Best of
Womens-Studies

1981

A New View of a Woman's Body


The Federation of Feminist Women's Health Centers - 1981
    Presents clear, detailed descriptions of vaginal and breast self examination, the complete anatomy of the clitoris, common infections, lab tests, fertility detection, donor insemination, birth control, menstrual extraction, abortion care, surgical procedures and home remedies. Beautiful illustrations by Suzann Gage.

The Maid of the North: Feminist Folk Tales from Around the World


Ethel Johnston Phelps - 1981
    In this collection of mostly nineteenth-century folk and fairy tales, Ethel Johnston Phelps's heroines successfully portray women as being spirited, courageous and smart. This type of heroine is not easily found in most collections; in most traditional folk and fairy tales we encounter women are portrayed as being good, obedient, submissive, and, of course, beautiful. These women—and girls—are resourceful; they take action to solve a problem and use cleverness or shrewd common sense to solve the dilemmas they face.The tales themselves are part of an oral tradition that document a generation according to the values of the time. Phelps has given these older tales a fresh, contemporary retelling for a new generation of readers, young and old. She shapes each story—adding or omitting details—to reflect her sense of a feminist folk or fairy tale. The twenty-one tales collected represent a wide variety of countries; approximately seventeen ethnic cultures from North America to Europe to Asia tell a story in which women play a leading or crucial role in the story.

Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier


Joanna L. Stratton - 1981
    Here are their stories: wilderness mothers, schoolmarms, Indian squaws, immigrants, homesteaders, and circuit riders. Their personal recollections of prairie fires, locust plagues, cowboy shootouts, Indian raids, and blizzards on the plains vividly reveal the drama, danger and excitement of the pioneer experience. These were women of relentless determination, whose tenacity helped them to conquer loneliness and privation. Their work was the work of survival, it demanded as much from them as from their men—and at last that partnership has been recognized.

The Grand Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist Designs For American Homes, Neighborhoods, and Cities


Dolores Hayden - 1981
    It is a book about houses and about culture and about how each affects the other, and it must stand as one of the major works on the history of modern housing. - Paul Goldberger, The New York Times Book ReviewLong before Betty Friedan wrote about the problem that had no name in The Feminine Mystique, a group of American feminists whose leaders included Melusina Fay Peirce, Mary Livermore, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman campaigned against women's isolation in the home and confinement to domestic life as the basic cause of their unequal position in society.The Grand Domestic Revolution reveals the innovative plans and visionary strategies of these persistent women, who developed the theory and practice of what Hayden calls material feminism in pursuit of economic independence and social equality. The material feminists' ambitious goals of socialized housework and child care meant revolutionizing the American home and creating community services. They raised fundamental questions about the relationship of men, women, and children in industrial society. Hayden analyzes the utopian and pragmatic sources of the feminists' programs for domestic reorganization and the conflicts over class, race, and gender they encountered. This history of a little-known intellectual tradition challenging patriarchal notions of women's place and women's work offers a new interpretation of the history of American feminism and a new interpretation of the history of American housing and urban design. Hayden shows how the material feminists' political ideology led them to design physical space to create housewives' cooperatives, kitchenless houses, day-care centers, public kitchens, and community dining halls. In their insistence that women be paid for domestic labor, the material feminists won the support of many suffragists and of novelists such as Edward Bellamy and William Dean Howells, who helped popularize their cause. Ebenezer Howard, Rudolph Schindler, and Lewis Mumford were among the many progressive architects and planners who promoted the reorganization of housing and neighborhoods around the needs of employed women. In reevaluating these early feminist plans for the environmental and economic transformation of American society and in recording the vigorous and many-sided arguments that evolved around the issues they raised, Hayden brings to light basic economic and spacial contradictions which outdated forms of housing and inadequate community services still create for American women and for their families.

Women's Reality


Anne Wilson Schaef - 1981
    Now with a new foreword by Carol S. Pearson.

The Memoirs of Alice Guy-Blaché


Alice Guy-Blaché - 1981
    Alice Guy Blach� was not only the world's first female director, but in 1896, she became the first of either sex to direct a fictional film. As the first director with the Gaumont Company in Paris, Alice Guy Blach� served as an influential figure in French film history, making more than 300 films, including some of the earliest sound subjects from the turn of the century. She continued her career in the United States, founding the Solax Company in 1910, and producing and directing 350 more films. Complementing the text are reprints of contemporary articles on Alice Guy Blach� from the American trade press, a reminiscence by her daughter, a brief evaluation of the career of her husband, Herbert Blach� and a complete filmography.

The Politics of Women's Spirituality: Essays on the Rise of Spiritual Power Within the Feminist Movement


Charlene Spretnak - 1981
    The values and perceptions presented in this essay collection constitute a holistic paradigm, a dynamic model for the postpatriarchal era.

Women of Wisdom: Talks with Women Who Shaped Our Times


Lynn Gilbert - 1981
    We share their journeys as they pursue successful paths with intelligence and determination, changing the world for the millions of women and men who were inspired by them. These stories will captivate, educate, and inspire you

Female Power and Male Dominance: On the Origins of Sexual Inequality


Peggy Reeves Sanday - 1981
    How does the culturally approved interaction between the sexes originate? Why are women viewed as a necessary part of political, economic, and religious affairs in some societies but not in others? Why do some societies clothe sacred symbols of creative power in the guise of one sex and not of the other? Professor Sanday offers solutions to these cultural puzzles by using cross-cultural research on over 150 tribal societies. She systematically establishes the full range of variation in male and female power roles and then suggests a theoretical framework for explaining this variation. Rejecting the argument of universal female subordination, Professor Sanday argues that male dominance is not inherent in human relations but is a solution to various kinds of cultural strain. Those who are thought to embody, be in touch with, or control the creative forces of nature are perceived as powerful. In isolating the behavioural and symbolic mechanisms which institute male dominance, professor Sanday shows that a people's secular power roles are partly derived from ancient concepts of power, as exemplified by their origin myths. Power and dominance are further determined by a people's adaptation to their environment, social conflict, and emotional stress. This is illustrated through case studies of the effects of European colonialism, migration, and food stress, and supported by numerous statistical associations between sexual inequity and various cultural stresses.

Receiving Woman: Studies in the Psychology and Theology of the Feminine


Ann Belford Ulanov - 1981
    From them, Ann Ulanov states, a common voice emerged speaking about each woman's struggle to receive all of herself. Each was trying to find and put together different parts of herself into a whole that was personal, alive, and real to herself and to others. This book focuses on helping women receive themselves by rejecting stereotypes and categories and seeking out their own individuality.

Khadijih Bagum, the Wife of the Bab


H.M. Balyuzi - 1981
    

The Skull in the Snow, and Other Folktales


Toni McCarty - 1981
    A collection of folktales from around the world featuring female protagonists.