The Women's Studies Review

The Ohio State University Volume 9 No. 4

Center for Women's Studies Autumn 1987

ISSN 0195-6604

In this issue:

Letter from the Editors. Page 2

Review of Making Peace With Food. By Chris Smithies. Page 3 Moment of Truth. By Bertha Russ. Page 4 Review of Discovering Wellness in a Nursing Home. By Margaret Cruikshank. Page 5

Two Hundred Years of Women's Voices. By Kossia Orloff. Page 6

The Politics of Reproduction. By Jacquelyn Slomka. Page 9

Kate & Allie. By Sharon Huffman. Page 12

Review of Freda Kirchwey: A Woman of the Nation. By Kevin White. Page 13

Review of The Autobiography of Elsa Gidlow. By Joyce Fee. Page 15

From Feminist Parables to Woman-Church. By Roseanne Hoeffel. Page 11

Review of Jane Austen: Feminism and Fiction. By Moira Ferguson. Page 19

Review of The Spinster and Her Enemies. By Sheila Jeffreys. Page 20

Review of Letters to Ms., 1972-1987. By Willa Young. Page 22 Review of For Crying Out Loud. By K. Sue Jewell. Page 23 Index to Volume 9. Page 24 Books Received and Feminisms Subscription Information. Page 31 Letter from the Editors Dear Readers:

The Center for Women's Studies has taken pride in its publications, The Women's Studies Review and Sojourner, for well over a decade. Both have grown and developed far beyond the expectations of the early editors, and we are now pleased to announce an exciting publication format change which we feel will make the Center's publications even more vital. Beginning with the Winter '88 issue, subscribers will receive a new quarterly publication, Feminisms, which will combine the best features of both of our current publications. F.esays, interviews, short fiction, reviews and more will appear in every issue.

This copy of The Women's Studies Review, which contains the index for volume 9 (1987), is a transition issue to introduce you to the new format. In addition to reviews, we hope you will enjoy the essay, Kate & Allie by Sharon Huffman, which won the 1987 Robin Weihm Award and the short fiction piece, "Moment of Truth," by Bertha Russ. Subsequent issues will feature interviews with new women's studies faculty members Kathleen Nuccio and Linda Bernhard and a report from Marlene Longenecker on her experiences as an academic feminist temporarily transplanted into state government.

In order to facilitate a smooth transition in your readership, please carefully attend to the information directed to you below:

The Women's Studies Review Readers: Beginning with the Winter '88 issue, you will automatically receive Feminisms. Your WSR subscription will be applied to the new publication. Your subscription ends with the date indicated on your mailing label.

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Friends of Women's Studies and Women's Services: Of course, you will continue to receive the Center's new publication through 1988 as a recognition of your continuing support of feminist endeavors at The University.

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As your editors, we want to thank you in advance for your continuing support of the Center and its publications. We hope you enjoy this last issue of The Women's Studies Review, and we look forward to offering you an exciting new Feminisms.

Yours in Feminist Spirit,

Glynis Carr & Willa Young Co-F.ditors I Making Peace With Food: A Step-By-Step Guide to Freedom from Diet/Weight Conflict. By Susan Kano Drawings by Linda Bourke (Danbury, CT: Amity Publishing Co., 1985) By Chris Smithies, Gainesville, Florida

"Once upon a time," says Susan Kano, She reconceptualizes weight, diet, and exercise "women ate when they felt hungry." Did issues, and provides scientifically sound women ever really do this? It is difficult to explanations of "faulty hunger awareness," imagine such a time, and even more difficult to "demon hunger," and "dieter's mindset." imagine the possibility, today, for women to Chronic weight loss dieting is identified as the "make peace" with food. major barrier to making peace with food and our bodies, because this behavior denies the But Susan Kano's Making Peace With reality that we each have a weight range that is Food is not another diet book. It is a self-help physiologically appropriate and largely book' carefully designed in the best feminist determined by genetic history. This weight tradition. Kano integrates research findings from range is explained and controlled by "set point psychology and physiology with feminist theory theory," and Kano offers an excellent and perspective to present a challenging presentation of this theory. While the upper self-help approach for achieving freedom from and lower limits of this weight range can be diet/weight conflict. Unlike many self- help influenced somewhat by our lifestyle habits, such books, Kano does not promise easy solutions. as exercise and the types of food we eat, the She knows from personal experience that hard body and mind collude to strive for maintenance work is necessary to make peace with food; she of a weight within the range. Like Hilde Bruch, once lived with chronic dieting, food obsessions, a well-known eating disorders expert, Kano says binges, weight fluctuations, and, eventually, that it is possible to force one's body weight anorexia. below its setpoint only with great physical and mental costs. Insatiable hunger, binges, weight Kano broadly defines an eating disorder as fluctuations, irritability, fatigue, depression, and rooted in a woman's psychological state, rather feelings of failure are the symptoms of chronic than her actual eating behaviors. Fear of fat, dieting that so many women have experienced tension about food management, and poor firsthand. Kano writes: self-esteem are the commonly experienced symptoms resulting from pursuit of a Most of us believe that if we are unable culturally-dictated, and unrealistic, aesthetic of to control our diet and weight, it is due thinness. This "epidemic" of diet and weight to personal weaknesses and psychological preoccupations compromises the mental and problems. We repeatedly try to override physical health of most women, while the diet, and control our hunger in order to attain fitness, fashion, food, and medical industries reap and maintain lower weights. Our bodies profits. try to force us to give ourselves what we want and need (more food!) and we try to Kano challenges faulty assumptions force our bodies to "make do," continue frequently made about weight and dieting. The to function, and give up our body fat. results of scientific studies suggest that fat We wage a war with our own bodies. people usually do not initially eat more than thin people, and that abnormal eating patterns The feminist thinker will not find many of develop after the overweight person has become Kano's cultural analyses of the objectification of obsessed with dieting and weight. Metabolic women in American society new, but her chapter rates, often offered as an excuse for overweight, entitled "Ending the Skin and Bone Infatuation" do actually slow down in response to chronic is an excellent resource for women's studies and dieting as the body adapts to conserve energy. health education classes. She critiques beauty Cycles of weight gain and weight loss likely contests, pornography, and the fashion industry. cause more physical and mental health problems On wearing clothing that is restrictive, than actual overweight. These problems are uncomfortable, and too small, she writes: exacerbated by a fatist culture that demeans and oppresses people considered overweight. Constant physical discomfort leads to body preoccupation, and body preoccupation Kano offers hard truths and helpful advice usually leads to weight preoccupation, for ending the war with our bodies and psyches. and weight preoccupation leads to food preoccupation - and food preoccupation leads to in limiting the nutritional options available to desires to eat (regardless of physical need). many women.

Kano correctly suggests that weight and This book is readable, but not elementary diet preoccupation seriously limit the personal in its language or condescending in its tone. development and happiness of women. She Entertaining cartoons present important provides numerous self-help exercises for messages, and Kano effectively conveys support identifying the impact of a fatist and sexist and empathy through the printed word. She culture on personal ideas and values. provides extensive reference and resource Subsequent chapters suggest self help measures materials, including listings of professional and for clarifying personal values, becoming more self-help organizations. She responsibly urges assertive, improving self-esteem, identifying women with serious eating disorders to seek personal and professional goals, structuring time professional help, but cautions that the therapist management, and determining relationship must be chosen carefully because many do not priorities. Kano urges that we learn "to love possess specific expertise in eating problems and ourselves, 11 and to reject dieting as the prima nutrition. facie method for controlling our lives. Unfortunately, feminism has not been found The self-help exercises at the end of each to be a cure for obsessive concern with body chapter are greater in number than will be weight, dieting, the self-deprecation associated endured by most readers. However, many are with failure to be thin, or the "fatist 11 attitudes thought-provoking, and useful as classroom or so prevalent in American society. Kano knows workshop material. Kano offers excessive that even when scientific evidence and feminist summaries, and occasionally she resorts to arguments against dieting are intellectually stating rules (e.g., "If you crave a certain food accepted, it is still tough to reject the desire to then you must have and enjoy it free of guilt or be slim. Her unique contribution is the offering regret regardless of what it is."). She of a process that requires personal commitment acknowledges the interactive forces of fatism, and change, but, if undertaken, offers a strategy, sexism, and racism; however, the illustrations and hope, for "making peace with food. 11 throughout the book all portray white women. In the chapter on nutrition, she emphasizes that nutritional guidelines must be individualized, but Editors' note: The address of Amity Publishing she does not address the role that poverty plays Company is P. 0. Box 2786, Danbury, CT 06813.

Moment of Truth. By Bertha Russ

Born in New York City, a graduate of the night table, near the TV set. She never Hunter College, I taught in the elementary consciously thought of the little white pills as an school system, including classes for the escape route, just as a means of temporarily intellectually gifted. Upon my retirement, escaping loneliness and fear. Although way my husband and I moved to a down, deep down, once in a while a much condominium in Southern Florida. My darker thought lingered. Once she had mislaid husband- died in 1n9. I~ 1983, althuu-gh her pills and she couid scarcely breathe. in my seventies, deciding to widen my Finding it eased the pounding of her heart and activities, I joined a writer's workshop. I restored her ability to gulp down air. now write short stories and am at work on a mystery novel (albeit slowly). I have one As she passed the mirror in the living daughter, Joanna Russ, who is also a room she caught a fleeting glimpse of herself: writer. "Moment of Truth" was originally an aging woman, wrinkled skin, a cap of silver published in the "Park West News" in hair. But that was unreality, a distortion. The June 1987. reality was the portrait of herself painted in the early twenties. Her chestnut brown hair with She carried her bottle of sleeping pills with red highlights framed an unlined face, straight her as others carry a rabbit's foot, a four leaf eyebrows over blue green eyes so like her clover, or perhaps more accurately, as a child daughter's. At the thought of her daughter she clings to a ragged piece of an old blanket for smiled. They were going to see her this very security. The bottle went with her morning, day. She hadn't seen them in quite a while. noon, and night -- on the kitchen counter, on Was it two or three years? No, it must have I

