No turning back
Subtitle: the history of feminism and the future of women
By: Estelle B. Freedman.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2002
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 446
Subjects: Feminism -- History; Women -- Social conditions
Description: Examines the feminist movement over the past two hundred years and explores how women today are looking to feminism for new approaches to issues of work, family, sexuality, and creativity. Repeatedly declared dead by the media, the women's movement has never been as vibrant as it is today. Indeed as the author, a Stanford professor, argues in this book, feminism has reached a critical momentum from which there is no turning back. A truly global movement, as vital and dynamic in the developing world as it is in the West, feminism has helped women achieve authority in politics, sports, and business, and has mobilized public concern for once-taboo issues like rape, domestic violence, and breast cancer. And yet much work remains before women attain real equality.^

In this book, the auhtor examines the historical forces that have fueled the feminist movement over the past two hundred years, and explores how women today are looking to feminism for new approaches to issues of work, family, sexuality, and creativity. She begins with an incisive analysis of what feminism means and why it took root in western Europe and the United States at the end of the eighteenth century. The rationalist, humanistic philosophy of the Enlightenment, which ignited the American Revolution, also sparked feminist politics, inspiring such pioneers as Mary Wollstonecraft and Susan B. Anthony. Race has always been as important as gender in defining feminism, and the author traces the intricate ties between women's rights and abolitionism in the United States in the years before the Civil War and the long tradition of radical women of color, stretching back to the impassioned rhetoric of Sojourner Truth.^

As industrialism and democratic politics spread after World War II, feminist politics gained momentum and sophistication throughout the world. Their impact began to be felt in every aspect of society'from the workplace to the chambers of government to relations between the sexes. Because of feminism, the author points out, the line between the personal and the political has blurred, or disappeared, and issues once considered "merely" private such as abortion, sexual violence, homosexuality, reproductive health, beauty and body image, have entered the public arena as subjects of fierce, ongoing debate. The author combines a scholar's meticulous research with a social critic's keen eye. Sweeping in scope, searching in its analysis, global in its perspective, this book is a defining text in one of the most important social movements of all time. -- From publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 380-416) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: PART I BEFORE FEMINISM; title: 2 Gender and Power; title: PART II THE HISTORICAL EMERGENCE OF FEMINISMS; title: 3 Women's Rights, Women's Work, and Women's Sphere; title: 4 Race and the Politics of Identity in U.S. Feminism; title: 5 The Global Stage and the Politics of Location; title: PART III THE POLITICS OF WORK AND FAMILY; title: 6 Never Done: Women's Domestic Labor; title: 7 Industrialization, Wage Labor, and the Economic Gender Gap; title: 8 Workers and Mothers: Feminist Social Policies; title: PART IV THE POLITICS OF HEALTH AND SEXUALITY; title: 9 Medicine, Markets, and the Female Body; title: 10 Reproduction: The Politics of Choice; title: 11 Sexualities, Identities, and Self-Determination; title: 12 Gender and Violence; title: PART V FEMINIST VISIONS AND STRATEGIES; title: 13 New Words and Images: Women's Creativity as Feminist Practice; title: 14 No Turning Back: Women and Politics.