[soc.feminism] Women Who Do, Women Who Don't

nadel@malibu.aero.org (06/28/89)

I just read Robyn Rowland's book _Women Who Do and Women Who Don't
Join the Women's Movement_ and would recommend it highly to anyone
interested in a reading a number of perspectives on feminism.  The
introductory section discusses the history of modern feminism and some
of the major issues feminism attempts to address.  The heart of the
book is Part II which consists of essays by a number of women (I think
24 but might be remembering wrong) about their feelings about feminism
and how they came to their decisions about the women's movement.
Women included come from a variety of backgrounds and hold a variety
of opinions on the women's movement.  The book is limited in coming
from an English-speaking perspective (North America, Australia,
Britain) but does include some women of color.  The final section of
the book is a summing up of the views and, more importantly, why
people hold those views.

Rowland's goal is to show that women on both sides of feminism may
have more in common than they think they do.  I'm not sure it succeeds
at that but it does go some way towards highlighting that the "other
side" may give different priorities to various issues and that this
affects the conclusions that individuals reach.

Miriam Nadel



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