been three and a half years ago since her you a card when we get to the islands. Bye daughter had come down for her father's funeral. now." That was all that was left of her now, her daughter and her grandchildren. She went into "Goodbye." the bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed. She put the receiver down. Her hand crept to the bottle rolling it around, feeling its Her grandchildren, Jeannette and Elizabeth, coolness. Then she got up, walked slowly smiled at her from an elaborate silver frame. through the living room, her feet dragging on She made plans for their entertainment -- the carpet, into the kitchen. The brittle falsity Disney World, swimming, huge ice cream cones, of her daughter's voice forced her to face the Parrot Jungle, Viscaya -- but above all she truth about them and herself. She had been imagined how it would feel to hug them, the giving and giving and giving as she thought a warmth, the almost unbearable beauty of young mother should, and the grasping greedy hands life. Immersed in her dreams, she was startled had been taking and taking, giving nothing in by the ringing of the phone as the bottle of pills return except a casual admission of her slipped from her hand onto the coverlet. existence. Now she was really alone with only Trembling, she lifted the receiver. herself. She was tired, so tired. She filled a large glass of water, set it down and shook a "Hello," she whispered. large handful of pills into her hand. So simple - - a glass of water and the white pills would "Hi, Mom, how are you sweetie?" The give her a long dreamless, painless sleep. brittle high pitched voice ran on not waiting for a reply. "We're so excited. Richie has to fly She looked out the kitchen window to a down to the islands on an important business trellis where a passion flower vine climbing up deal, and we just won't have a moment to almost smothered its support. Years ago she spare. The children are going to camp. They and her husband had planted a young sprig of left this morning. They told me to say 'Hi' to vine. "Let's hope it grows," he had said and you. They were upset that they couldn't take kissed her, his arm tight around her waist. along the lovely bicycles you gave them. I'm Overnight a bud had burst into flower, a bright sorry to say we can't get to see you. There and flaming trumpet of scarlet and yellow. just won't be time to fit it in." Putting down the pills and glass of water, she went outside, picked the flower and brought it into the house. The flower brought dancing Like a glass dropped on a hard cement color and life itself into the room. Something in floor her dreams shattered into a thousand her rebelled against the sadness and depression. jagged pieces. Truth forced her to see her giving, demanding nothing in return -- neither love nor closeness "Now you take care of yourself. Richie -- as a vice and not a virtue. The scarlet wanted me to tell you how much we enjoy the petals trembled in her hand. She drew a deep new car you helped us to get. · I'm really breath, then swept the pills into the sink, disappointed we can't make it. I'm sure you pushing them down the garbage disposal. Very understand. Next time, promise, cross my heart carefully she put the passion flower in the glass we'll make the hop. Must run now, so much of water, cupping her hand around the flaming packing to do. Are you still there? I'll send petals, around living.

Discovering Wellness in a Nursing Home. By Bobbie Graubarth-Szyller, Juliana Padgett, and Jules Weiss. (New Orleans: Longevity Therapy, 1987)

By Margaret Cruikshank, San Francisco, California

This is a wonderfully creative and exciting who have adapted "new age" techniques and book by a IO'OUD of New Orleans gerontologists beliefs to a group seemingly unable to benefit from them. As a consciousness raiser about Though very stimulating, the book is badly nursing homes, this book is outstanding. It organized. The relationship of the parts to the should be read by those who work with elders whole is unclear. An introduction is needed to either in private homes or in institutions, by provide a context for all of the disparate elders themselves, by women's studies students elements that follow. What is special about and teachers, and by anyone interested in aging. breathing exercises in nursing homes? Assertiveness training? Play? Relaxation? What are the groups like? How large? How Aging is a women's issue not only because often do they meet? Are the residents most of the elderly are women -- they outlive ambulatory? If reorganized and well edited, this men by an average of seven years -- but also book could probably find a major publisher. because their caregivers are primarily women. Certainly it deserves the widest possible circulation. The premises of Longevity Therapy are: (1); growth can occur at any age; (2) late years are a good time for self- development; (3) the The political significance of this book is elder must accept responsibility for her /his that it empowers old people by communicating health care; (4) expression of emotion helps to them some of the wisdom of new (really old) maintain personal identity; (5) breathing and ways of experiencing our feelings and our lives relaxation techniques are essential to health. that have previously been available only to those under fifty, or to those few elders who made a The fll'St part of Discovering Wellness in a special study of Eastern philosophy or religion. Nursing Home deals with topics such as yoga, Nowhere is the radical error of the Western tai chi, breathing, touch, self- esteem, body mind- body separation more apparent than image, and assertiveness training. Group work among the old. Discovering Wellness in a with the elderly is a second major section. Nursing Home is a creative and urgently needed Third are articles titled "Art Therapy guide to improving the quality of care for our Intervention" and "Therapeutic Approaches for elders. Health Care Professionals in Nursing Homes and Other Long Term Care Settings." Fourth is a Longevity Therapy Staff Development Project. Editors' Notes: In Volume 9, No. 9 of The Women's Studies Remew, we tnadvertently printe I completely agree with the authors' Peg Cruikshank as the author of the remew of emphasis on breathing. Even if begun in old The Campus Troublemakers. Dr. Cruikshank's age, abdominal breathing can be very beneficial. name should have appeared as "Margaret," as it As the authors note, shallow breathing prevents does above. Also, Discovering Wellness in a deep feelings from coming out. And old brains Nursing Home is distributed by Potentials need all the oxygen they can get. Development, 775 Main St., Buffalo, NY 1~!09.

Two Hundred Years of Women's Voices: Short Story Anthologies Compiled and Edited By Susan Koppelman

Between Mothers and Daughters: Stories Across A Generation. (New York: The Feminist Press, 1985) Old Maids: Short Stories By Nineteenth Century U.S. Women Writers. (Boston: Pandora Press, 1984) The Other Woman: Stories of Two Women and a Man. (Old Westbury, NY: The Feminist Press, 1984) By Kossia Orloff, New York, New York I These stories, written between 1834 and seriously, since they are so expendable. Yet, as 1981 by women, were all published during the the above few examples from Koppelman's lifetimes of the writers in solid, middle class research demonstrate, they were read by very magazines or, in the nineteenth century, the large audiences; consequently, their points of popular annuals and single-author volumes. Of view could not but have an important effect on the earlier writers, although many were well their contemporaries. How much of one is reviewed and esteemed by colleagues of both apparent from the significance of the "old maid" sexes, their names have disappeared from the stories to the vexing -- to men -- Woman canon; their stories have been out of print for Question of the last century that had at its base over a century. It has taken the energy and woman's autonomy. As Koppelman reminds us, determination of feminist scholars like the question of women's autonomy became Koppelman to rescue both artists and works. critical primarily because it was interwoven inextricably with all of the great reform To how many today are the names Alice movements, all of which "fed into and were fed Cary {1820-71), Susan Pettigrew King Bowen by the women's rights movement," when women, {1824-75), or Alice Brown {1856-1948) working together on larger issues such as significant? Yet, Cary, a prolific author -- abolition, learned to think and act in seventeen books of poetry and fiction -- taken community, independently of men. Not that the seriously by critics both here and in England, independence they practiced and preached went founded one of the first great literary salons in unchallenged: society's most powerful the United States; Bowen, the fiction mainstay of institutions -- religion, medicine, and commerce Russell's Magazine, the literary monthly in -- fought them, Koppelman suggests, because pre-Civil War Charleston, was praised by they were threatened (and still are) by the Ludwig Lewison; Brown was one of the most potential force of such women. respected writers of the short story during the peak of her career. Or, closer to our own time, We see this same tension in the stories Fannie Hurst {1889-1968) has been denigrated themselves; the cumulative effect of each into obscurity by critics who, unable to fault her anthology is that of a community of women accuracy in depicting the lives of the lower struggling for the right to make choices that classes, dismissed her stories as "sentimental." serve their own best interests, interests which Yet if "Oats For the Woman" is a test, we need invariably diverge from those of the patriarchy. to question those standards: there is nothing Yet, notable as the collections per se are, it is in either sentimental or stereotypical in the story of the synthesizing imagination of Koppelman's this surrogate mother trying to save her child. commentaries that the true value of the anthologies lies. Koppelman blames the situation of disappeared or devalued women writers on the While she is not the first to point out that patriarchy, which, she convincingly argues in her women are categorized and categorize themselves Introductions, is responsible for a very skewed according to patriarchal standards, she does v1S1on of our literary history. As a specialist in identify the single vision underlying these and the short story, she discovered that, in the the hundreds of other stories she couldn't available anthologies she was examining back in include, a vision that crosses generations, class, the 1970s for possible use in the classroom -- ethnicity: the "powerful argument in favor of anthologies almost invariably edited by males autonomy for women." She identifies the tension -- women were both underrepresented and between mothers and daughters as caused by the misrepresented. As a result, she produced her fact that "the young women don't yet firBt anthology, Images of Women: Feminist understand that their mothers aren't the ones Perspectives (Bowling Green, Ohio: Popular forcing them to choose between love and Press, 1972), which is still in print. Koppelman autonomy;" an examination of "other women" saw how women, unlike men, would become stories reveals that "the only totally disastrous erased by being displaced: the fine women course for the betrayed woman is passivity." writers of one generation buried to make room for the new, a situation of instead of rather than Having determined the underlying unity, in addition to. Instead of Alice Cary, Ellen she goes on to distinguish the particular Glasgow; instead of Ellen Glasgow, Tillie Olsen. configurations in each collection, concomitantly revealing similarities -- often very subtle -- By so periodically writing women out of between and among the stories, always, in both the canon, establishment critics and scholars Introductions and Headnotes, specifying how have succeeded in educating generations of women writers express themselves in ways readers that women writers are not to be taken recognizably different from men. She tells us that, because in stories by women "it is women's she accedes to her mother's wish. The result is values, women's communities, and the judgments an unbreachable rift between the two. of women that matter, 11 the divergence lies, not in subject matter but in a dramatic shift in On a happier note, Koppelman diecovers point of view over the same subject. that women writers tend not to depict surrogate mothers as the fairy-tale model of the wicked Women writers, for example, vindicate the witch. Instead, as is eminently clear in "Oats unmarried woman, rejecting the malevolent for the Woman" and Ann Allen Shockley's "A stereotype that "belittles [her] in every aspect of Birthday Remembered," they embrace their new her being: physical, emotional, intellectual, daughters. "They know how to be mothers; ethical. 11 Not only do they vindicate her; they they know about nurturance and intelligent celebrate her. They depict her as stronger and caring." more independent than her married sister (Mary and Ellen Grosvenor in Frances Harper's "The Perhaps some of the most radically Two Offers"); "she is more pure, more pious, different perceptions from the canon are to be more modest than other women (Louisa of Alice found in the third anthology, stories of adultery Carter's "The Fortune Hunter"); she is even told from the point of view of the betrayed wife. seen as more maternal than women who marry Unlike the "romantic" view of the straying man 11 and have children (" An Ignoble Martyr" by in men's fiction, women writers judge "men's Rebecca Harding Davis, 11 An Old Maid's Story" adulterous behavior as a significant aspect of by Alice Cary, and "Aunt Mable's Love Story" men's ethical character . . . . If he defaults on by Susan Pindar). one commitment, he cannot be trusted in any way." In the dynamics of father-son stories, the son, to assert his manhood, must reconcile A further, significant characteristic is the himself to the patriarchy, whereas those of the bonding between the two women, sometimes mother-daughter relationship involve a actual (Charlotte Perkins Oilman's "Turned," patriarchy to be rejected, for the very reason Jane Rule's "A Perfectly Nice Man"), sometimes that "the most common mother- daughter story wished for or implied ("How One Woman Kept describes the patriarchal harvest of the nubile Her Husband" by Helen Hunt Jackson, daughter" (Mary Wilkins Freeman's "Old Freeman's "A Moral Exigency," and Ellen Woman Magoun, 11 "Oats for the Woman, 11 and Glasgow's "The Difference" -- in my view, the Guadalupe Valdes's "Recuerdo") and of the most elegant of the 49 stories). Not only do the mother's impotence in a society where both wives not blame the other women (except in legally and economically men prevail. These "Her Story" by Harriett Prescott Spofford where stories, almost invariably told from the point of both husband and lover are faulted), but they view of the mother or surrogate mother, especially recognize that both are victims of men document the terrible sacrifices a mother must unworthy of either. It is in this "moment of make to save the child, the most horrific being transcendence [that] the women triumph over the old woman Magoun's having to kill her damage to their lives and self-esteem." granddaughter in order to save her from what Koppelman rightly deconstructs as incest-rape. That these domestic tales are deeply Koppelman says further that: political is the message that Koppelman finds repeated in numerous permutations in the the threat of incest and the sexual hundreds of stories she read, in the 49 selected. exploitation of female children by men Her Headnote to "Gal Young Un" by Marjorie with the privilege, the opportunity, and Rawlings perhaps best sums up how the the habit of self-indulgence is the most patriarchy demeans women and how autonomy important threat to the mother-daughter frees them: couple. She loves him, she gives him everything Koppelman finds a second, often related, she has . . . and he demands more and threat to their bond, that of economic more of her, moving beyond material and impotence. In Susan Bowen's "A Marriage of labor demands to a demand that she Persuasion," "Recuerdo," and Sherley Anne collaborate in her own humiliation . . . . Williams's "The Lawd Don't Like Ugly," a [Her first steps toward) self-love (are surrogate mother story, the mothers encourage accompanied by) a sense of justified rage. their daughters to allow unacceptable but Her sense of membership in the human economically powerful men access to themselves. family . . . her sense of herself as a Although the daughter is repelled by the suitor, person and not as Other has become conscious. She asserts her newly owned Koppelman's enlightened notes make these self with an awesome power. anthologies a must in any &erious feminist's library.

