From: seid@paxvax.EE.CORNELL.EDU (Steve Seidman)
Subject: Women's Realities by A. Schaef (a la White Male System)
Organization: Trivializers R Us
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 22:54:21 GMT

A book review & partial summary:

As time goes on I may post more summaries for future discussion.

...and without further ado:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Women's Reality,
	subtitle: An Emerging Female System in a White Male Society

Anne Wilson Schaef (1981, &1985 Winston Press, Inc.
				430 Oak Grove, 
				Minneapolis, Minnesota  55403

inquires about tapes of lectures, workshops, etc:

	Wilson-Schaef Associates, Inc.
	8 Wild Tiger Lane
	Boulder, CO  80302
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: this summary will mainly concentrate on Schaef's description
	of what she calls the "White Male System"
	(please don't get put off right away by the PC language she uses)

I'll say flat out: This is a good book, and serves as an excellent
starting point for informal discussion of how men and women
think, in various social settings.  This book isn't analytic,
nor does it concern itself with physiology; rather it takes a 
synthetic approach based on Schaef's experiences.

 I'll summarize some of the book; my comments will appear at
the end. or in [brackets].

The book considers two systems of thought, the Female System (FS) and
the White Male System (WMS). [these are my own abbreviations] Schaef
cautions the reader that these are systems of thought and she doesn't
mean to be finger pointing at any individual.  Further, she states
that this book should not be used as a base for political rhetoric.

Females, apparently out of necessity, can operate in both systems, but
males only need operate in the WMS to function in society; therefore
it will be much harder for males to step out of the only system they
know, or even believe that there is anything worthwhile outside of the
system, let alone learn about the new system (ie. FS).  Further,
females, being in a position of inferiority have an easier time
jumping between the systems.  In fact anyone who knows 2 systems will
apparently understand this book more readily.  From the introduction:

	Men may have some difficulty understanding this material.
	I have found that Black, Chicano, Native American, and
	Asian-American men generally have an easier time of it
	than white men, however. [notice what's capitalized and not ;-)]
	If you are male and cannot understand certain parts of this
	book, discuss them with five women, three of whom are feminists.

	[at first I thought this was a bias, why not 6 women so that
	there would be equal numbers of feminists and non-feminists.
	but I guess it would be *far* too difficult to find 3 non-feminsist
	women ;-)]   she continues:

	If after that you still cannot understand or accept these ideas
	then you may have a great deal of work left to do.  Please
	remember that when one person tries to explain her or his sytstem
	to another, it usually takes twice as much energy for her or him
	to develop and present an explanation as it does for the listener
	to understand it.  [I hope that the female posters who regularly
	say "there's so many men posting, and they just don't understand
	will take this into account 8-), which reminds me: are there
	any women at all who still read this group?? ;-))  ]

Here are the four myths of the WMS:

1) The WMS is the only thing that exists.

2) The WMS is innately superior.

3) The WMS knows and understands everything.

4) It is possible to be totally logical, rational, and objective.

The four myths may be summarized in one myth "it is possible
for one to be G-d" [Schaef's capitalization, but my contraction as I
don't wish to offend anyone by putting a direct symbol for a sacred
name......the ultimate in PC ;-)  ]

On the basis of myth #2, Schaef's experiences indicate: (pg. 15)

	Teaching a white man about a system other than his own
	can be extraordinarily difficult. Even if he is open
	to learning about other realities, he must constantly
	do battle with his own feeling of innate superiority
	and the confidence that he already knows and understands
	everything.

[I think that here Schaef muddled up a delicate point by overstating
the case.  I would ammend this: most men (and women) will sincerely
admit that they don't know or understand everything.  But, at least
implicitly, there is a belief that in principle everything can be
known within the WMS, although not necessarily by any particular
individual.  A belief in science as the only real and object
reality might be an example of this. ]

Religion and mathematics are discussed in the WMS, but only briefly.

Now that Scheaf has nailed down the WMS in first chapter, the remaining
six chapters are devoted to the primary focus of the book: the FS.
[is it possible that Schaef doesn't attach the "white" modifier to
the FS out of political motivation, as she admits the existence of
a Black system, Chicano System, Native-American System etc?  this
is only a soft criticism, as the book *is* afterall synthetic, and
should be understood on those terms]

In the WMS, women are in an inferior postition where they feel the need
for freedom from the "Original Sin of Being Born Female"  This leads
women not to trust each other, look to men for absolution from
this original sin, and develop various coping mechanisms in reaction
to this position of inferiority. 

The final third of the book Schaef outlines how FS is different from the WMS
in talk, perception of time, relationships (love, parenting, sex,
intimacy), power (money, leadership, rules etc) thought (logic)
and so on.  Process therapy is defined, and different levels of truth
are defined to illustrate the process of personal growth.
She concludes with religion and hints at the FS religion
(it won't be heirachichal...we can say that for sure ;-)

Thanks for reading this!
Steve Seidman
seid@ee.cornell.edu
q2tj@vax5.cit.cornell.edu





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