intercourse_. Free Press, New York, 1987.
Dworkin, Andrea. _Pornography: Men Possessing Women_. Dutton, New
York, 1989.
Griffin, Susan. _Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her_. Harper
and Row, New York, 1980.
She contends that There are similarities between the ways men in
patriarchal cultures treat "women" & "nature" and alienate
themselves from both.
Griffin, Susan. _Pornography and Silence: Culture's Revenge Against
Nature_. Harper Colophon Books, New York, 1982.
Kuhn, Annette. _Women's Pictures: Feminism and Cinema_. Routledge &
K. Paul, London and Boston, 1982.
She feels that soft core pornography is more harmful to societal
views on women than is hard core porn (hard core meaning "straight
sex" films and not bondage/S&M/rape films).
Kutchinksy, Berl. "Towards an Explanation of the Decrease in
Registered Sex Crimes in Copenhagen." In USCOP "Technical Review",
Vol 8., 1970.
Kutchinksy, Berl. "Pornography and Its Effects in Denmark and the
United States: A Rejoinder and Beyond." "Comparitive Social Research:
An Annual. Vol. 8. Greenwich Conn.:JAI Press, 1985.
Stoltenberg, John. _Refusing to be a Man: Essays on Sex and Justice_.
Breitenbush Books, Portland, OR. 1989.
Stoltenberg speaks to the issues of woman-hating (as a function of
training from childhood) and pornography. He is persuasive,
succinct, and he succeeds in clearing up a lot of confusion in
these areas. Probably the most effective presentation I've seen
in a very long time. Biological determinism is laid to waste.
17. Positive Children's Books.
-------------------------------
*_From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler_.
Strong female protagonist.
L'Engle, Madeleine. _A Wrinkle in Time_ and many, many others.
[Science fiction] AWIT is a classic. Meg Murray saves her
father and little brother from the clutches of IT. Three other
books follow this one, and L'Engle has written a whole slew of
other children's books. Characters are wonderfully drawn, and
females get strong, well drawn roles.
McKinley, Robin. _The Hero and the Crown_, _The Blue Sword_.
[Fantasy] Set in the ancient kingdom of Damar. The proponents of
each book are heroic females who take on the foes of the kingdom.
The books start out slow and finish fast. _Hero_ is also a
Newberry Award winner.
McKinley, Robin. _The Outlaws of Sherwood_.
[Mythic fiction] This version of Robin Hood does not romanticize
the life of the outlaws. It also gives a much stronger role to
Marian. There are all the familiar characters, plus a few other
interesting female characters. The Sheriff of Nottingham stays
well in the background. Interesting version.
Voigt, Cynthia. _Homecoming_.
[Fiction] Three children walk across a good portion of America
after being abandoned. The oldest sister is the one that pulls
them through.
[continued in part III]
Cindy Tittle Moore
Version: 1.5
Last-modified: 15 February 1993
Copies of this FAQ may be obtained by anonymous ftp to
rtfm.mit.edu under
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in the body of the message, leaving the subject line empty.
A variety of movements in feminism means that calling one's self a
feminist can mean many things. In general, members of the following
categories of feminism believe in the listed policies; however as with
any diverse movement, there are disagreements within each group and
overlap between others. This list is meant to illustrate the
diversity of feminist thought and belief. It does not mean that
feminism is fragmented (although it often seems that way!). Much of
the definitions presented here are inspired from _American Feminism_
by Ginette Castro; there is a definite American bias here. Other
sources were _Feminist Frameworks_ (2nd ed.) by Jaggar and Rothenberg
(which is a worthwhile but incomplete reader that tried to sort out
these various schools of feminist thought). Any additional, balancing
information from other countries and/or books is more than welcome
(and will be incorporated).
Defining various kinds of feminism is a tricky proposition. The
diversity of comment with most of the kinds presented here should
alert you to the dangers and difficulties in trying to "define"
feminism. Since feminism itself resists all kinds of definitions by
its very existence and aims, it is more accurate to say that there are
all kinds of "flavors" and these flavors are mixed up every which way;
there is no set of Baskin Robbins premixed flavors, as it were.
Amazon Feminism
Amazon feminism is dedicated to the image of the female hero in
fiction and in fact, as it is expressed in art and literature, in
the physiques and feats of female athletes, and in sexual values
and practices.
