Foraging for Sanity

Kavita Ramdas: Radical women, embracing tradition | Video on TED.com

2010-04-28T00:06:00.000+02:00

Kavita Ramdas: Radical women, embracing tradition Video on TED.com

2010 Reading List Announced!

2010-02-04T04:36:00.000+01:00

After a really excellent list of nominees - the choices for the 2010 Planned Parenthood Book Club are: (insert drum roll here)

January - Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
February - Precious, aka Push by Sapphire
March - Kathryn Joyce's Quiverfull
April: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
May: Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
June: The Mercury 13 by Martha Ackman
July: It's a Jungle Out There, by Amanda Marcotte
August: Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
September: the Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan
October: Mean Girls Grown Up by Cheryl Dellasega
November: Shanghai Girls, Lisa See - who made it to the club two years in a row!!

There are interesting links, either the author her/himself or NY Times, or just something to make you more interested in the book! for each of these books. With feedback, there will be a page for each book after we meet.

The book club meets the 4th Thursday of the month, and the location will be sent to you via email when you let us know that you want to participate.

We are always looking for book ideas and comments and this blog will continue to list interesting reading material not only in our monthly selections, but also other books that come up in our discussion. See the side bar and earlier posts for last year's books and suggestions.

October - Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women

2009-10-02T19:05:00.001+02:00

Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi

Faludi's premise is that the women's movement in the '60s and '70s, which was heralded by the media as a grand success and therefore should have become a chapter closed - was no such thing. To further complicate matters, Faludi proposes that the media with the help of politicians, conservatives and intellectuals using anecdotes and ignoring the general population, created a backlash against women moving forward financially, politically and culturally in America -- halting the progress that was gained and in most cases leaving the movement merely a figment of imagination or at most - only a thread of real progress achieved.

This winner of the National Book Critics' Circle Award for General Nonfiction in 1991 Faludi's work received high marks from Alice Walker and several respected publications, though also was strongly criticized by science-fiction author Michael Crichton for not using a scientific basis for her conclusions.

In an excerpt published on her website, Faludi offers several reality checking questions to measure the level of equality that women had actually attained at the time she was writing the book (first published in 1991). Her style was to compare women's lot to men of matching education levels. For example, she contends that the majority of women then held marginally paid and traditionally female jobs (secretary, support workers and sales clerks) versus the opportunities available to men with the same educational levels who accessed higher skilled work, and better pay. Two thirds of all "poor adults" were women, and were twice as likely as men to live in "poor housing" and to have no retirement benefits. The courts were overwhelmingly male dominated, and she contends that American women faced "the worst genderbased pay gap in the developed world."

Faludi went on to say that not only did the media, experts and pols herald the success of the womens' movement while at the same time declaring it no longer necessary, they undermined the sanity of the whole effort, pointing to women's (somewhat rare) professional successes as the cause of an alleged spike in the number of miserable, lonely and lost women. Describing working women as family-breakers or crazed hormone driven characters like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction and the cause in escalating crime against women. One government report explained the increased number of rapes as due to more women being on campus and making themselves vulnerable to being raped.

Faludi posited with research and insightful commentary that in fact women were not all that successful in their strides for equality, and now they were suffering even more in the workplace because of the media, etc.'s complete misrepresentation of the situation.

Her 2006 publication contains a new preface but is a snapshot of the facts from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.
But...just in case you want to update your facts on the position of women in politics, here are a few current measures...(Maybe someone else can compile a snapshot of salaries and job distributions for the discussion or the progress of women's control over their own health options.)

Currently women are Speaker of the House, Secretary of State (interestingly that seems to be a quite popular place for women to be granted access) and in the Obama administration there are 7 women (including Secy of State) serving in cabinet positions. There are 17 women (out of 100) serving in the US Senate - arguably the most powerful electors in our system, and 78 out of 541 (14%) in the House. There are 2 out of 9 (22%) on the Supreme Court, and 6 women governors (12%). To be fair, recently we had 8 women governors, but three women recently left their office as governor, (2 to become Cabinet Members of the Obama admin -- so actually already counted here, and the third to pursue her political career) but only one of them (Napolitano) was replaced with another woman (Jan Brewer).

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

2009-09-07T08:42:00.001+02:00

The September book of the month is In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.