The Politics of Reproduction

Hydropathic Highway to Health: Women and Water-Cure ln Antebellum America. By Jane B. Donegan (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986) Poor Women, Powerful Men: America's Great Experiment ln Famlly Planning. By Martha C. Ward (Boulder, Colorado: W estview Press, 1986) The Sexual Politics of Reproduction. &lited by Hilary Homans (Brookfield, VT: Gower Publishing Co., 1985) The American Way of Blrih. &llted by Pamela S. Ealdna (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986) The Tentative Pregnancy: Prenatal Diagnoela and the Future of Motherhood. By Barbara Kats Rothman (New York: Penguin Books, 1986)

By Jacquelyn Slomka, Ann Arbor, Michigan

How are reproductive events defined in a techniques. Hydropathy U&ed such treatments u society, and how is their control achieved? baths, showers, and wet sheet wrapping as part What are the social conaequences when new of its cure, and more importantly, advocated the technologies change the meaninp of reproductive development of a healthy life style. Fresh air, events? The issues that theee questions rai8e exerei&e, a diet of fruits, vegetables and are dealt with in theee five recent works whole-grain cereals, regular bathing, non- concerned with the politics of reproduction. All restrictive clothing, and avoidance of tea, coffee, five books share a common theme, that of the tobacco, and alcohol were part of the role of medical and professional authority in hydropathic philosophy of curing and preventing defining and controlling women's experience of illness. Although treatment at a water-cure reproductive events. The authors ask how resort was usually limited to wealthy patients, women can maintain control of their the hydropathic philoeophy was spread to the reproduction -- by the choice of contraceptive middle and lower socioeconomic clasees through method, by control of the process of childbirth, journals and boob published by both male and or by the ui,e or rejection of reproductive female hydropaths. technologies. Theee books deal with their topic at a broad political, economic, and societal level, from a cultural/historical perspective, and at the One significant aspect of Donegan's work is level of individual experience. her description of how hydropathy, through enabling women to gain control over their In Hydropathic Highway to Health, reproductive health, helped to advance their Donegan pre&ents a cultural and historical status in society. In the pre-industrial era, says account of hydropathy, or water-cure, in Donegan, physicians of all schools felt that the nineteenth-century America. Hydropathy in the bad habits of modem civilization and urban life United States developed as an alternative to the led to the degeneration of health. Women were aggressive and "heroic" measures employed by perceived as the delicate sex, and invalidism was orthodox or allopathic physicians. In the a way of life for many upper class women. decades before its emergence u a clinical, Hydropathy enabled women to take charge of scientific system, allopathic medical treatment their health and the health of their families, and involved the ui,e of harsh and sometimes toxic even provided women with an opening into the medicines, purgatives, bleeding, and blistering practice of medicine. Donegan's book is well-researched and details need of medical intervention. Bogdan examines one alternative therapeutic system before the maternal mortality rates in nineteenth-century advent of scientific medicine. Her book also New York City, and concluded that maternal gives an excellent picture of the horrors of mortality due to infection remained high because nineteenth-century childbirth management by birth interventions increased at that time. orthodox physicians, and the natural alternatives Increased interventions led to an increased provided by hydropathic physicians. potential for infection, a problem, says Bogdan, that persisted until the discovery of antibiotics in While Donegan writes of the first half of the twentieth century. nineteenth-century health care, Ward writes a contemporary history of a statewide movement In articles by Rothman and Danzegin, the to help women gain control of their reproductive authors operate on the premise that those who lives. Poor Women; Powerful Men tells the defme a particular event will also have the story of Louisiana's Family Health Foundation power to control it. Because of its political, (FHF), a family planning program that began as economic, and symbolic power, the medical an experiment in 1964, and flourished mainly system is able to defme what is a medical event. due to the leadership of Dr. Joseph Beasley. In While a person always has the option of his introduction of family planning to Louisiana, disagreeing or refusing medical advice, one does Beasley had to manage carefully the potential so under the threat of harm to one's baby. As political and religious opposition to a very Rothman suggests in another of her works, sensitive topic. His program was not only a hospitals bear responsibility for a negative birth huge success, we learn, but it served as a model outcome. But a woman who challenges medical for family planning programs in developing authority bears the blame for a negative countries. Within ten years, FHF collapsed in outcome. the face of charges of mismanagement of federal funds and other rumors of unsavory activities of Two other fine articles deserve mention: its top administrators. the discussion of Caesarian section as the ultimate medical control of the birth process, by Ward is skillful at placing her story of the Summey, and the analysis of the effects of the rise and fall of the Family Health Foundation in malpractice insurance industry on childbirth the social and political context of the times. In services, by O'Reilly et al. Although most of suggesting theories for the collapse of FHF, the articles in Eakins' text deal with aspects of Ward notes that the genocide issue ( accusations medicalized birth within the hospital, the by Black militants that limiting family size collection is comprehensive in that several constitutes genocide for Blacks) deeply divided articles also examine home birth and the work females from males in the Black community. off lay midwives. The book as a whole offers a She also notes that the same division by sex well-written and well-argued analysis of occurred within the Family Health Foundation childbirth in the U.S. Although the work is -- the administrators accused of mismanaging definitely a critique of professional medical the Foundation were all men, as were their control over childbirth, one author (Nelson) accusers, while the patients, nurses, and outreach offers a caveat that not all women share the workers were primarily female. Although Ward same values regarding the importance of the writes a fascinating history, one that can serve birth process, and that a single model of the both as a model for construction of a visionary "ideal" childbirth experience will not be suited to social experiment, and as a warning of how it all women. may fail, her story is a story about men, powerful men. I would have liked to have heard The power to define and control a more from the (powerless) women and how they particular reproductive event is demonstrated experienced this great experiment in family again in a collection of provocative readings, The planning. Sexual Poliltics of Reproduction. Here the subject is not childbirth, but rather the often The issue of medical versus non-medical taken-for-granted aspects of reproduction: control of childbirth is the theme of The menstruation, sexual intercourse and American Way of Birth, edited by Pamela P. contraception, and the stereotyping of women in Eakins. The first two articles focus on the the medical literature. Because of space historical aspects of obstetrics and the constraints, I will not attempt a review of each redefinition of childbirth as a medical event. article. I will say, in general, that I feel this Both authors Dye and Scully portray the abuse book is a valuable contribution to the literature and suffering women endured as a result of on the politics of reproduction. The authors physicians defining childbirth as a disease in question some very basic assumptions about male/female roles and power relations. The there for a woman who must chooee between collection deals with a variety of issues raising a "defective" child or aborting a wanted concerning the politics of reproduction, and child? Furthermore, says Rothman, by gaining provides a glimpee into British laws and public the choice to control the quality of our children, policy that regulate such phenomena as abortion we loee the choice not to control the quality, and new reproductive technologies. that is, to acept them as they are.

The Tentative Pregnancy deals with the I found Rothman's work totally absorbing, social consequences of one relatively common sensitive, and often beautifully written. She type of reproductive technology. Amniocentesis avoids sensationalism when discU88ing potentially is a withdrawal of amniotic fluid from the volatile subjects such as prenatal sex selection. uterus, and is usually performed around the Rothman allows her women informants to speak sixteenth week of pregnancy for the diagnosis of for themselves, instead of allowing the medical fetal genetic defects. The eole "treatment" establishment to speak for them. Rothman 's available for a genetically defective fetus is book appears at a time when the trend in the abortion, a decision that will occur when the U.S. is for more women to delay childbearing, amniocentesis results are completed, around the supposedly while they establish their careers. time that the woman first feels the baby move. The •elderly primagravida" (a woman who bears Rothman vividly describes the emotional anguish her fmt child at a relatively advanced age) is no that women experience as they wait for the longer a rare phenomenon for the obstetrical results of the amniocentesis, and 88 they profession. The older a woman is at the time contemplate the difficult decision to abort or not off her preganacy, the more likely it is that she abort a wanted pregnancy. will be offered the choice of an amniocentesis. Rothman's book will appeal to these women, u Rothman addresses several issues related to well 88 to the medical professionals who work in genetic couneeling and the availability of the field of reproductive health. In addition, amniocentesis. First, children have become Rothman's careful examination of social issues commodities in our society, and as we do for involved in one reproductive technology makes other commodities, we search for the perfect this an important book for the general public. product. Thus genetic couneeling is a form of "quality control." Second, being a mother used The reproductive act may be viewed u an to mean unconditional acceptance of one's act of love between a man and a woman, and 88 offspring, but now this acceptance has become a prelude to love of another kind: that of conditional, pending the results of genetic testing. mother for child. Thus, reproduction involves Rothman also cites undesirable consequences of social relations, but it is precisely these eocial genetic testing for l!OCiety, such as her fear that relations that medical practice disallows. By 88 the number of disabled pereons in eociety denying the social relations inherent in decreues, we will have less tolerance for the reproduction, by stripping reproduction of its disabled. social meanings, the medical system is able to defme reproduction 88 a medical event, and thus The Tentative Pregnancy provides a aseert the right to control it. These five books significant social criticism of a medical offer varied analysis of the ways that medicine technology at a time when critiques of medical controls women's reproductive lives, and provide technology tend to emphasize their iatrogenic or suggestions for dealing with such control through illness- producing effects. Medical technology consumerism, consciousness- raising, and promiees us new choices. But, says Rothman, reexamination and reaffirmation of the eocial the choices are illueory, for what real choice is relations that are involved in reproduction. - 1981 Robin Wiehm Award Winner Kate & Allie By Sharon Huffman

