4.5 Stars*
This is another instance where I espouse that words speak
louder than numbers so it’s what the reviews says that carries more weight than
the star rating. (See my editorial post Make Your Words Count for more details.)
That being said I’m going to tackle this review a little differently, but
hopefully this format will be most helpful.
Who should read this book? Everyone! And
especially the ones who think this book does not pertain to them.
Genre: Non-fiction/World History/ Women’s
History/Gender Studies
What does this book
cover? This book is organized into 4 sections with 3 chapters each.
Part one (“In the Beginning”) covers “the first
women”—detailing prehistoric women’s roles and importance; “the great
goddess”—discussing early women centric beliefs; and “the rise of the Phallus”—discussing
sexuality and setting the stage for the overthrown of female rights,
bloodlines, and worship.
Part two (“The Fall of Woman”) covers “God the father”—documenting
how the organization of monotheist religions established unequal balances of
power; “the sins of the Mothers”—exposing the abuses inflicted upon women
because of their bodies; and “a little learning”—exploring how the development
of literacy offered escapes as well as further suppression of women.
Part three (“Dominion and Domination”) covers “women’s work”
—exposing the myth that women not only did less “work” than men but also the
difficulty and unpleasantness of much of her manual labor; “revolution, the
great engine” —looking at distinctly different types of revolutions yet how they
both failed to usurp the status quo; and “the rod of empire” —exposing how
imperialism further served to oppress and abuse women and extend the
patriarchy.
Part four (“Turning the Tide”) covers “the rights of women” —discussing
the modern developments that continues to oppress women and the beginnings of
the women’s movement; ”the body politic” —discussing the role of contraception;
and “daughters of time” —further detailing the advancement of contraception as
well as the strides of the second wave of the women’s movement.
Triggers:
Religion—readers
who are unwilling to see past the inherent misogyny in major world religions
will have issues with this. My advice to readers—keep an open mind and check
your own affiliations at the door.
Abuse—physical, psychological, sexual; you name it, it’s
documented here. Violence including rape, genital mutilation, female
infanticide, and murder. Oh and some
ridiculous contraception ideas. It’s not pretty, but it’s women’s history
without all the whitewashing. My advice to readers—bring tissues and don’t eat
lunch first.
Controversies: At times, does the author belittle and reduce
the importance men played in not just history but the advancement of the human
race? Absolutely, but isn’t that what traditional history has done to women?
Until an edition of world history where the sexes are presented equally becomes
the mainstream text, readers are going to have to accept that as long as sexism
exists a universal human history is out of reach.
Historical Accuracy:
I am not a historian so I can’t comment on the complete accuracy of every
incident and historical event referenced in this text. However, I think an objective historian would
agree (and many have) that a vast number of history texts out there aren’t
accurate either, whether through omissions, hero-making, and/or outright
misrepresentations. It’s interesting though how those texts were accepted for
so long, yet let a women offer up a book on history that proposes that it was
the female of the species who had the greatest role in the continuation of
the human race, and so much of her credibility and the credibility of the text is
called into question.
It is also interesting disturbing how some readers
see bias in this work but not the work of the male dominated texts on the
market and utilized in the public
school systems. That alone says a lot about the extent that sexism is so
subconsciously rooted in society. We’ve somehow been trained to accept HIStory
but not hers. And this is a large
problem which I believe the text addresses.
History has been shaped and documented through various fields of study
where women were not only ignored and dismissed but consciously omitted by men
in favor of a pro-male view where man is more important to the survival of
human kind than women. Accepted history texts lack the incorporation of women’s
role, if not their very existence, throughout places in history. Once you accept that women and their story
have been suppressed, one must pose the next logical question of why. Miles
attempts to answer this.
Shortcomings:
There are certainly places in the text where sources and exact time periods could
be clearer in a wider context and background, as well as a fuller picture of the
examples would be beneficial. The author
assumes the reader has a developed formal education and prior knowledge of
people, incidents, and events in history.
There are admittedly also places where Miles’s word choice
might be going for effect but at the same time distorts her claims. For
example, a good editor might have recommended that she substitute “only” with
“largely” when referring to Jackie O and Lady Di’s fame and accomplishments via
their “royal” men. Were their life’s
accomplishments solely tied to their husbands? No. But would they be the
historical icons they are had they not married those men in the first place? Nope.
In another instance, replacing “no” with “minimal” when
asserting men’s function and significance under Goddess culture might be help
avoid the obvious contradiction that comes a few paragraphs/pages later.
How I felt reading
this book: Some chapters made me
feel proud to be a woman and inspired to work towards advancing equality. Some
chapters made me angry—the injustices, the abuses—it’s a gut-wrenching history
pill to swallow. Some chapters l was
holding back the tears. This isn’t a light read nor should the subject matter
be taken lightly, but it is important to understand.
Is this a feminist
text? By definition (cited here from
Merriam-Webster dictionary) and largely from a scholarly theorist perspective feminism
is “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes as
well as organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests.” This
book offer theories (along with and backed by research from various fields of
study) of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes so in that
frame of reference it’s a feminist text. But bear in mind that over the years the
term feminism has taken on a variety of negative connotations (often the work
of its opposition in an attempt to discredit it), but I’m not going to give
recognition to those distortions.
Why this text is
still relevant:
The lack of a women’s history or women studies discipline in
general education curriculums have left a large crux of 21st century
women and men uninformed and misinformed. And though originally published in 1988, and
thus the last nearly thirty years are not included, this book not only
documents women’s struggles through the ages, but also points to issues still at
the forefront today.
Women and men living in 2017 should possess a basic understanding
of how history has swayed backwards and forward through slow transitions and
difficult strides towards equality. We can’t assume that because it’s been won, that
it can’t be taken away.
From the very beginning of time, women weren’t affronted
with inequality; instead they descended to it.
Many rights that were won in the 20th century were given
freely in earlier civilizations. Women’s equality has not historically been a
linear progression, but more a series of setbacks and advances as societal conditions
change.
Women’s oppression, while universal and unrelenting for millenniums,
varies widely by class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and religion. There
is no one answer to fix all ills.
Bottom Line /Hard
Truths: If you are looking for a fluff piece highlighting well known women
through the ages, this is not one of them.
This text looks at historical trends and attempts to offer viable
explanations (through what little evidence and unbiased scholarship there is on
certain time frames) as to not just what women were doing while men were
getting all the credit, but why they were omitted in the first place. And I suspect
that might be what some readers struggle with—the idea that it became a
conscious effort to suppress women’s voices and women’s contributions. It’s mind
boggling really that one can acknowledge women’s absence from traditional text
but still refuse to admit there is a long standing patriarchal bias that made
it that way in the first place. It’s as if some readers want to know what’s
missing but don’t want to face the disturbing realities of its absence.
How I got this
book/Why I read this book/My background:
I ordered this book (paperback edition) from Amazon after browsing
several books on the subject for consideration for my kids’ educational
studies. I read it first and made a
chapter by chapter study guide for our lessons. I have a background in English
literature with a concentration in women’s literature and feminist criticism so the general
subject matter wasn’t previously unfamiliar, but I still found the details
moving and the overall thesis an enlightening and essential read.
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