Alvarez uses fiction to recount the powerful story of the Mirabel sisters, resistance fighters from the Dominican Republic who were beaten to death because they were fighting the womanizing and dehumanizing dictator Trujillo. The first voice of the novel is the remaining sister, as she describes the characters of her three murdered sisters, and the bravery they showed as they joined the Dominican resistance movement around the 1950s and early 60s. But that's not the only story here. This is also an emotional story of girls coming of age, and finding love, finding a voice for their anger and the outrage at rape and subjugation of women, struggling with faith in the face of such evil, and looking for a better life.

The novel reveals the life of this middle class family in the Dominican Republic from about the late 1930s to the 1960s and then jumps to the 1990s as the remaining living sister gives her account and perspective.

Writer Julia Alvarez is a highly acclaimed writer whose poetry and novels explore the lives of Latina women in their own voice. She, who fled with her family to the US, had a similar life to the Mirabel sisters, and her life experiences are strongly reflected throughout her writing.

In an interview with her at Penguin Reading Guides Alvarez acknowledges how close to reality this story really is, and how she could have been one of the Butterflies, as her father was also a member of the resistance movement. She says, "We were the ones that got away, my father, my mother, my sisters and myself."

The United Nations declared Nov. 25th "International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women" as an acknowledgement of the brutality that the Inolvidables Mariposas or "unforgettable butterflies" suffered at the hands of the Trujillo dictatorship, but also in recognition of the ongoing battle women face against violence and suppression.

"True Stories" Gives Women a Voice

2009-07-21T16:44:00.000+02:00

Choice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood and Abortion is a collection of stories edited and contributed to by Karen E. Bender and Nina DeGramont, both known for their fictional writing, mainly collections of short-stories. Both have also written novels - Bender: Like Normal People and DeGramont: Gossip of the Starlings.

The reviews are clear that Bender and DeGramont were looking for the voices of women who made their own choice regarding motherhood, and the lives that followed that choice. These stories, like those gathered in The Girls Who Went Away, might overwhelm the reader with their poignancy, lack of a tidy resolution, or the tragedy or euphoria that follows - but this is exactly the point that is so often lost in the bumper sticker war on abortion rights - choice doesn't mean necessarily choosing an abortion, or choosing a birth - it's about having options available so that choosing contraception, choosing abstinence, choosing health, and choosing to say "No" are choices that are heard by everyone and considered by each person as she or he chooses.

This book, Choice:True Stories goes to great lengths to provide a story about the spectrum of reproductive-health decision-making experiences that women and young girls face as they mature physically, emotionally and sexually and like the previous non-fiction books on this list, the voice of each woman is a powerful reminder of the individual. A stark emphasis about why there should be only a movement for easy, safe and affordable access to all reproductive rights, and not a war over who deserves what rights -- because ultimately choices will be made.

The Red Tent

2009-06-15T17:35:00.003+02:00

This is the JULY 09 book of the month. That book club meeting will be held at 7 pm at Joseph Beth Booksellers on Thursday July 30th.

Anita Diamant's describes her book The Red Tent simply as the historical fiction recounting based on the biblical story of Dinah, who was not given a voice in the bible, but whose story was told by the males in her family -- from their perspective and prejudiced by their political goals with complete disregard for her choice, plans and beliefs.

The Wikipedia entry for The Red Tent synposizes the book and points out that this fictional Dinah was a strong woman who left her family after they murdered her husband and drove her out because they were threatened by who she was. Her voice and her force stayed with all the women of her community empowering them further, despite her absence.

Ms. Magazine wrote a wildly supportive review of the book in a 2001 article, where it pointed out that The Red Tent was a "sleeper" whose publishing success was built solely upon "hand-selling" by independent booksellers who not only read what they sell, but they tell their family members and their customers when a really great story has come along.

Ms. Magazine interviewed author Diamant who said, "The everydayness of giving care, of feeding and clothing families and each other is the center of The Red Tent," she says. "It values that part of women's experience. In the ancient world, we feel the continuity, the femaleness of trying to be pregnant or of avoiding pregnancy, of considering a life in the body, that kind of universal thing. While a couple of love stories do exist, they're played out against the backdrop of the women's culture, the wholeness of it, the valuing of female relationships—sister, friend, mother, daughter—in a way that was separate from the men."