Amazon feminism is concerned about physical equality and is
opposed to gender role stereotypes and discrimination against
women based on assumptions that women are supposed to be, look or
behave as if they are passive, weak and physically helpless.
Amazon feminism rejects the idea that certain characteristics or
interests are inherently masculine (or feminine), and upholds and
explores a vision of heroic womanhood. Thus Amazon feminism
advocates e.g., female strength athletes, martial artists,
soldiers, etc. [TG]
Anarcho-Feminism
Anarcho-feminism was never a huge movement, especially in the
United States, and you won't find a whole lot written about it. I
mention it mostly because of the influential work of Emma Goldman,
who used anarchism to craft a radical feminism that was (alas!)
far ahead of her time. Radical feminism expended a lot of energy
dealing with a basis from which to critique society without
falling into Marxist pleas for socialist revolution. It also
expended a lot of energy trying to reach across racial and class
lines. Goldman had succeeded in both. Radical feminist Alix
Schulman realized this, but not in time to save her movement.
She's put out a reader of Goldman's work and a biography, both of
which I recommend highly. [JD]
Cultural Feminism
As radical feminism died out as a movement, cultural feminism got
rolling. In fact, many of the same people moved from the former
to the latter. They carried the name "radical feminism" with
them, and some cultural feminists use that name still. (Jaggar
and Rothenberg don't even list cultural feminism as a framework
separate from radical feminism, but Echols spells out the
distinctions in great detail.) The difference between the two is
quite striking: whereas radical feminism was a movement to
transform society, cultural feminism retreated to vanguardism,
working instead to build a women's culture. Some of this effort
has had some social benefit: rape crisis centers, for example; and
of course many cultural feminists have been active in social
issues (but as individuals, not as part of a movement). [JD]
Cultural feminists can sometimes come up with notions that sound
disturbingly Victorian and non-progressive: that women are
inherently (biologically) "kinder and gentler" than men and so on.
(Therefore if all leaders were women, we wouldn't have wars.)
I do think, though, that cultural feminism's attempts to heighten
respect for what is traditionally considered women's work is an
important parallel activity to recognizing that traditionally male
activities aren't necessarily as important as we think. [CTM]
I have often associated this type of statement [inherently kinder
and gentler] with Separatist Feminists, who seem to me to feel
that women are *inherently* kinder and gentler, so why associate
with men? (This is just my experience from Separatists I know...I
haven't read anything on the subject.) I know Cultural Feminists
who would claim women are *trained* to be kinder and gentler, but
I don't know any who have said they are *naturally* kinder. [SJ]
As various 1960s movements for social change fell apart or got
co-opted, folks got pessimistic about the very possibility of
social change. Many of then turned their attention to building
alternatives, so that if they couldn't change the dominant
society, they could avoid it as much as possible. That, in a
nutshell, is what the shift from radical feminism to cultural
feminism was about. These alternative-building efforts were
accompanied with reasons explaining (perhaps justifying) the
abandonment of working for social change. Cultural feminism's
justification was biological determinism. This justification was
worked out in great detail, and was based on assertions in
horribly-flawed books like Elizabeth Gould Davis's _The First Sex_
and Ashley Montagu's _The Natural Superiority of Women_. So
notions that women are "inherently kinder and gentler" are one of
the foundations of cultural feminism, and remain a major part of
it. A similar concept held by some cultural feminists is that
while various sex differences might not be biologically
determined, they are still so thoroughly ingrained as to be
intractable. There is no inherent connection between
alternative-building and ideologies of biological determinism (or
of social intracta- bility). SJ has apparently encountered
alternative-builders who don't embrace biological determinism, and
I consider this a very good sign. [JD]
I should point out here that Ashley Montagu is male, and his
book was first copyright in 1952, so I don't believe that it
originated as part of the separatist movements in the '60's.