Center for Women's Studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Kate & Allie is a good idea gone awry. companionship, mutual support, and financial The creator formulated a television program that survival. However, instead of showing an had the ingredients for positive female role equality between the two women and mutual models along with an innovative female lifestyle. independence, the characters evolve into Unfortunately, the producers and writers stereotypical husband and wife roles. succumbed to tradition and followed the easier path of stereotyping. They reacted by Kate represents the husband with all the corrupting realism into stereotypes with which unfortunate characteristics this breed is said to they felt more comfortable. It is as though they possess. She is the "bread-winner" for the were frightened by their refreshing portrayal of family, waltzing off to her office each day women or were perhaps unsure how such women without concern for domestic matters - trusting would act. they are in her "wife's" capable hands. She exhibits the stereotypical male slovenliness, There are many positive statements about complaining in one episode about Allie's neurotic women and their roles which could have stood need for a tidy house. As a parent, she's the alone had the program been permitted to sustain one who is seen as fun by the children and as its initial courage. The title characters both irresponsible by the mother. She sides with the demonstrate qualities which are realistic and too children against their mother's rules, belittling often unseen on television. Kate chose a career and demeaning Allie and the value of the outside the home without guilt and does not maternal role in the process. Kate could have apologize for her total dislike and been portrayed as a capable, self-888ured career inappropriateness for the domestic scene. She woman and mother. Instead she becomes a has a positive self-image which is not dependent caricature of a husband in drag. on either a man or a family for validation. Allie, on the other hand, is Supermom. Allie offers even more opportunity for a She's the eternal dispenser of motherly wisdom, positive statement about women since she is the healer of broken hearts with a single kiss, going through a metamorphosis representative of and the perfect cook. She is overly concerned many contemporary women. In her late thirties, with her children, even stating in another she is finally growing up and away from the "a episode, "I worry, therefore I am." Her persona woman is successful if she marries well" is completely derived from her maternal role. philosophy of the past. She is slowly learning Allie is shown at least once per episode in the self-confidence and self-reliance. Her return to kitchen preparing a meal and is the parent most college marks the emergence of a sense of self. frequently interacting with the children. Furthermore, the idea of single mothers Even their personalities reflect these joining forces in a new version of the nuclear traditional husband and wife, male and female family is an excellent solution to the feminization roles. Allie, the woman, snoops and is catty of poverty. With a concept such as this and and jealous, traits that Kate, the man, berates. the personal lifestyles of Kate and Allie, women Kate, of course, is logical, unemotional, and could have been encouraged, supported and strong. Allie clings to Kate for emotional as inspired by the program. Instead, the program well as financial support. is so corrupted by the old stereotypes of women and of the male and female roles that hardly This stereotyping permeates their actions at any positive statements come through to the their respective jobs as well. When Kate is viewing audience. shown at work, she is on the phone to Allie either requesting that Allie run errands for her The majority of the stereotypes result from or offering comfort in a condescending way to the corruption of Kate and Allie's innovative calm Allie's hysteria over minor domestic living arrangement into the standard sitcom matters. Allie recently returned to college (not marriage. These two women have combined an easy task while raising a family), graduated their- households into a single family. for and landed her first paid job. After all the I hard work and determination that went into this is totally unrealistic for most women. Add to achievement, what is she shown doing at work? that the fact that Kate is the Eve image in the She is either discussing her family, calling home, dyad. Eves are not meant to be women's or worrying about domestic matters. women but are competitiors since they view other women as competition for men. Just in case the husband and wife similies are too subtle to temper the original realism, we So we are left with only Allie to identify are given Eve and Madonna images which with, and Allie is, after all, not so different from further contrast Kate and Allie. Kate, portrayed the same stereotyped woman we have always by the dark haired actress, is the Eve. While seen. She still sees herself as a support player Kate does not a.ct openly seductive, she does in life, with her wants and needs always allude to sexuality frequently, often objectifying secondary to those of others. She is the men. Her everyday dress, while very trendy, is caretaker of all around her and seeks only not seductive. However, her evening clothes are thanks for her self-sacrificing role, which is always low cut and slinky in contrast to Allie's finally awarded her in a very placating manner. which are more matronly. I remember the pre-debut reviews of this Allie is fair and childlike, with the look program. It was hailed as a portrait of the new and mannerisms of innocence personified. A women of the '80s, a real step toward breaking scene in one episode with both Kate and Allie in with tradition. It could have been, but somehow the bathroom has Allie wearing a shapeless plaid the original idea was lost. I think it is flannel bathrobe while Kate sips champagne in a interesting to note that Kate & Allie was bubble bath. As already discussed, Allie is the created by a woman. However, the two consummate mother and in being such, not only executive producers, the two story typifies the maternal part of the Madonna image superintendents, one of the two executive script but also becomes a rather sexless being typifying consultants, the story editor, and the associate the virginal aspect. To enhance this virginal director are all men. The only women in image, she often states that she does not date. positions of importance are one executive script consultant and the associate producer. I believe this is a significant factor in the transformation Besides the corruption of all the latent of a positive, realistic portrayal of women into a positive images of women which could have been perpetuation of negative stereotypes. expounded in this program, a problem arises with viewer identification. Kate may have been Editors' note: The Robin Wiehm Award is gi11en intended as a role model of a woman not bound for the outstanding undergraduate paper written by conventional female roles, and although she is for a women's studies class. This award has likeable, there are many reasons for women not been named posthumously for Robin Wiehm, who to identify with her. For one thing, in her was a student in the first Women's Studies husband role she becomes an unsympathetic courses offered at The Ohio State Uni11ersity. character by being almost anti- woman. Funds donated to the Center for Women's Studies Furthermore, how can women identify with Kate in Robin's name are used to support this annual when few women are in the position to have a award. For additional information, please contact job they enjoy as well as a wife at home to the Center for Women's Studies, 1!07 Dulles Hall, take care of the domestic sphere? That position (61,l) 1!91!-101!1.

Freda Kirchwey: A Woman of the Nation. By Sarah Alpern (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987)

By Kevin White, Center for Comparative Studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Freda Kirchwey, woman editor, publisher, career that Alpern 's biography is a major and owner of the Nation from 1937 to 1955 is contribution to women's studies. For Kirchwey remembered as a passionate anti-Fascist (if is a premiere example of the "New Woman" of significantly less passionate anti-Stalinist), a the 1920s in her bold, articulate, and pioneering major American supporter of Israel, as well as a efforts to combine career, marriage, and spirited advocate of women's rights. However, it motherhood. Her failures, her succesaes, her is because of its lengthy analysis of her earlier struggles, and her problems are very much those of millions of American women in the 19808. caused her to overcompensate by working Alpem's book thus has a contemporary excessively. Such effort may have facilitated her resonance. promotion, but it left her an emotional wreck. Further, although she paid attention to her Kirchwey's efforts to combine marriage, children to the point where she walked several motherhood, and a career were essentially a miles in the middle of every day in order to failure. Of these three areas of her life it was breast-feed one of them, the one who survived only her career that truly fulfilled her. Hired by into adulthood (Michael) still later complained her father's friend, Oswald Garrison Villard, to off negligence. But Alpem's accounts of the two write for the Nation, promotion followed crises of motherhood that Kirchwey experienced promotion until ultimately she became editor. leave the reader exhausted (essentially she lets In the 1920s she used her position as a forum Kirchwey speak for herself in her letters). Her for the debate over feminist personal life that first child, Brewster, died at the age of eight characterized the concerns of so much of the months in 1917; and her second child, Jeff, died women's movement in the period after the aged eleven in 1930 after a protracted bout of suffrage victory. She was responsible for the meningitis and tuberculosis during which his celebrated Our Changing Morality symposium mother alone nursed him for two agonizing (1925), which featured such luminaries as Elsie months (recorded in a long series of letters Clews Parsons and Bertrand Russell and which which are preserved at the Schlesinger Library in is still a major reference point for those Cambridge). After both deaths Kirchwey interested in the 1920's "Revolution in Morals. 11 blamed herself and could not work for long, She also organized a highly charged - and sadly extended spells. never published - public debate on the impact of the changes in women's roles on men. Most Kirchwey could have done better with revealingly, however, she was the editor of a greater support from her husband. But in the symposium entitled "These Modem Women" in early twentieth-century, male roles were not which several contemporary married feminists revised to accomodate changing women's roles as discussed their attempts to establish egalitarian they have been to a degree in the 19808. While marriages which enabled them to pursue careers Evans Clark was extraordinary in that he was uninhibitedly. Yet, significantly, Kirchwey willing for his wife to have a career (he even herself did not make a contribution to this helped with duties in the house, which was no important symposium, although she was herself small thing seventy years ago), he, like other an exemplary modem woman. Rather she used men married to feminist New Women, failed to the symposium as a means of trying to resolve fully grasp what this entailed for him and his the enormous problems in her own relationship role. He did not understand his wife's guilty with her husband, Evans Clark, difficulties which feelings over her pursuit of a career, nor did he it would have been much too painful to have greatly expand his role as father in the bringing aired in public. up of the children. Thus, although Kirchwey begged him to come to help her look after their Kirchwey and Evans Clark embarked on a dying son, he failed to find time off from his style of marriage that was characteristic of the own demanding job. This failure of men to experiments of a small avant garde in early revise their roles in the face of modern marriage twentieth-century America, which, as rigid - their failure even to grasp a need to revise separation of the spheres between the sexes their roles - explains many of Kirchwey's disintegrated, endeavored to establish a genuine problems. While Alpern is superb on these "feminist" relationship of equality between men problems, our understanding of them would have and women. This involved acknowledgement of been greater had more attention been given to women's right to a career as well as to sexual Clark's part in aggravating her difficulties. fulfilment. Kircbwey and Clark's difficulties were Further, her use of a quote in which it is typical of those other couples experienced. They suggested Clark provoked problems for Kirchwey were truly pioneers as their limited because he liked "feminine" women is a little understanding of the implications of their marital unfair. However blind he was to his wife's real experiment showed. needs, he was not threatened by her success.