As someone who read this book back in 2001, I can tell you it is an unforgettable adventure story of a character whose courage and ferocity will stay with you for a long time to come.

Update: Every month, I post our book of the month on Facebook. Sometimes, I get one reply, but usually it's not much...This month when I mentioned The Red Tent here was the response:

I started the conversation with: July's book of the month - The Red Tent, Anita Diamant - you can check out the whole list at www.foragingforsanity.blogspot.com

Mary Jo likes this.
Mary Jo said...i LOVE that book...
Hillary W said...that was a wonderful book
Mary Jo said...her writing style is beautiful, artful in her description
Martha C said...One of my favorite books!
Diane S said...Wonderful book and a great reminder of the power of women.
Sue H. said... I enjoyed the Red Tent as well
Anne S. said...The Red Tent is worth finding. Try the library.
Martha recommended: There is a "young adult" novel - The Song of the Magdalene by Donna Jo Napoli that is similar to The Red Tent in that it "Tells the story of Miriam, a young girl being raised by her widowed father in ancient Israel, who grows up to be Mary Magdalene". It too tells a story that we "think we know" from the Bible but when told from a different perspective offers new insights.

Ahhh - all the wise and wonderful women of the world agree : )

The Spiral Staircase

2009-06-15T17:35:00.001+02:00

This is the JUNE book of the month. The book club meets on Thursday June 26th at Joseph-Beth Book Sellers at 7 p.m.

You might know of Karen Armstrong from her scholarly works dealing with the history or interactions of various religions. At age 17 she became a nun, but left the order about 6 years later, and then went on to work on a PhD in English at Oxford. She is a prolific writer, and her first installment of her memoir was Through the Narrow Gate - an account of her years as a nun. Her true acclaim really didn't arrive until her scholarly works on religions. I highly recommend her historical analysis of the books of the bible, called The Bible. She is highly regarded for her books on Christianity, but even more so for her writings on the Muslim and Jewish religions, and the changing nature of world religions. To read more about her religious writings - check out this SALON.com blog.

The Spiral Staircase is actually the third installment in her personal account about looking for answers to faith and the presence of God, but there is an ongoing theme of looking for herself and her place in the larger world. She battled with many demons, including a medical system that dismissed her classic symptoms of Epilepsy as "histrionics" and her inability to pass her doctoral dissertation at Oxford as her intellectual failure as opposed to her political failure. This is a fascinating "coming of age story" which uses religion as the background, but ultimately, it's about self confidence.

ReadingGroupGuides writes:
In her own mind she was a complete failure: as a nun, as an academic, and as a normal woman capable of intimacy. Her future seemed very much in question until she stumbled into comparative theology. What she found, in learning, thinking, and writing about other religions, was the ecstasy and transcendence she had never felt as a nun. Gripping, revelatory, and inspirational, The Spiral Staircase is an extraordinary account of an astonishing spiritual journey.

The Spirituality and Practice Book Review blog says The Spiral Staircase "picks up" where Through the Narrow Gate left off after Armstrong had left Oxford, failing to finish her doctoral dissertation, and struggling to control her mind and body - as the epilepsy was taking over, but she didn't know that.

In the title, Armstrong is referring to TS Eliot's poem "Ash Wednesday" and the constantly twisting and turning nature of her search for faith, truth, understanding and answers - none of which will substitute of the other, and all of which seem to hound her for her attention.

The Birth House, Ami McKay

2009-05-08T10:22:00.000+02:00

Ami McKay opens her website with quotes like "Arrange whatever pieces come your way" from Virginia Wolf. For that reason alone you should treat yourself with a visit to her blog/website/musings, so I wasn't at all surprised by the tone of the reviews of her first book.

Her highly acclaimed book The Birth House is a fictional account of a woman McKay really wanted to know more about - but couldn't find any real information. McKay and her partner had bought the house of the local midwife from 50 years previously. The woman, childless until she adopted her daughter, had opened this house to local women who needed a place to give birth, and it all spoken to Ami. She became enthralled with the history of the area and the subject. Ami's attempts to find out more about her muse revealed little, so she created this historical fiction story to breathe life back into a story that was waiting to be found.

The Quill and Quire biography of the author Ami McKay describes someone who could be your best friend. Just your everyday gal from Indiana, who moves to New Brunswick Canada. When she hears the voice of the long dead owner of the house, Ami sets out to research the lives and careers of midwives, and then recreates a life story of the woman in whose house she is living.