It may still be horribly flawed; I haven't yet read it. [CTM]
Erotic Feminism
[European] This seemed to start (as a movement) in Germany under
the rule of Otto von Bismarck. He ruled the land with the motto
"blood and iron". In society the man was the _ultra manly man_ and
power was patriarchal power. Some women rebelled against this, by
becoming WOMAN. Eroticism became a philosophical and metaphysical
value and the life-creating value. [RG]
Eco-Feminism:
This branch of feminism is much more spiritual than political or
theoretical in nature. It may or may not be wrapped up with
Goddess worship and vegetarianism. Its basic tenet is that a
patriarchical society will exploit its resources without regard to
long term consequences as a direct result of the attitudes
fostered in a patriarchical/hierarchical society. Parallels are
often drawn between society's treatment of the environment,
animals, or resources and its treatment of women. In resisting
patriarchical culture, eco-feminists feel that they are also
resisting plundering and destroying the Earth. And vice-versa.
[CTM]
This is actually socially-conscious environmentalism with a tiny
smattering of the radical and cultural feminist observation that
exploitation of women and exploitation of the earth have some
astonishing parallels. The rest of "eco-feminism" turns out to be
a variation on socialism. The Green movements of Europe have
done a good job of formulating (if not implementing) an
environmentally aware feminism; and while Green movements
were not originally considered a part of eco-feminism, they
are now recognized as a vital component. [JD]
(If I remember correctly, a couple of feminist groups, including
NOW have joined up with Green parties. [CTM])
Feminazi:
This term was "invented" by the radio/tv host Rush Limbaugh. He
defines a feminazi as a feminist who is trying to produce as many
abortions as possible. Hence the term "nazi" - he sees them as
trying to rid the world of a particular group of people (fetuses).
This term is of course completely without merit, but there's the
definition of it FYI. [CTM]
Feminism and Women of Color:
In _feminist theory from margin to center_ (1984), bell hooks
writes of "militant white women" who call themselves "radical
feminists" but hooks labels them "reactionary" . . . Hooks is
refering to cultural feminism here. Her comment is a good
introduction to that fractious variety of feminism that Jaggar and
Rothenberg find hard to label any further than to designate its
source as women of color. It is a most vital variety, covering
much of the same ground as radical feminism and duplicating its
dynamic nature. Yet bad timing kept the two from ever uniting.
For more information you might want to also read hooks' book and
her earlier reader, _ain't i a woman?_ Whereas radical feminism
was primarily formulated by educated white women focusing on
women's issues, this variety was formulated by women who would not
(because they could not) limit their focus. What is so
extraordinary is that the two converged in so many ways, with the
notable exception that the women of color were adamantly opposed
to considering one form of oppression (sexism) without considering
the others. [JD]
I think an important work in the history of feminism and women of
color is Gloria Anzaldua and Cherrie Moraga's anthology, _This
Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color_. It's
my belief that the unique contribution of women of color, who
experience at least two forms of discrimination daily, provides
balance and reality to much of the more theoretical forms of
academic feminism favored by educated white women. [EE]
Individualist, or Libertarian Feminism
Individualist feminism is based upon individualist or libertarian
(minimum government or anarchocapitalist) philosophies, i.e.
philosophies whose primary focus is individual autonomy, rights,
liberty, independence and diversity.
Lesbianism:
There are a couple of points to make here. First is that
Lesbianism is not necessarily a *de facto* part of feminism.
While it is true that merely being a lesbian is a direct
contravention of "traditional" concepts of womanhood, Lesbians
themeselves hold a wide variety of opionions on the subject of
feminism just as their straight sisters do.
On the other hand, Lesbianism has sometimes been made into a
political point by straight women "becoming" lesbian in order to
fully reject men. However, it is never accurate to characterise
all feminists as Lesbians nor all Lesbians as feminists.
The reader should also note that homophobia is as present among
feminists as it is in any other segment of society. Lesbianism
and feminism, for all their common points and joint interests, are
two very different groups. [CTM]
Liberal Feminism:
This is the variety of feminism that works within the structure of
mainstream society to integrate women into that structure. Its
roots stretch back to the social contract theory of government
instituted by the American Revolution. Abigail Adams and Mary
Wollstonecraft were there from the start, proposing equality for
women. As is often the case with liberals, they slog along inside
the system, getting little done amongst the compromises until some
radical movement shows up and pulls those compromises left of
center. This is how it operated in the days of the suffragist
movement and again with the emergence of the radical feminists.
