The Creation of Feminist Consciousness: From the Middle Ages to Eighteen-seventy (Women and History 2)
This volume is a densely researched, accessible and engrossing conclusion to Lerner's two-volume study Women in History. In The Creation of the Patriarchy (1986), she traced the slippery progress of women in ancient Near Eastern societies into a subordinate position but the Sisyphean journey back is no less painful. Analyzing European, American and African American history, Lerner begins with the ways in which women sought "self-authorization": as mystics, speaking with the voice of God; as mothers, educators and nurturers of future generations, or as creators. Lerner then moves on to show how self-authorization combined with education and female networks helped foster feminist consciousness. This is no linear tale, however. As Lerner notes, men's contributions became the common heritage while "women's creations sank soundlessly into the sea, leaving barely a ripple, and succeeding generations of women were left to cover the same ground others had already covered before them." Lerner, Robinson-Edwards professor of history emerita at the University of Wisconsin, helped pioneer the study of women and history and remains preeminent in the field.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.