Illana Stranger Ross calls this book "midwitchery" - "A midwife's magic which once would have been called witchcraft."

Amazon readers seemed to find the book an easy read, recommended it, and were looking forward to her next books. They commented that the book did a good job of depicting small town New Brunswick life and revealing the trade of midwifery. Lots of readers had also read "The Midwives Tale" and felt The Birth House was easier to read, but still emotional. The biggest complaint was the lack of depth of the characters, but most said the novel was a good first book, and described the author as possessing lots of potential.

Interestingly, after reading several blogs about this novel, I am quite struck at the number of book blogs that seemed to have picked up Ami McKay and run with it. As opposed to many of the other books in this bookclub, where I found many "official" reviews (NY Times, etc.) this book seemed to really flourish outside the usual publishing networks and within the grassroots movement. Here is an example "Amelia's Passion" wrote about McKay's book:

With The Birth House, Ami McKay has invited us into a place where the tides of change are slowly rolling in, inevitably altering long-held traditions to new methods of living by those who felt that modern vs. traditional birthing methods would be better.

Click here for Book Club potential questions - (provided by Ami McKay's website)

The Body Project

2009-03-23T19:24:00.001+01:00

This book will be discussed by the local group on April 30th at 7:00 p.m. at Joseph Beth Booksellers.

According to the official website for The Body Project this book provides a detailed pictoral history of adolescent girls' development over the last 100 years. According to critics, Joan Jacobs Brumberg has captured the essential issues of body image and maturation and the external and internal pressures that girls encounter and have encountered over the ages.

Janell Lynn Mensinger wrote:

(Brumberg's) goal is "to initiate a multigenerational dialogue that speaks to the reality of earlier maturation, the need for sexual expression, and the nature of contemporary culture" (p. 209). More specifically, her wish is that The Body Project will generate discussions leading to the eventual creation of a new sexual ethics in hopes to eradicate our culture's condoning of the rapacious treatment of women's bodies.

Salon critic, Michelle Goldberg was not as overwhelmingly positive though she felt the book was a welcome addition to the debate about teenage sexuality and development. Goldberg thought Brumberg idealized mother-daughter relationships in the Victorian era, and was a bit too nostalgic for the good old "repressive" Victorian days...

Brumberg has such a romantic notion of the mother-daughter bond of previous decades that she seems totally oblivious to the hatreds and resentments that can make those relationships so stifling. Just because complaints about parents didn't surface in many Victorian diaries doesn't mean that everything was cozy.
Random House Books posts author Brumberg's synopsis of the book:
Girls today grow up believing that "good looks"--rather than "good works"--are the highest form of female perfection...creating a degree of self-consciousness and dissatisfaction that is pervasive and dangerous, leading to the social and emotional problems identified by Carol Gilligan, Mary Pipher, and Peggy Orenstein.

Among her many scholarly works, Brumberg has also written Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa. The Body Project website also has an extensive list of resources for and about adolescent girl development.

Book club member Lisa submitted this video link as more information on this topic:
http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=206&template=PDGCommTemplates/HTN/Item_Preview.html and asked in her comment - "have we really come a long way, baby?"

The Bell Jar

2009-02-27T11:14:00.000+01:00

Sylvia Plath, under the pen name Victoria Lucas, published this, her only novel in 1963 and a few years later, a despondent and broken woman, Sylvia Plath killed herself in her London apartment by asphyxiation. The story and the tragedy speaks to my heart for the many women who suffer from a major depressive disorder and can't find a lifeline to save themselves from utter despair.

Wikipedia provided this description of the overlap between reality and fiction:

"The book contains many references to real people and events in Plath's life. Plath's real-life magazine scholarship was at Mademoiselle magazine beginning in 1953.[1] Furthermore, Philomena Guinea is based on Plath's own patron, Olive Higgins Prouty, author of Stella Dallas and Now, Voyager, who funded Plath's scholarship to study at Smith College. Plath was rejected from a Harvard course taught by Frank O'Connor.[2] Dr. Nolan is thought to be based on Plath's own therapist, Ruth Beuscher, whom she continued seeing into adulthood. A good portion of this part of the novel closely resembles the experiences chronicled by Mary Jane Ward in her autobiographical novel The Snake Pit; Plath later stated that she'd seen reviews of The Snake Pit and believed the public wanted to see "mental health stuff," so she deliberately based details of Esther's hospitalization on the procedures and methods outlined in Ward's book. Plath was actually a patient at McLean Hospital, an upscale facility which resembled the "snake pit" much less than certain wards in Metropolitan State Hospital, which may have been where Mary Jane Ward was actually incarcerated."