[JD]
Marxist and Socialist Feminism
Marxism recognizes that women are oppressed, and attributes the
oppression to the capitalist/private property system. Thus they
insist that the only way to end the oppression of women is to
overthrow the capitalist system. Socialist feminism is the result
of Marxism meeting radical feminism. Jaggar and Rothenberg point
to significant differences between socialist feminism and Marxism,
but for our purposes I'll present the two together. Echols offers
a description of socialist feminism as a marriage between Marxism
and radical feminism, with Marxism the dominant partner. Marxists
and socialists often call themselves "radical," but they use the
term to refer to a completely different "root" of society: the
economic system. [JD]
Material Feminism
A movement in the late 19th century to liberate women by improving
their material condition. This meant taking the burden of
housework and cooking off their shoulders. _The Grand Domestic
Revolution_ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is one reference. [RZ]
Moderate Feminism:
This branch of feminism tends to be populated by younger women or
other women who have not directly experienced discrimination.
They are closely affiliated with liberal feminism, but tend to
question the need for further effort, and do not think that
Radical feminism is any longer viable and in fact rather
embarrassing (this is the group most likely to espouse feminist
ideas and thoughts while denying being "feminist"). [CTM]
'pop-feminism'
This term has appeared several times on soc.feminism. It appears
to be a catch-all for the bogey"man" sort of feminism that
everyone loves to hate: you know, the kind of feminism that grinds
men under its heel and admits to no wrong for women. It is
doubtful that such a caricature actually exists, yet many people
persist in lumping all feminists into this sort of a category. [CTM]
Radical Feminism:
Provides the bulwark of theoretical thought in feminism. Radical
feminism provides an important foundation for the rest of
"feminist flavors". Seen by many as the "undesireable" element of
feminism, Radical feminism is actually the breeding ground for
many of the ideas arising from feminism; ideas which get shaped
and pounded out in various ways by other (but not all) branches of
feminism. [CTM]
Radical feminism was the cutting edge of feminist theory from
approximately 1967-1975. It is no longer as universally accepted
as it was then, nor does it provide a foundation for, for example,
cultural feminism. In addition, radical feminism is not and never
has been related to the Maoist-feminist group Radical Women. [EE]
This term refers to the feminist movement that sprung out of the
civil rights and peace movements in 1967-1968. The reason this
group gets the "radical" label is that they view the oppression of
women as the most fundamental form of opression, one that cuts
across boundaries of race, culture, and economic class. This is a
movement intent on social change, change of rather revolutionary
proportions, in fact. [JD]
Ironically, this get-to-the-roots movement is the most root-less
variety of feminism. This was part of its strength and part of
its weakness. It was always dynamic, always dealing with
factions, and always full of ideas. Its influence has been felt
in all the other varieties listed here, as well as in society at
large. [JD]
To me, radical feminism is centred on the necessity to question
gender roles. This is why I identify current "gender politics"
questions as radical feminist issues. Radical feminism questions
why women must adopt certain roles based on their biology, just as
it questions why men adopt certain other roles based on theirs.
Radical feminism attempts to draw lines between biologically-
determined behavior and culturally-determined behavior in order
to free both men and women as much as possible from their previous
narrow gender roles. [EE]
The best history of this movement is a book called _Daring to
be Bad_, by Echols. I consider that book a must! [JD] Another
excellent book is simply titled _Radical Feminism_ and is an
anthology edited by Anne Koedt, a well-known radical feminist
[EE].
Radical feminist theory is to a large extent incompatible with
cultural feminism. The reason is that the societal forces it
deals with seem so great in magnitude that they make it impossible
to identify any innate masculine or feminine attributes except
those which are results of the biological attributes. (This is
what I think the [above] "view[s] the oppression of women as the
most fundamental form of oppression," [is getting at] although I
don't agree with that statement in its context.) [DdJ]
Separatists:
Popularly and wrongly depicted as Lesbians, these are the
feminists who advocate separation from men; sometimes total,
sometimes partial. Women who organize women-only events are often
unfairly dubbed separatist. Separatists are sometimes literal,
sometimes figurative. The core idea is that "separating" (by
various means) from men enables women to see themselves in a
different context. Many feminists, whether or not separatist,
think this is a necessary "first step", by which they mean a
temporary separation for personal growth, not a permanent one. [CTM]
There is sometimes some overlap between separatist and cultural
feminists (see below). [SJ]
It is equally inaccurate to consider all Lesbians as separatist;
while it is true that they do not interact with men for sexual
fulfillment, it is not true that they therefore automatically shun
all interaction with men. [CTM] And, conversely, it is equally
inaccurate to consider all separatists Lesbians. Additionally,
lesbian feminism may be considered a category distinct from
separatist feminism. Lesbian feminism puts more emphasis on
lesbianism -- active bonding with women -- than separatism does,
in its emphasis on removing bonds with men. [EE]
[Other categories? Both formal and informal are welcome.]