Inevitably, it was Kirchwey who suffered Kirchwey and Clark's difficulties in their the most. She experienced intense feelings of private life were also typical of early guilt around her efforts to pursue a career. She twentieth-century feminist marriages. Although feared that she was somehow "insufficiently both read avidly those European thinkers like feminine" because she was doing what had Edward Carpenter and Ellen Dey who previously been exclusively men's work. This recognized women's right to sexual fulfilment in marriage, Kirchwey and Clark, both raised in an All in all, Alpern's book is an important atmosphere of Victorian sexual repression, found contribution. Freda Kirchwey is one of the most their private life unfulfilling. This led them to important American women of the twentieth have extra- marital affairs, which, while century, and she now has a biography worthy of sanctioned by many of the advocates of modern her. If the political squabbles of her later years marriage, caused the downfall of many a at the Nation have rather undermined her relationship. In Kirchwey and Clark's case, as reputation, she should be lauded for her in so many others, it was the woman who anti-Fascism of the 1930s. But the failure of suffered the most. Male sexuality, then, as now, her effort to combine career, marriage, and was generally better able to handle the motherhood in the 1920s serves as a warning to complications of polygamy. It was only when, us all. If she was one of the very first people after the death of Jeff in 1930, that they settled to experience the kinds of problems those efforts into monogamy and the marriage flourished, entail, we should remember that in the 1980s though without the high expectations with which there have been only limited improvements in it had been started. Alpern handles this our understanding of what combining marriage, material with great sensitivity. One is left with motherhood, and a career entails, and insufficient the overwhelming impression, however, that with support from the broader society to facilitate our all their experimentation, in the most personal efforts. If Alpern's meticulous scholarship areas of their lives at least, the couple was sometimes clouds the emotional anguish of her deeply conservative: ultimately, their hearts subject, she provokes us to think about these were not in the experimentation. very important issues.

Elsa: I Come With My Songs, The Autobiography of Elsa Gidlow. By Elsa Gidlow (San Francisco: Booklegger Press and Druid Heights Books, 1986)

By Joyce Fee, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

It is refreshing to find a contemporary historical document recording the struggles of woman's autobiography that is written neither to women who attempted to break into the male justify life nor to explain it, but instead, simply literary hierarchy in the early decades of the to celebrate it. For Elsa Gidlow, womanhood twentieth century. One key to understanding and her eighty-seven years of experiencing it how Gidlow overcame the obstacles she were certainly a cause for celebration. Raised in encountered is recogruz1ng the role her a time (the early 1900s) and place (rural heightened sense of spirituality played throughout Quebec) that hardly ~' let alone valued her life. Her philosophical approach io life is "professional" women, Gidlow pushed ahead, contagious. All in all, Elsa makes a significant determined to make a career for herself. contribution to the genre of women's autobiography. Gidlow presents us with a Who was she? To begin, Elsa Gidlow was valuable illustration of where the genre is now a lesbian poet, one of the first women poets to and readers familiar with earlier autobiographies openly address her feelings toward other women. will recognize the enormous growth that has Sapphic S0ng5: Eighteen to Eighty (Diana sprung from those roots. Press, 1976; rpt. Booklegger Press) is perhaps her most well known work to date, but her Although Gidlow does not spend a great autobiography is one of the fll'St openly lesbian deal of time recounting her youth in Quebec, she works of its kind. However, Gidlow stresses that spends just enough to give one the idea that the her sexuality is not the only aspect of her life most important aspects of her personality to worth writing about. For example, she shares develop during those years were her deep with us the hardships she encountered as a compassion for other women and her desire to woman denied a formal education yet who write. Much of this compassion grew out of still pursued her desire to be a professional witnessing her mother face hardships such as writer. In many ways, Elsa is a significant unwanted pregnancies, poverty level living conditions, and the entire burden of caring for no, only flelped 'CO pave che way for lesbl*ll an overcrowded houee of people. Gidlow shares writers, but also for women working in her early insights: publishing too.

Mother was going to have another baby, For thoee interested in learning more about her fifth. She had no time to make any lesbian existence in the early twentieth century, new clothes for henelf; her swelling body Elsa again proves to be a perceptive record of was stretching her dresees, like eo many of the times. Gidlow shares her deepest thoughts the women in the village. She was no and obeervationa about her eexuality, leaving longer singing over her work. She was nothing in the cloeet. On what it was like sick in the mornings and irritable . . . . "back then" Gidlow comments I was beginning to grasp the overwhelming odds against women exercising power over I am not saying it was better then, their lives, and I did not feel compassion although in some ways it was more for him (her father) as I did for her (her comfortable . . . . I think it was more mother). comfortable then becuae we did not have to be ever-coll8Cious of being in Gidlow's desire to write grew from within; somebody's eexual spotlight. However, she felt spiritually connected to her surroundings speaking for myself and other women I -- sensing she eomehow saw it all "differently." knew intimately, we were not repremed Witnessing the life her mother and other women and we were not ashamed of our erotic in the village led also affected her. She sought needs. a way out of dependence and poverty. Her ambitions for a writing career coincided with her On her own lesbianism, Gidlow shares: "My desire for independence. One of her first steps feeling for women is a need more profound and toward autonomy was enrolling in Sunday school, deep than the social, ranging from the the only place she could go to learn how to read compellingly physical to and through the and write. By the time she was sixteen, Elsa nourishment of the aesthetic to the Gidlow was ready to get out on her own, and transcendingly spiritual. 11 Such comments the means by which to do so came via a illustrate Gidlow's comfort and surety about her traditionally female occupation; she became her sexuality and are a valuable addition to the father's secretary, traveling with him on the increasing amount of material documenting railroad. Once she had saved up enough money lesbian lives. Still, she reminds readers that II I to have a room of her own, Gidlow moved to have never thought that who I go to bed with is New York City to pursue a writing career and the most interesting thing about me. 11 Elsa realize the independence for which she ached. Gidlow's philosophy of female relationships permeates this book and clearly articulates a Elsa may be of particular interest to message to all women: that we must, in a women in the publishing industry today because patriarchal society, share allegiances; we must it is also the story of the changing place of struggle "towards self knowledge . . . into a women within that industry from the early new age; an age, it seems in which women must twenties to the preeent. Originally, jobs such as lead." editing and freelance writing weren't easily found, and Gidlow recounts her struggles to To say that Elsa Gidlow was a spiritual break into these male fields. Often she worked person is an understatement. Her spiritual her way up to an editing or writing position by beliefs, rooted in Far Eastern philoeophy, were starting out as a typist. Little of the writing by the impetus behind her art, politics -- her which Gidlow earned her living appears in this entire way of being. In 1962 Gidlow, along with book -- simply because it is not that for which close friend Alan Watts and his wife Jano, she is known. She spent most of her life created the Society for Comparative Philoeophy. working for trade newsletters and magazines -- Their aim -- "to affirm a more contemplative most notably, Frank Harris' controversial way of life" -- was already being realized by Pearson's Magazine. Unfortunately, her true Gidlow, whose Druid Heights home provided a talent -- writing poetry -- went unrecognized communal living atmosphere for a number of for the majority of her lifetime. It was a like-minded people. Reflecting on this pleasant surprise, then, to learn that Elsa Gidlow atmosphere, Gidlow states: Have you ever wakened to the realization speeches past. Some critics of women's that you were happy? It's hard to put autobiography -- namely Estelle Jelinek and into words where it comes from, the her followers -- may claim this "disjunctive" sudden awareness that the day is somehow form is indicative of the lack of order or transformed by radiance. continuity in Gidlow's life. I disagree. Gidlow's life was not fragmented, but a steady growth of The spiritual wealth Elsa Gidlow accumulated in spirituality and political activism. In combining her lifetime is generously shared throughout this the various forms, Gidlow not only exposes book; it alone makes her life worth reading readers to the depths of her artistic talents, but about. to a new phase in the development of women's autobiography; one where sharing the self is Elsa is a wonderful illustration of where more important than justifying it. The sharing women's autobiography is today. In the past, of life experience is the way of joining disparate particularly in the nineteenth century, women's elements in one's life story. Elsa is more than autobiographies tended to be externally focused an accumulation of "parts." -- few female autobiographers shared what they felt or thought about themselves and their relationship to the world around them. This is Every aspect of Elsa Gidlow's life -- her not the case with most contemporary women's independence, sexuality, spirituality, and artistic autobiographies, and Elsa demonstrates that talents -- is inextricably woven. She manages women who write about their lives can be to convey this intricate pattern not only in the subjective and self-exploratory; they no longer form of her autobiography, but in the content as feel the need to validate their existence in their well. Elsa is historically signifICant and at the autobiographies. Elsa is an accumulation of same time poignant; it is certainly well worth narrative prose, journal entries, poetry, and reading.

From Feminist Parables to Woman-Church: Affirming our Multi-Faceted Spirituality and Inherent Power