In searching for "blog material" I found an interesting NY Times Book Review of Sylvia Plath's husband's work, Ted Hughes' Birthday Letters. This work, reportedly a collection of poetry written about their relationship, and over a long period of time, provoked a rather skeptical review from Katha Pollitt. She does not see Britian's poet laureate and accomplished author as the doting lover that he espouses, as she reviews his book of poetry about his perception of his relationship with Sylvia Plath she muses he might be trying to correct history. Pollitt suggests Hughes didn't really deliver the rose garden that he promised to Plath and that Birthday Letters might be as far from a work of reality as The Bell Jar is a work of fiction.

And, as a footnote, Frieda Hughes, the daughter of Plath and Ted Hughes is herself an accomplished writer, painter and after years of trying to avoid it, a poet.

Discussion group questions are suggested at: ReadingGroupGuides.com

The Girls Who Went Away - Questions

2009-02-16T19:21:00.000+01:00

Suggested DISCUSSION QUESTIONS from Penguin Reading Group:

A couple of women the author interviewed explain the difference in grieving for a child that was taken and grieving for a child that died. Explore and discuss the two scenarios. How are they different? How are they similar?

What recollections do you have of girls who became pregnant before marriage, whether or not they were sent away?

Several of the interviewees recall maternity home staff using mind-control techniques (assigning pseudonyms, isolating “clients,” etc.). What are some other examples of how psychology and coercion were used with these young girls?

Are teenage girls today more likely to stand up and make decisions for themselves? If so, what is the source of this empowerment?

Discuss how public schools in the ’50s and ’60s handled sex education. How has this changed today? In your opinion, is there too much, or not enough, of a focus on sex education in schools? How has the Internet affected access to information about sex and sexuality?

Was there a particular interviewee with whom you felt closest (similar education background, socioeconomic status, family makeup, etc.)? What was it about her story that you most identified with?

Discuss how reliable paternity testing has changed how we look at premarital pregnancies. Is there still a sense of “boys will be boys”?

What are the pros and cons of unsealing adoption and birth records? Is it in an adopted child’s best interest to meet his or her birth mother? Is it in the best interest of the birth mother to connect with her child later in life? Why?

The Girls Who Went Away

2009-01-30T16:59:00.000+01:00

February Book Club Selection - Meets Feb. 26th upstairs in Joseph Beth, Rookwood Plaza.

After the first incredible book (Snowflower and the Secret Fan), I couldn't wait to see what PPSWO had planned for us next. After reading several reviews and the intro to The Girls Who Went Away, I have the sense this book too will be provocative, challenging to our perception of girls, women, motherhood and the definition of family for each of those stages of life as well as evocative as we find their courage, strength and frailty all too human.

The Girls Who Went Away by Anne Fessler.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Ann Fessler brings to light American women forced to give up their newborn children in the years following World War II and before Roe v. Wade. The Girls Who Went Away tells a story not of wild and carefree sexual liberation, but rather of a devastating double standard that has had punishing long-term effects on these women and on the children they gave up for adoption. Today, when the future of the Roe decision and women's reproductive rights stand squarely at the front of a divisive national debate, Fessler brings to the fore a long-overlooked history of single women in the fifties, sixties, and early seventies.
In 2002, Fessler, uncovered a story of three decades of women who were coerced or outright forced to give their babies up for adoption. Caught in the middle of a great social upheaval, single pregnant women were shunned by family and friends, evicted from schools, sent away to maternity homes to have their children alone, and often treated with cold contempt by doctors, nurses, and clergy.
The majority of the women Fessler interviewed have never spoken of their experiences, and most have been haunted by grief and shame their entire adult lives. A searing and important look into a long-overlooked social history, The Girls Who Went Away is their story.