Men's Movements:
[Largely contributed by Dave Gross. Exceptions noted.]
It may seem odd to include some notes on men's movements in a
description of feminism. However, many of these movements were
started in reaction to feminism: some inspired by and others in
contra-reaction to it. In this context, examining men's movements
tells of some specific reactions to feminism by men. [CTM]
Most men's movement historians date the men's movement back to the
early seventies. In 1970, according to Anthony Astrachan ("How
Men Feel" p. 291) the first men's center opened in Berkeley, Calif.
and the magazine "Liberation" published an article by Jack Sawyer
entitled "On Male Liberation."
The men's movement equivalent to the catalyst provided to the
women's movement by Betty Friedan, was "The Male Machine" by Mark
Feigen Fasteau in 1975. My edition has a forward by Gloria
Steinem in which she writes: "This book is a complement to the
feminist revolution, yet it is one no woman could write. It is the
revolution's other half."
But a reexamination of the male gender role certainly predates the
1970s. In fact, the book "The American Male" by Myron Brenton,
complained that "when the plight of woman is given such intense
scrutiny, a curiously distorting effect tends to be created.
Suddenly the world is seen only through the feminist prism." This
quote, which would be comfortable coming out of Warren Farrell's
mouth in the 1990s, was published in 1966. The book was essentially
a male-friendly, pro-feminist examination of the male sex role,
and started a theme of portraying masculinity as dangerous and
destructive (physically and emotionally) to men -- a theme that was
to also provide the basis for the works of Fasteau, Goldberg and
Farrell in the 1970s.
And R.F. Doyle, who was to form one of the rare traditionalist men's
groups, was already fighting for male-friendly divorce reform in
the early 1960s (his Divorce Racket Busters in 1960 is in a direct
line of parentage to his Men's Rights Association in 1973).
Barbara Ehrenreich in "The Hearts of Men" traces the men's movement
back even further. She believes that the current men's movement
is only the latest representation of a long-term male revolt against
the "breadwinner ethic:"
"I will argue that the collapse of the breadwinner ethic had
begun well before the revival of feminism and stemmed from
dissatisfactions every bit as deep, if not as idealist-
ically expressed, as those that motivated our founding
'second wave' feminists." -- p. 12
Furthermore, she writes that
"The great irony... is that the right-wing, antifeminist
backlash that emerged in the 1970s is a backlash not so
much against feminism as against the male revolt." -- p.13
In the mid- to late-1950s (although she traces the roots even
further back than this), non-conformity becomes a hip topic.
Playboy magazine started publishing in 1953, and by the early
sixties had started offering "something approaching a coherent
program for the male rebellion" (p. 50). The magazine's
trademark T&A was only a side-issue, designed to make the rebellion
against the male sex role (aka The Playboy Philosophy) a safely
heterosexual one.
The Beat movement "establish[ed] a vantage point from which the
'normal' could be judged, assessed and labeled -- square" (p. 67)
and then "cardiology... passed its own judgement on the 'normal'
masculine condition, and [came] down, without fully realizing it,
on the side of the rebels" (p. 87).
The Human Potential Movement combined with cardiological concerns
encouraged a change in men's lives; the Vietnam War further
tarnished the image of masculinity; the 60s counter culture
allowed androgyny; the second-wave of the women's movement pushed
for a critique of gender roles; gay liberation groups differentiated
themeselves from heterosexuals, allowing straight men to change
their roles without being accused of homosexuality.
Voila! The genesis of the men's movement in a nutshell!