By Roseanne Hoe//el, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

"Liberation is the responsibility of the gathered during a spiritual brown-bag, if you person who wants to be liberated." will, were also quite literally blessed to have Dr. Williams share her "Feminist Parables" with us. These are the words of renowned feminist Written {and read!) with an emancipatory poet and theologian Delores S. Williams, words beauty, these inspiring "gospels" are unique not she so poignantly spoke during her visit here to only in the rare quality her rich philosophical The Ohio State University on October 2, 1987. and theological ideology bring to them, but also They referred to the Biblical figure Hagar, who and most refreshingly in the prominence and -- having been Abraham's slave, bore his child grace with which she endows female characters. since Sarah could not -- spiritually liberated herself from oppression. But Dr. Williams also Being moved by her unhesitating intended this imperative statement to be willingness to share her profound images of the universally applied. divine and their origins in the feminine as subject {rather than object, or objectified Considering that her demanding schedule "other"), I thanked Williams for her generosity allows her to make only about four speaking and inquired whether or not she would be at the engagements each year, it was our good fortune Woman-Church Conference in Cincinnatti the to receive this potentially revolutionary truism following weekend. To my extreme pleasure, she by Williams in person. The fifty plus of us who kindly told me that she not only would attend, but would aJso be part of the Sunday wrap-up evenis In hopes for even t.ter, mon, bdmdve, IM!88ion, "Envisioning the Future: Empowering mutually satisfying (emotionally, spiritually, Woman-Church, 11 with Ms. Gloria Steinem. psychologically), and productive future Need.lees to say, the excitement I had felt since conferences. registration in May about going to the conference accelerated rapidly. Not only would I As Ellie Smeal suggested, a future aim for have the opportunity to learn from Dr. Williams Woman-Church is the generation of a again, but would aJeo hear from Ms. Steinem. "biophilic" (life loving) world by redefming And what feminist would not jump at the power: using the Spanish verb "poder" (to be change to have her "secular" bible (Outrageous able, to do, and to make) she talked of our Acts and Every-Day Rebellions) autographed? changing traditional power relations by refusing to be second-clue citizens in the home, church, In my estimation the conference organizers or nation, assuming/aseerting positive power that saved the best, 11 Envisioning the Future, 11 for entails an erasure of the "isms" that reflect a last, but it W88 by no means the only highlight narrowness of mind, and remembering that any of the two-year project entitled simultaneously ease and/or privilege one feels is always built "Woman-Church Claiming Our Power" and upon the deprivation and exploitation of others. 11 Muger-lglesia Reclamando Nuestra Poder. 11 One of the main "isms" Charlotte Bunch Over three thousand women from 28 countries, cautioned us to guard against is the heteroeexism many of which are Spanish-speaking, attended which stems from patriarchal sexual norms that this bilingual conference. Dual Spanish and damage women and keep us disconnected from English program descriptions, on- the-spot oral our own deep eroticism, spirituality, and power. translations of speeches, and of colll'8e signing To counter this, she maintains that we must not exemplified one of the key strategies in forming only learn to love our bodies 88 the a cohesive Woman-Church: unity through manifestations of the divine life source, but aJso diversity. to respect sexual differences, unlike Pope John Paul II, whom she referred to 88 "one of the This very crucial focus -- be it regarding greatest minds of the fifth century" (after which race, religion, spirituality, nationality, ethnicity, came uproarious laughter!). She urged us to say or sexual orientation -- shaped many of the 11 no 11 to hierarchy, claiming that in silence we conference activities. An excellent example w88 police ourselves for the patriarchy. Once we the opening plenary, appropriately entitled claim our rightful voice, we must remember the "Shaping Our Mother-Churches: Global importance of listening each other into speech. Perspectives, 11 which included an international, ecumenical, and interfaith approach voiced by such women as Sheila Briggs, Marga Bubrig, T. Realizing that this God-given inherent Drora Stetel, Crueza Maciel, and Elizabeth power/inner authority can't be taken away is the Schussler Fiorenza. Another plenary analyzing first step in Theresa Kayne's three- fold vision. personal and systemic power through bonding The first part of the vision claims that we are and organizing for change offered such co- responsible authors and agents of our future well-known women as Rosemary Radford and 88 such need to proclaim a new inclusive Ruether, Eleanor Smeal, Charlotte Bunch, and Pentecoet. The second part Is the sacredness of Marjorie Williams. Yet another entire session equality within and among relationships, which was devoted to the challenge of confronting we need to foeter by eradicating violence and racism 88 a major obstacle to women bonding. domination and by making friendship central; whenever violation or oppression are found, we Spiritual celebratory diversity was must feel, rather than hatred or hoetility, a beautifully illustrated in the range of feminist pusionate "Holy Rage." The third step then is liturgies offered: from the Taalit Prayer Shawl to call upon "the Eminent Holy One" to sustain Growth through Motion, to Welcoming the our II Holy Boldness. 11 Sabbath, to Woman-oriented Eucharist. In additon to the fifty equally inviting and various Gloria Steinem reiterated that 11 rage 11 is the two-hour focus sessions offered in four core of COU!!!!, and she exercised her own Holy concurrent groupings, ongoing special attractions Boldness by stating that monotheism is but ranged from a film festival on women's struggles "imperialism in religion." When asked by for empowerment, to Tai Chi meditations, to reponers why she -- ihe head ot ihe secular child care and activities, to an Open-Art Studio women's movement -- was here, she replied and a "processing" room, to a "Speak Out" that Woman-church ~ the Women's Movement! room, where women were able to voice H brings spiritual depth to religious/ceremonial constructive criticism regarding the weekend acts of sanctuary (such as the Washington D.C. March for Lesbian and Gay Rights or the Woman-Church combining creative energies, Cincinnatti movement to keep children hidden sharing resources, and promising permanent from incestuous fathers). She urged that while presence to each other since freindship itself is a we don't have our own country and we are thus political act. Secondly, we need to acknowledge "motherless," we must realize that this country our fallibility and seek forgiveness (for "it is is our "psychic turf" and through solidarity in better to seek forgiveness than to beg our diversity, we must mother/nurture each permission"). And finally, she felt a dire need other and invite men into our own structures to educate and to reclaim the children of rather than being on the fringes of theirs. She Woman-Church through educational and reminded us that revolutions, like houses, are theological centers, among other things, even at built from the bottom up, not the top down. the risk of being co-opted.

Dr. Delores Williams responded that such a movement is possible only by reconstructing Such thought-provoking inspiration all-inclusive women's communities so that accompanied us on our exciting march to through sisterhood we can endow each other Fountain Square, with women, men, and children with women's vision, since patriarchal cheering us on from the sidelines. They were colonization of our minds and bodies has also given gentle and glorious voice in the impaired our vision. Ms. Mary Hunt agreed universal language of music so incomparably that we should be committed agents of social expressed by the group MUSE, a superb change "walking the path of liberation and Cincinnatti- based women's choir and musical enjoying ourselves along the way." The three ensemble singing and playing for peace and areas she saw for social growth included a justice. What more could anyone ask in such non-monolithic, ecumenical and international an energizing, spiritualizing weekend?

Jane Austen: Feminism and Fiction. By Margaret Kirkham (Sussex: Harvester Press; Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble, 1983. Methuen, 1986.)

By Moira Ferguson, Department of English, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska

Margaret Kirkham offers an intrepid But, Kirkham argues, since the times were thesis: that Jane Austen was a serious feminist not propitious for the expression of feminist who expressed her ideas in the ironic mold and ideas, since feminism was in fact considered was far from being the conventional apolitical disreputable, Jane Austen decided to hide behind writer she is said to be. This book puts to rest the oblique mode, or (to put it slightly once and for all the fatuity of a Janeite differently) she veiled her anger in ironic approach to Jane Austen, or the notion of Jane strategies. Kirkham argues compellingly that Austen as a miniaturist. Jane Austen's family, Austen's probing of female morality and socio- according to Kirkham's testimony, was one more political status is the central issue of set of historical falsifiers, antagonists of Enlightenment feminism and that Austen's texts, authenticity who probably viewed with horror therefore, occupy a central but hitherto Godwin's posthumous biography of unrecognized place. Wollstonecraft. Kirkham's literary analysis is full and to The book opens with a well-told account the point. She undel'8Cores the moral of the feminist tradition, the lineage of female independence of each woman protagonist and literary history, especially with respect to the ends up showing how sense and sensibility, Enlightenment, and stressing, finally, the intelligence and feeling, are evenly matched. influence of Catherine Macaulay and Mary Wollstonecraft on Jane Austen. Kirkham locates A riveting dimension of the text is Jane Austen as a central figure in the Kirkham's w,e of Kotzebue as a key figure in eighteenth-century debate on "rational Austen's layers of allusion. His romantic feminism," an ally and ideological compatriot of dramas, it seems, were a crucial literary WoHstoneeraft. influence (6De ef ~ playi,, L6wr'e Vows, it! performed in Mansfield Park). Kirk.ham's This is serious material, seriously speculation about Austen borrowing a layer of corroborated, carefully argued. It is in the meaning from Lord Mansfield's decision on original sense of the adjective, a nice piece Jamee Somenet is also engaging. It is worth of work. It is also gratifying that noting, though, that the Mansfield judgment did Methuen had the sense to reprint this not, u Kirkham argues, pronounce slavery valuable if controversial volume. I, for one, illegal. Rather, it stated that slaves could not found Kirk.ham's publication magnetizing, a be forcibly removed . from England. What is compelling companion piece to and interesting is that Austen apparently accepted absorbing ideological opponent of Marilyn the received and erroneous view of Mansfield's Butler's analysis of Jane Austen and her decision that is still current to this day. works.

The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality 1880-1930. By Sheila Jeffreys (London: Pandora Press, 1985)