From the Reviewers
New York Times Book Reviewer, Kathryn Harrison

"The Girls Who Went Away" is a remarkably well-researched and accomplished book, especially considering that its author is not a sociologist but a professor of photography at the Rhode Island School of Design. She does, of course, have her vested interest in the topic. Fessler was adopted during the 50's, and she explores the era's glorification of the conventional nuclear family, along with the power of a cultural institution like Life magazine to create and disseminate comforting myths, as it did in its Feb. 19, 1951, cover story. Beginning with its title, "The Adoption of Linda Joy" infuses a sense of serendipity into an experience that virtually all birth mothers seem to have found irreparably damaging. Such discussions provide the background necessary for readers to fully appreciate the many profoundly sad and disturbing oral histories in "The Girls Who Went Away."

For discussion questions, author Ann Fessler directed us to Penguin Pages and thanked us for including her book in this club's selections. I will post those questions a week before the book club meets again - which is February 26th.

Jan. 29th First Book Club Meeting

2009-01-29T22:28:00.000+01:00

Hello to everyone reading Snow Flower and the Secret Garden. Jan. 29 is the official meeting date for the Cincinnati PPSWO group for this book, so I am posting the questions that might be raised at the meeting for you to consider commenting on. These questions (though slightly modified) came from the author, Lisa See and might be listed in the back of your book, and some came from me (Jenny).

If you haven't finished the book yet, don't worry, I don't think these questions will reveal too much to you.

If you want to comment -- sign in to your Gmail account, find the comment button, at the end of this entry or the other entries, and fill in your comments. If you don't have a Gmail account you will have to create one in order to sign in (I think), but you can create one after you have clicked the comment button, just scroll down and look for the instructions. If you have problems let me know via email and I will try to help you.

Lisa See's questions - modified and added to:

As the narrator, is Lily portrayed as the heroine or the villain? What are her flaws or strengths? Did you identify strongly with one character in the story? How did you feel about that?
Do "old sames" still exist today? Do you have an "old same"?
If men knew that nu shu existed, why do you think they ignored it or allowed it to continue? What purpose did it serve in the household/community?
How would this story differ if it were told from Snow Flower's perspective? Would she have felt the need to clarify/resolve anything with Lily?
Do you think the author was describing a sexual relationship either ongoing or not, in the story or that it was in fact sexual in nature? Was it important to the storyline? Why do you think the author included that in the story?
If the traditions and ramifications of not footbinding still existed do you think you would participate in foot binding? Would your daughter with or without your support? Do we have any similar traditions that bind us?
The word for mother was described as meaning pain and love. Do you as a daughter or mother see that as still being very true? How so?
This was a story of pain and regret, but was it also a story of atonement?
The narrator talks about the Chinese women as weak and powerless, do you agree with that conclusion? Why or why not?
When you think about the communication vehicle that nu shu provided - what do you in text messages and email that might actually have some of the same potential for misinterpretation/ambiguity?
Madame Wang was a foot bound woman, but she also did business directly with men. What was her status/role in the community and do you think she was respected, feared, trusted, or considered merely a "necessary evil."

Feminist Conversations: Women, Trauma and Empowerment in Post-Transitional Societies

2009-01-25T15:25:00.000+01:00

For those of you can't get enough...Cincinnati Women's Political Caucus just announced two book related events:

March 9, 2009: Women, Trauma Empowerment in Post-Transitional Societies

The authors/editors of Feminist Conversations: Women, Trauma and Empowerment in Post-Transitional Societies, will be in Cincinnati to discuss their seminal work and its global implications. The program will take place at 7 P.M. at the First Unitarian Church , 536 Linton Street .

Drs. Dovile Budryte, Lisa Vaughn, and Natalya Riegg will discuss their recent book, Feminist Conversations: Women, Trauma and Empowerment in Post-Transitional Societies. This book is about the ways in which social and political transitions affect women’s lives. The essays in the book, collected from women in post-transitional societies, address traumatic and empowering aspects of structural changes and challenges faced by women in these societies, including violence against women.

Women's issues are treated in the book as a subset of larger democratization projects, with all the complexity and controversy of the latter. Feminist Conversations is designed as a forum of cross-cultural communication among women from different parts of the world, as well as from different life paths.