The men's movement, as a movement, has from almost the beginning
been split into various camps based both on ideology and on
what concerns the members most wish to concentrate on. What were
once scattered "consciousness raising groups" have evolved into
the following sub-movements:
Feminist Men's Movement:
------------------------
These groups are closely aligned ideologically with the feminist
movement. They believe that we live in a patriarchal system in
which men are the oppressors of women, and that the men's movement
should identify this oppression and work against it. Most of the
[City-name] Men Against Rape groups fall under this category. The
largest feminist men's group is the National Organization for Men
Against Sexism (Formerly the National Organization for Changing
Men). Some publications from this viewpoint are "Changing Men,"
the journal of NOMAS, and the following books: "The Liberated Man"
by Warren Farrell, "The Male Machine" by Marc Feigen Fasteau, "The 49%
Majority" ed. by Deborah David & Robert Brannon, and "Refusing to Be a
Man" by John Stoltenberg.
"For these men," according to James Doyle ("Sex & Gender" p. 341),
"the question of unfair divorce settlements, child-custody cases,
and the like are a ruse used by some men who favor perpetuating
their own dominant status in society." This perhaps is a little
harsh, but many in the feminist men's movement are suspicious of
those who would work for men's political concerns without first
relinquishing the patriarchal reins of political power.
"They may feel only a vague pricking of conscience about their own
complicity in the imbalance," writes Anthony Astrachan of the
feminist wing of the movement (How Men Feel, p. 302), "or they may
openly acknowledge that men as a class (which does not mean all
men) oppress women as a class (which does not mean all women). In
either case, what they feel is guilt." (Astrachan dismisses what
I will call the Men's Liberation movement as "the no-guilt wing.")
As can be expected, there is much debate among feminists, women,
and other men about the validity or real intentions of such
groups. The entire question of "feminist men," especially ones
that disagree with aspects of "conventional feminism" sparks much
debate. Some accuse them of pandering to the feminist movement,
others of having a hidden agenda that's really against feminism.
Female feminists disagree wither men can be feminist, some arguing
that there is nothing to prevent men from being feminists, and
others arguing that you have to know what it is like to be a woman
-- or even BE a woman -- to be a feminist. [CTM]
Men's Liberation Movement:
--------------------------
Other names: Masculist movement, Men's Rights movement. These
groups, while quite similar to feminists in several areas (gay
rights, belief in equal opportunity in the workplace, etc.)
generally do not believe in the theory that we live in a
patriarchy in which men oppress and women are oppressed.
"My thinking has led me to conclude that men as a class do
/not/ oppress women as a class. Nor do I believe that women
as a class oppress men as a class. Rather, I feel that men
and women have cooperated in the development of contemporary
male and female sex-roles, both of which appear to have
advantages as well as disadvantages, but which are
essentially restrictive in nature, growth inhibiting, and, in
the case of the male, physically as well as psychologically
lethal." -- Richard Haddad "Concepts and overview of the
men's liberation movement"
Characterization of the men's liberation wing as being a
reactionary or traditionalist movement is common among feminists,
but doesn't seem to hold under closer observation. Fred Hayward
addressed this view in his keynote speech to the National Congress
for Men in 1981:
"We must not reverse the women's movement; we must accelerate
it... [Men's liberation] is not a backlash, for there is
nothing about traditional sex roles that I want to go back
to...
"We must give full credence to the seriousness of women's
problems and be willing to work toward their solution, but if
the others do not return the favor, it is they who are the
sexist pigs. It is they who are reactionary. When I look at
feminists today, I don't want to call them names -- I only
want to call their bluff."
Some of the groups with this viewpoint are: Men's Rights Inc.,
National Coalition of Free Men, National Congress for Men,
National Center for Men. Some of the publications from this
viewpoint are "Transitions," the journal of the NCFM, and the
following books: "Why Men Are the Way They Are" by Warren Farrell
"The Hazards of Being Male" by Herb Goldberg "Men's Rights" by
Bill & Laurie Wishard "Men Freeing Men" ed. by Francis Baumli.
Mythopoetic Men's Movement:
---------------------------
These are the ones you see on TV and in magazines wearing masks
and beating drums. Robert Bly, the father-figure of this
movement, says:
"I see the phenomenon of what I would call the 'soft male' all
over the country today. They're not interested in harming
the Earth, or starting wars, or working for corporations.
There's something favorable toward life in their whole
general mood and style of living. But something's wrong.
Many of these men are unhappy. There's not much energy in
them. They are life-preserving, but not exactly
life-giving...."