By Elizabeth Linder DaGue, Godfrey, Rlinois

Among my friends, Gail Godwin's The 18908. Furthermore, Jeffreys illumines the way Odd Woman, fll'8t published in 1974, has been Victorian feminists analyzed and wrote about the something of a cult book, "odd-woman" Jane relationships between women and men. Clifford a true hero. However, the question is Important here are the philosophies of sex why we modern women needed someone to tell developed by Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy and us, late in this century, that being an "odd" or Francis Swiny. unmarried woman is socially acceptable. Sheila Jeffreys's The Spinster and Her Enemies: Next, Jeffreys examines the women's Feminism and Sexuality 1880-1930 provides campaign against the abuse of girls. Important some of the answers to this question and to its because it put feminist theory into practice, this corollary: how did people come to hate and campaign has been largely ignored by historians. distrust unmarried women in the fll'8t place? In her chapter on spinsterhood Jeffreys analyzes the motivation of feminists who rejected sexual Jeffreys analyzes feminism and sexuality relationships with men. between 1880 and 1930. In doing so, she addresees the "problem" of the unmarried Furthermore, Jeffreys points out that her woman and shows how the "odd woman" analyses rest on "overturning" certain traditional became the widely hated symbol of deviance in a assumptions underlying work in the history patriarchal society. of sexuality. She writes, "The most pervasive is the assumption that the last 100 years Jeffreys deals with what she calls "a represent a story of progress from the darkness watershed period in the history of sexuality." of Victorian prudery towards the light of sexual Traditional historians interpreted 1880 to 1930 as freedom." This invalid idea of progress rests on a period in which Victorian puritanism gave way the "primary unquestioned heterosexual practice . to "the first sexual revolution of the . . sexual intercourse." Jeffreys shows that twentieth century." However, the feminist sexual behavior structures power outside the perspective on this period differs, and Jeffreys, bedroom; the sexual arena is not merely a place suggesting that more research along these where feminists say "the personal is the lines is needed, addresees that perspective. In political"; it is indeed a battleground, a place the first two-thirds of her book, Jeffreys "of struggle and power relationships between the examines the ideas and activities of feminist sexes." In view of this struggle, Jeffreys campaigners regarding sexuality. She shows how provides a reassessment of the significance of the feminist concerns voiced in conservative groups so-called "sexual revolution" of the 1920s. In such as the National Vigilance Aseociation, the doing so, she examines ideas about "acceptable" Moral Reform Union, and the clearly forms of women's friendships and the creation non-feminist Alliance of Honour, shaped the of the stereotype P.bout the "real" lesbian. She campaign for social parity in the 18808 and shows how, with t.he· -decline of the older form of feminism, which included a critique of male husband before she married him, and who sexual behavior and promotion of spinsterhood, a carried a central theme in her work that women new form of feminism arose. Glorifying must control their own bodies. motherhood, the "new feminism" included attacks on spinsters. Jeffreys suggests that Two additional aspects of The Spinster and Her Enemies are discussions of sexual abuse of girls and the campaigns of women against The effect of the "sexual revolution" was abuse. Jeffreys's information from criminal to cripple the feminist campaign to assert records fascinates. She points out that woman's right to control her own body, throughout 1916 Votes for Women printed a and to exist, as Wolstenholme Elroy put comparison of punishments showing "the it, "free from all uninvited touch of man." disparity between sentences which were being This aim has never been given its given by the courts for crimes against women deserved significance by historians as part and those given for minor offences against of the range of political objectives of the property or for offences against boys." For nineteenth-century women's movement. indecent assault on girls of 8 and 9, a young man of 19 received 3 months at hard labor; a 64 year old pastor, charged with "assaulting a Like Andrea Dworkin, Jeffreys suggests that boy in a picture palace" received 6 years penal women's bodies are spaces subject to conquering servitude. Jeffreys's carefully selected examples by men: "Men are not subject to physical will raise feminist ire. invasion by a powerful ruling class and can take possession of their own physical space for The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism granted." To Jeffreys, women obviously lack and Sexuality 1880-1930 should inform the work this right. of scholars in various disciplines. Obviously researchers in women's studies, psychology, Embedded in Jeffreys's survey of the sociology, economics and labor history should relationship between feminism and sexuality relish this book. Sex counselors, even ones like are some important people and issues that our famous Masters and Johnson in St. Louis, demand further research by feminist should peruse it, however briefly, for knowledge historians. Studied primarily by church of historical hatreds overlooked in many studies. historians, Jane Ellice Hopkins campaigned Last, every intelligent woman, general reader or strongly to prevent men's abuse of girl scholar, should inform herself about the history children. She planned for men's purity of feminism and sexuality. leagues, vigilance associations to deal with the prosecution of male offenders against women, However, The Spinster and Her Enemies and Ladies' Associations to do preventive work made me feel as I did when I took among girls. Jeffreys suggests that Hopkins undergraduate "surveys" of literature: angry "has been represented as a straightforward because I wanted to know more than a mere prude, and little attention has been paid to survey could present on a fascinating subject. interpretation of her work." Another Jeffreys presents an introduction to needed contributor to feminist ideas on sexuality is research in Victorian sexuality written from a Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elroy, who worked feminist perspective. This area demands more with Josephine Butler and Christabel research. Pankhurst. Wolstenholme Elroy campaigned for higher education for women, woman I'll bet that Gail Godwin would like this suffrage, reform of marriage and child custody book. She might fmd important historical laws, and abolition of the Contagious Diseases precedents to certain problems suggested in The Acts. Her published works include books on Odd Woman. Didn't Godwin's heroine worry sex education for children, the effects of sexual about a confrontation with the Enema Bandit, abuse, and the ideal form of sexual relations the terror of her university campus, and didn't I between men and women. We need to know read in The Spinster and Her Enemies that sex more about this unusual woman who therapists at one time deemed constipation a adopted a double surname, who lived with her cause of sexual frigidity? Letters to Ms., 1972-1987. Edited by Mary Thom With an Introduction by Gloria Steinem (New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1987) By Willa Young, Department of Sociology and Center for Women's Studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Each month when Ms. Magazine finds its Letters to Ms. is a treasure. It reflects the way to my home, I undertake a seH-indulgent fact that Ms. readers have always claimed the ritual. I pause to brew a pot of tea, and then I Letters column for themselves, and the transport Ms. and the tea to my favorite chair arguments, frank talk, and evolution of ideas where I settle down for a good read. Like many about feminism found there over the years are other Ms. readers, I always begin by pouring featured in the book. For readability, the letters over the Letters section. I savor every one. have been arranged by topic. Topics featured include sex, men, parenting, mother daughter The ritual has been a part of my life since relations, feminist changes in everyday life, work I first became a regular Ms. reader, and many and language, among others. The collection others report their own devotion to the Letters features both published and unpublished letters. section. It has long been a favorite so it comes Those "published in Ms. carry the date of the as no surprise that as part of the magazine's issue in which they appear. Unpublished letters 15th anniversary celebration, a collection of carry the date they were written, or if that letters to Ms. has been published. wasn't noted, the month and year they were received." The collection has an introduction by Gloria Steinem. It is an impassioned, nostalgic The letters are enjoyable to read, and they essay which e~pounds upon her feelings of offer an insi~ht into the lives of ordinary women attachment to ~ readers through the twenty struggling with feminism. Readers witness the thousand letters sent to the editors. Steinem frustrations, victories, family and work trials, the also introduces the history of the letters outrages, the boredom, the discoveries and the collection which is now housed in the Schlesinger personal problems and successes that seem so Library at Radcliffe. She informs us that in familiar as we all experience them one way or order to reduce the collection to a more another. Readers also can not help but aquire managable size archivists removed "routine and an appreciation for the history represented in nonbiographical letters, photographs and resumes these pages. There is a vitality present which -- and moved clippings, articles enclosed with has resulted from women claiming their voices letters and examples of sexist ads to the and taking a forum for themselves, for their library's vertical files." The library now has the women's movement. Indeed, this is a history letters cataloged under such entries as of women and men which extends over fifteen "Abortion," "Childbirth," "Secretaries," "Women of the most exciting and change filled years in Canada," "Found Women," and even of the second wave of the women's movement. "Crackpots." Thom's Letters to Ms. selections Certainly Letters to Ms. readers will hear many are culled from the remaining collection. a CLICK sounding through these pages. : 23 · l For Crying Out Loud: Women And Poverty In The United States. Edited by Rochelle Letlowitz and Ann Withorn (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1986) By K. Sue Jewell, Department of Black Studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

This book focuses on women's poverty. alternative analyses which attribute poverty to The article's themes include race, ethnicity, structural conditions which are race, gender, and gender, and age. In addition, this anthology class related. This analysis, they contend, does provides a wide range of perspectives on the more to explain the inordinate prevalence relationship between social, political, and of poverty among minority men and that which economic issues and women's poverty. Equally occurs disproportionately along social class lines important is the contribution which this work than do theories which attribute poverty to high makes to the formulation of gender-oriented rates of divorce, segregated labor markets, and social policies. Clearly, the editors of this an increase in single parent births. As such, volume have made a significant contribution to both Sparr and Burnham argue that the the understanding of women's poverty by feminization of poverty theory understates the presenting articles which provide a theoretical influence of race, ethnicity, and class on the basis for explaining this phenomenon. Moreover, existence of poverty and the extent to which their proffering of social policies to remedy individuals are differentially vulnerable to women's poverty reinforces advocacy as an poverty. important aspect of feminist scholarship. In Part 2, cultural diversity becomes the The Introduction presents various focus for the collection of works which analyze dimensions of women's poverty through scholarly women's poverty based on a multiplicity of social essays and personal accounts. In the case of the factors. Personal accounts of women's methods latter, women have documented their personal of dealing with . poverty are included in this experiences with poverty as victims, employees, section. Specifically, motherhood, elderly women, and as advocates of the poor. divorce, and residence in rural America are examined as conditions which give rise to The book is divided into four sections, and women's poverty. Individual h.istol'ies are further Part I contains essays which reflect differential enhanced by the contributions of Elizabeth theories of women's poverty. In addition, this Higginbotham who explains how race and gender section is enriched by the works of Barbara inequities are responsible for the disproportionate Ehrenreich and Diana Pearce, major contributors number of blacks that have historically been to the study of women's poverty. Ehrenreich poor. In a similar fashion, Iris Zavala Martinez and Pearce's theories on the feminization of elucidates the history of poverty among Puerto poverty, which attribute poverty to structural Rican women in the United States. She cites factors, are presented. Accordingly, Ehrenreich's statistical data which reflect a drastic increase in discussion of the decline of the breadwinner ethic the number of U.S. Puerto Rican families headed among men and the necessity for women to earn by women. Further, she discusses cultural family wages is provided. Similarly, Pearce's factors and structural conditions in the United seminal work which defines poverty as being States which contribute to the economic and inextricably related to a system which requires political powerlessness of Puerto Rican women in that women become dependent on either public the United States. or private transfer payments is a major argument. Further, Pearce, like many While the writers devote considerable feminization of poverty theorists, establishes the attention to positing the existence of differences role which occupational segregation plays in in women's poverty due to race, class, age, and women's poverty. ethnic background, Part 3 is devoted to an analysis of the commonality of interests, needs While recognizing the contribution which and goals which are shared by poor women. In feminization of poverty theories make to our general, these essays provide an overview knowledge of women's poverty, Pamela Sparr, in of policies, procedures a.nd stigmas 8880Ciated her essay "Regulating Feminist Economics: with the AFDC program which consign poor 'Feminization of Poverty' Ignores Key Issues," women to a position of ignominy. "Welfare: and Linda Burnham, in "Has Poverty Been Death by Exhaustion" by Betty Reid Ma.ndell is Feminized in Black America," provide insightful an excellent a.nalysis of the adverse sociological and psychological consequences which welfare such as comparable worth and wages for bureaucracy has on poor women. Women who caregivers are presented by Teresa Amott and are in poverty, she agrues, are subjected to a Pat Jerabek in "Learning for a Change: The welfare system which is totalitarian. She Role of Critical Economics Education. 11 Also describes the nature in which procedures and the impressive is the essay by Frances Fox Piven, withholding of information serves to both mystify known for her brilliant analysis of U.S. welfare and create anxiety in welfare recipients. and social policy. Piven's contribution, "Women Another major contribution to understanding the and State: Ideology, Power and Welfare, 11 perplexities of welfare recipiency is provided by emphasizes that empowerment for women will Margaret Cerullo and Marla Erlien in their essay emerge as a consequence of their relationship "Beyond the 'Normal F~:' A Cultural with the state. To this end, she discusses how Critique of Women's Poverty. These writers the welfare state has created new solidarities also take issue with the feminization of poverty among women that transcend class boundaries; theory. They explain that the feminization of however, she maintains that reform of the poverty theory perpetuaies t'he bad-woman welfare state will be predicated on demands image of the old poor while creating a similar to those which led to the expansion good-woman image of the new poor. The old of the welfare state which occurred in the 60's. poor, they contend, is comprised of women who are poor by virtue of having children out of One of the most impressive contributions wedlock or having too many children. By which this book makes is the position assumed contrast, the new poor is made up of women by its editors and contributors that welfare whose poverty is situational. Hence, this group recipiency or dependence on public transfer consists largely of individuals who due to divorce payments is an entitlement of all people in a or other situational matters have fallen on hard democratic society. They state, it should be times. viewed as a right and not as, "a last resort' for those poor souls who have failed at The fourth section greatly enhances this independence.'" This interdisciplinary approach collection. These essays provide an exhaustive to viewing women's poverty makes this analysis of social policies which must be comprehensive work invaluable. Clearly, For implemented to eliminate poverty in general and Crying Out Loud, is a stimulating and women's poverty in particular. Policy proposals exceptional contribution to feminist scholarship. Index to Volume 9

