Review by Choice Review
Faderman (emer., California State Univ., Fresno), a renowned scholar of gender and sexuality, has crafted a detailed, fascinating discussion of the social, legal, and political meanings of the term woman in the US. Her analysis spans the arrival of the first white settlers in the early 1600s to the election of Kamala Harris as the nation's first female and first person of color vice president. Faderman deftly unpacks what being a woman means through the lens of multiple races and ethnicities. She also carefully discusses the impact of various external factors and events--e.g., slavery and its demise, the rise of the industrial revolution in the 19th century and the economic devastation of the Great Depression, and two world wars--and closely examines changes over time regarding notions of sexual identity and "acceptable" mores. With more than 100 pages of citations, including both primary and secondary sources, this comprehensive examination is an ideal text for advanced courses in US women's history. In the end, it might seem that the more things change, the more they remain the same, but Faderman leaves readers with hope for the future. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. --Kathleen Banks Nutter, formerly, Smith College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this immersive history, LGBTQ scholar Faderman (Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death) charts changes in America's "ideal of womanhood" from the 17th century to the present. Characterizing women's progress as a pendulum that advances during historical moments such as WWII, when women's work outside the home was desperately needed, only to swing back during economic downturns and periods of social "destabilization," Faderman profiles rebels and their detractors. Along the way, she spotlights 19th-century female antislavery societies in the North, sexually liberated "New Women" of the 1910s and '20s, 1990s riot grrls, and modern-day celebrities who galvanized the #MeToo movement. In each historical period, Faderman pays close attention to groups often excluded from histories of the campaign for gender equality, including Black and Indigenous women and working-class white women like Clara Lemlich, leader of a massive 1909 garment workers' strike in New York City. Turning to the 21st century, Faderman discusses the "opt-out revolution" in the early 2000s, which argued that "most women did not want the prizes for which feminists had fought," and analyzes debates over sexual consent and women's credibility, but gives somewhat short shrift to the surging interest in gender nonconformity among Generation Z . Still, this is a comprehensive and lucid overview of the ongoing campaign to free women from "the tyranny of old notions." Agent: Sandra Dijkstra, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Mar.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The distinguished feminist historian analyzes how the concept of woman has evolved over almost 500 years of American history. Woman, Faderman argues, is a patriarchal concept with roots that run deep. Even the most liberal views of (White) womanhood, such as those of 17th-century Puritan minister Roger Williams, centered around woman as the "weaker Vessel…more fitted to keep and order the House and Children." Wealthy women, especially widows, had slightly more agency, but a woman's place, then and in the centuries that followed, was in the home. As the states expanded into Native American land, that idea was forced on Native women throughout the territories. At the same time, enslaved women suffered both race and gender marginalization that, as Angela Davis noted, "annulled" their womanhood. By the 19th century, women transformed the chains that bound them to woman into what Faderman calls the "visas" that took them out of the home and allowed them to "claim a voice in the public square." Yet even as females--largely middle-class and White--gained greater access to public life in the 20th century, patriarchy, in the guise of medical science, denounced independent-minded women for violating gender norms. By the 1980s, Faderman engagingly demonstrates, thinkers like the radical lesbian feminist Monique Wittig called woman a dangerous patriarchal "myth" and helped liberate the concept of gender--and gender-prescribed behaviors--from sexuality. Faderman ably brings the discussion into the 21st century and the present day, when nonbinary conceptions of gender are gaining further acceptance in the mainstream even as the resolutely patriarchal system--perfectly embodied by Donald Trump and his cohorts--continues to fight against anything other than a strictly binary gender structure. This highly readable, inclusive, and deeply researched book will appeal to scholars of women and gender studies as well as anyone seeking to understand the historical patterns that misogyny has etched across every era of American culture. An intelligently provocative, vital reading experience. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