"Men are suffering right now -- young males especially. But
now that so many men are getting in touch with their feminine
side, we're ready to start seeing the wild man and to put its
powerful, dark energy to use. At this point, many things can
happen."
-- interview by Keith Thompson
Utne Reader, Nov/Dec 1989
This talk of "powerful, dark energy" worries some, including Bly's
ex-wife, who compared this movement to fascism:
"The men's separatist movement is frightening. Separatism,
breeds feelings of superiority and imbalance -- male bonding
usually offers permission to regress."
-- "The danger in men's groups"
Utne Reader, Nov/Dec 1989
A more common reaction to these groups by outsiders is
bewilderment and ridicule. "[T]heir words revealed a kind of
gooeyness wrapped in clinical psych jargon," wrote Jon Tevlin of
his Wild Man Weekend. It's possible though, that these groups
outnumber all other men's groups combined. There are a surprising
number of magazines, books, journals, retreats and gurus
associated with the mythopoetic men's movement. "Iron John" led
sales of hardcover nonfiction longer than any other best seller in
1991, according to the 1993 Writer's Market.
"What I'm interested in is the return of mythology, and he
timportance of initiation -- I think that's essential...
I'm not interested in all the men having opinions on men's
rights, and attacking women. I'm not interested in a
national men's movement."
-- Robert Bly, quoted by Tim Warren in
the Baltimore Sun, 28 October 1990
On the other hand,
"I don't want to omit people like Warren Farrell and Herb
Goldberg who are doing men's stuff; they get omitted far oo
toften when the Men's Movement is discussed. If Robert
[Bly] is one of the leaders and perhaps the father of the
mythopoetic Men's Movement, then Goldberg, Farrell and
Pleck are the Grandfathers..."
-- John Lee, quoted by Woody Harper in the
Men's Council Newsletter, August 1990
This movement is less political than spiritual, and it's difficult
to identify just what these folks stand for. But if you want to
try, check out the interviews with Bly and with Shepherd Bliss in
the Nov/Dec 1989 Utne Reader, or pick up "Men's Council News" or
Robert Bly's surprise best-seller "Iron John."
The New Traditionalists:
------------------------
I don't know much about these groups. The only one I'm aware of
is the National Organization for Men run by Penthouse columnist
Sidney Siller. Maybe R.F. Doyle's Men's Rights Association (if it
still exists) qualifies as well. These groups look, on the
surface, much like the Men's Liberation groups, but underneath
there is a current of resentment that the old sex roles have
dissolved. Some openly say that women just aren't men's equals,
and should have stayed home with the kids. This is that "male
backlash" you've probably read about. Read "The Rape of the Male"
by R.F. Doyle for a good idea of how these folks think (the front
cover is a picture of the crucifiction). Also, Esther Vilar's
"The Manipulated Man" (written by a woman in 1972, and pretty
scary).
The Father's Movements:
-----------------------
Some people hold that this is a separate group from the Men's
Liberation Movement. There are some groups that are only
interested in issues like divorce reform, and ignore issues like
violence toward men, gay rights, and the draft. Many of these
groups are very similar to Men's Liberation groups, and only
differ by their concentration. Some explicitly exclude issues
like gay rights in order to not risk offending some of their
members, and this could itself be considered an ideological
position which would separate them from the Men's Liberation
groups. Anthony Astrachan ("How Men Feel," p. 311) reports that
some Father's Rights men boycotted the 1983 National Congress for
Men meeting in Los Angeles, and speculates that this was because
men's liberation members had proposed resolutions supporting gay
rights.
Publications would include: "How to Win Custody" by Louis Kiefer
"Weekend Fathers" by Gerald and Myrna Silver
--------------
My thanks to:
Ellen Eades[EE]
David desJardins [DdJ]
Jym Dyer [JD]
Thomas Gramstad [TG]
Rebecca Grinter [RG]
David Gross [DG] (incl. all info on men's movements)
Stacy Johnson [SJ]
Rudy Zalesak [RZ]
--------------
Please mail in comments, additions, corrections, suggestions, and so
on to feminism...@ncar.ucar.edu. I reserve all rights to edit
material for brevity, clarity, and constructiveness.
--Cindy Tittle Moore
"I myself have never been able to find out precisely what
feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist
whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a
doormat, or a prostitute." -- Rebecca West, 1913