REVIEWS:
Mary Brydon-Miller, Ph.D.Director, Action Research CenterAssociate Professor, CECH-Educational Studies & Leadership University of Cincinnati , USA

The oppression of women happens in all parts of the world and takes many forms—from domestic abuse to economic disenfranchisement and the use of violence against women as a weapon of war. But responses to trauma and women’s empowerment also take diverse forms, as this important and engaging volume illustrates. Drawing on different countries and speaking from the experiences of
women themselves, the contributors explore the diverse ways in which women understand and respond to experiences of trauma and violence.
Feminist Conversations is a book full of fresh thought and hopeful strategies on how to improve the prospects for women’s rights in post-transitional societies.
The stories the editors included as a background to their deliberations also speak most eloquently about how far away we are from eradicating violence against women in much of the world. One sees clearly that in most post-transitional societies there are only the beginnings of women’s rights,overshadowed relentlessly by patriarchy. But in presenting this insightful book,the editors have at best taken bold and creative steps toward providing the one indispensable element in the struggle for women’s rights—international awareness.

Reflecting the conversational structure of their book, this presentation will be structured as a conversation among the editors about the basic themes throughout the book. The presentation will include readings from several of the chapters and commentaries.

March 12, 2009: Woman’s City Club 16th Annual National Speaker Forum

GAIL COLLINS: Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity and American Politics
On Thursday, March 12, 2009 beginning at 7:30 pm at the Millennium Hotel, 6th and Elm downtown. TICKET PRICE: $25 each

Beyond her work as a journalist, Collins, a Cincinnati native, has published several books including her 1998 book, Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity. Also, she wrote American Politics, America's Woman: 400 years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines and The Millennium Book with her husband Dan Collins.

Roe v. Wade 36th Anniversary Event

2009-01-22T21:38:00.000+01:00

Join feminists in Columbus Ohio

on January 28 from 6 – 9 PM

to hear Jennifer Baumgardner, the author of Manifesta, Grassroots: A Guide to Feminist Activism and I had an Abortion, also the producer of the film “Speak Out: I had an Abortion” as she discusses her works.

The night includes dinner, a screening of the film, and questions and answers with Jennifer.

Tickets are $35, $25 student/low-income rate, and includes dinner, film, meeting her and others from around the state.

Read this 2004 article written by Baumgardner for the Nation.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See

2008-12-16T10:11:00.000+01:00

This is the first book in the series recommended by Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Ohio for their book club project.

The New York Times Book Reviewer Janet Maslin wrote (in 2005): The exotica, fetishism and soap opera in Lisa See's novel of 19th-century China, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," make for a fragrant mix. Or at least they make a learning experience out of what might otherwise be more frankly perverse. The book describes a very intense friendship between two women, Lily and Snow Flower, who are linked together more closely than lovers. The only bonds tighter than the ones uniting these two souls are the agonizing ties applied to their precious young feet.

Author Lisa See wrote on her website: An old woman tells of her relationship with her "old-same," their arranged marriages, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood—until a terrible misunderstanding written on their secret fan threatens to tear them apart. With the detail and emotional resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha , Snow Flower and the Secret Fan delves into one of the most mysterious and treasured relationships of all time—female friendship.

Here are some Book Club Discussion questions, posted on the author's website: http://www.lisasee.com/

Planned Parenthood Book Club

2008-12-15T19:12:00.000+01:00

A group of us received this delightful invitation from Planned Parenthood, Southwestern Ohio Region:

Do you enjoy meeting other pro-choice minded folks and a good book? Join our Pro Choice Book Club! Each month, book club members meet to discuss books related to women's health and feminist issues. The Pro Choice Book Club meets on the last Thursday of each month at Joseph Beth Booksellers in Rookwood.
But for those who are a little too far from Cincinnati to commute or just want to chime in a little - we started this blog to discuss the books listed below. You can find these books at your public library, any independent bookseller in your area, or online (i.e. at Amazon.com or Alibris.com)

PPSWO 2009 Book Selections

Selections: if you click on the title you will find links to either the author's page or the next best link available.
January - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel by Lisa See
February - The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler
March - The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
April - The Body Project by Joan Jacobs
May - The Birth House by Ami Mckay

June - The Spiral Staircase by Karen Armstrong

July - The Red Tent by Anita Diament

August - Choice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood and Abortion by Karen E. Bender and Nina de Gramont

September - In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvrez

October - Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi

November - Opting In: Having a Child Without Losing Yourself by Amy Richards
If you want more information about Planned Parenthood in your region go to: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/index.htm