Editors' Note: Each review is listed bwlow under the title of the book reviewed, the author of the book reviewed, and the reviewer's name. Full bibliographical information is provided in the reviewer entry. Adios, Mr. Moxley. Thirteen Stories. By Josephine Jacobsen. Rev. by Elizabeth Evans. A Day At A Time. Ed. by Margo Culley. Rev. by Peg Carr. A Death of One's Own. By Gerda Lerner. Rev. by Carol Bininger. Allen, Jeffner. Lesbian Philosophy: Explorations. Rev. by Clare Bright. Allen-Callahan, Vicki. Rev. of The Power of the Image: Essays on Representation and Sexuality. By Annette Kuhn. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985. WSR 9.1 (1987): 15. Alpern, Sarah. Freda Kirchwey: A Woman of the Nation. Rev. byKevin White. The American Way of Birth. Ed. by Pamela S. Eakins. Rev. by Jacquelyn Slomka. An Afro-Victorian Feminist: The Life and Times of Adelaide Smith Casely Hayford 1868-1960. By Adelaide M. Cromwell. Rev. by Claire Robertson. Auerbach, Nina. Romantic Imprisonment: Women and Other Glorified Outcasts. Rev. by Terry Hartley. Barber, James David, and Barbara Kellerman, Ed. Women Leaders in American Politics. Rev. by Deborah Bokowski. Beau Secrets: Women and the Politics of A arance. By Wendy Chapkis. Rev. by Willa Young. kman, Judith. v. of Contemporary American omen Sculptors. By Virginia Watson-Jones. Phoenix: The Onyx Press, 1986. WSR 9.3 (1987): 27-28. Bedard, Marcia. "The Pain and The Power of Coming Of Age. 11 Rev. of Look Me In the Eye: Old Women, Aging and Arwm. By Barbara MacDonald with Cynthia Rich. San Francisco: Spinsters, Ink, 1983. omen and Aging, An Anthology By Women. Ed. by CALYX Editorial Collective. CALYX, 1987. In Her Prime: A New View of Middle-Aged Women. By Judith K. Brown, Virginia Kerns, and Contributors. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey, 1986. WSR 9.2 (1987): 2-4. Belcher, Diane Dewhurst. "The Fiction of Ding Ling." Rev. of Miss Sophie's Diary and Other Stories. Trans. W.J.F. Jenner. Beijing: Panda Books, 1985. Chinese Women Writers. Trans. Jennifer Anderson and Theresa Munford. San Francisco: China Books, 1985. The Sun Shines Over the Sanggan River. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1984. WSR 9.1 (1987): 16-18. Benson, Susan Porter. Counter Cultures: Saleswomen, Managers, and Customers in American Department Stores, 1890-1940. Rev. by Elizabeth Linder DaGue. Bininger, Carol. "Living With Death." Rev. of Exploding Into Life. By Dorothea Lynch. Photos by Eugene Richards. New York: Aperture, 1986. A Death of One's Own. By Gerda Lerner. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985. WSR 9.2 (1987): 7-8. Black Holes, Black Stockings. By Olga Broumas and Jane Miller. Rev. by Sue Lape. Blacker, Jean. Rev. of The Lady and the Virgin: Image, Attitude, and Experience in Twelfth- Century France. By Penny Schine Gold. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985. WSR 9.2 (1987): 24-26. Black Sistersn::ak Out: Feminism and Oppression in Black Africa. By Awa Thiam. Rev. by Tania alho. Bleier, Ruth. Feminist Approaches to Science. Rev. by Judith B. Moody. Bakowski, Deborah. Rev. of Women Leaders in American Politics. Ed. by James David Barber and Barbara Kellerman. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1985. WSR 9.1 (1987): 19-20. ------. Rev. of The Equal Rights Amendment: An Annotated Bibliography of the Issues, 1976-1985. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1986. WSR 9.3 (1987): 20-21. Borders. By Pat Mora. Rev. by Sue Lape. Bowers, Jane, and Judith Tick. Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition, 1150-1950. Rev. by Martha Maas. Brantenberg, Gerd. Egalia's Daughters: A Satire of the Sexes. Rev. by Kristin E. Robinson. Bright, Clare. Rev. of Lesbian Philosophy: Explorations. Palo Alto, CA: Institute of Lesbian Studies, 1986. WSR 9.1 (1987): 6-7. Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change. By Cynthia Cockburn. Rev. by Steven R. Mansfield. Broumas, Olga, and Jane Miller. Black Holes, Black Stockings. Rev. by Sue Lape. Brown, Judith C. Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy. Rev. by Leila Rupp. Brown, Judith K., Virginia Kerns and Contributors. In Her Prime: A New View of Middle-Aged Women. Rev. by Marcia Bedard. Budicki, Margaret. Splinters. Rev. by Sue Lape. Buhle, Mari Jo, and Florence Howe. The Silent Partner, a Novel, and "The Tenth of January". By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. Rev. by Steven Fink. CALYX Editorial Collective. Women and Aging, An Anthology By Women. Rev. by Marcia Bedard. The Campus Troublemakers: Academic Women in Protest. By Athena Theodore. Rev. by Peg Cruikshank. The Captain's Best Mate: The Journal of Mary Chipman Lawrence on the Whaler Addison, 1856-1860. Ed. by Stanton Garner. Rev. by eg Carr. Carr, Glynis. Rev. of Women's Folklore, Women's Culture. Ed. by Rosan A. Jordan and Susan J. Kalcik. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986. WSR 9.1 (1987): 22-23. ------. "Caribbean Women Writers: Resources for Research." Rev. of Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Ed. by Daryl Cumber Dance. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986. The Cross Cultural Study of Women: A Comprehensive Guide. Ed. by Margot Duley and Mary I. Edwards. New York: The Feminist Press, 1986. WSR 9.2 (1987): 15-17. ------. Rev. of The Story of Avis. By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. Ed. by Carol Farley Kessler. 1877; reprint New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1985. WSR 9.3 (1987): 25. Carr, Peg. Rev. of A Da~t A Time. Ed. by Margo Culley. New York: The Feminist Press, 1985. The Captain'st Mate: The Journal of Mary Chipman Lawrence on the Whaler Addison, 1856-1860. Hanover,NH: University Press of New England, 1986. WSR 9.1 (1987): 11-12. Casto, Kathy. ReY. of In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady-Stanton. By Elrsa.~th Griffith. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. WSR 9.2 (1987): 10-11. Chapkis, Wendy. Beauty Secrets: Women and the Politics of Appearance. Rev. by Willa Young. Chinese Women Writers. By Ding Ling. Rev. by Diane Dewhurst Belcher. Cockburn, Cynthia. Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change. Rev. by Steven R. Mansfield. Contemporary American Women Sculptors. By Virginia Watson-Jones. Rev. by Judith Beckman. Cora Sandel: Selected Short Stories. Trans .. by Barbara Wilson. Rev. by Linda Hunt. 26 - -

Corea, Gena. The Mother Machine: Re~roductive Technologies from Artificial Insemination to Artificial Wombs. Rev. by Helen uaert Holmes. Counter Cultures: Saleswomen Man rs and Customers in American De artment Stores 1890-1940. usan Porter nson. Rev. by · abet Linder a ue. Cox, Nancy. Rev. of Passion Fruit: Romantic Fiction with a Twist. Ed. by Jeanette Winterson. London: Pandora Press, 1986. WSR 9.3 (1987): 14-16. Cromwell, Adelaide M. An Afro-Victorian Feminist: The Life and Times of Adelaide Smith Ca.sely Hayford, 1868-1960. Rev. by Claire Robertson. The C1'088 Cultural Study of Women: A Comprehensive Guide. Ed. by Margot Duley and Mary I. Edwards. Rev. by Glynis Carr. Cruikshank, Peg. Rev. of The Campus Troublemakers: Academic Women in Protest. By Athena Theodore. Houston: Cap and Gown Press, 1986. WSR 9.3 (1987): 2-3. ------. Rev. of Discovering Wellness in a Nursing Home. By Bobbie Graubarth-Szyller, Juliana Padgett, and Jules Weiss. New Orleans: Longevity Therapy, 1987. WSR 9.4 (1987): 5-6. Culley, Margo. A Day At A Time. Rev. by Peg Carr. DaGue, Elizabeth Linder. Rev. of Counter Cultures: Saleswomen, Managers and Customers in American ~ment Stores, 1890-1940. By Susan Porter Benson. 0rbana: University of Illinois , 1986. WSR 9.2 (1987): 13-15. ------. Rev. of The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality 1880-1930. By Sheila Jeffreys. London: Pandora Press, 1985. WSR 9.4 (1987): 20-21. Dance, Daryl Cumber. Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Blo=1'3ibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Rev. by Glynis Carr. Davidson, Bonnie. Pacific Soul. Rev. by Sue Lape. de Hoyos, Angela. Woman, Woman. Rev. by Sue Lape. Ding, Ling. Chinese Women Writers. Trans. W.J.F. Jenner. Rev. by Diane Dewhurst Belcher. ------. Miss Sophie's Diary and Other Stories. Trans. Jennifer Anderson and Theresa Munford. Rev. by Diane Dewhurst Belcher. ------. The Sun Shines Over the San~ River. Rev. by Diane Dewhurst Belcher. Discovering Wellness in a Nursing Home. By Bore Graubarth-Szyller, Juliana Padgett, and Jules Weiss. Rev. by Margaret Cruikshank. Donovan, Josephine. Feminist Theory: The Intellectual Tradition of American Feminism. Rev. by Leila Rupp. ------. Rev. of Making a Difference: Feminist Literary Criticism. By Gayle Green and Coppelia Kahn. London: Methuen, 1985. WSR 9.2 (1987): 22-24. Doubiago, Sharon. Hard Country. Rev. by Sue Lape. Duley, Margot, and Mary I. Edwards. The Cross Cultural Study of Women: A Comprehensive Guide. Rev. by Glynis Carr. Egalia's Daughters: A Satire of the Sexes. By Gard Brantenberg. Rev. by Kristin E. Robinson. Elsa: I Come With My Songs, The Autobiography of Elsa Gidlow. By Elsa Gidlow. Rev. by Joyce Fee. Elsasser, Nan, Kyle MacKenzie, and Yvonne Tixier y Vigil. Las Mujeres: Conversations from a Hispanic Community.Rev. by Maria C. Gonzalez. ual Pa for Com arable Worth: The Workin Woman's Issue of the Ei hties. By Frances C. utner. v. by Virginia Midkiff. The Equal Rights Amendment: An Annotated Bibliography of the Issues, 1976-1985. Comp. by Renee Feinberg. Rev. by Deborah Bokowski. Evans, Elizabeth. Rev. of Adios, Mr. Moxley. Thirteen Stories. By Josephine Jacobsen. Winston- Salem, NC: The Jack Pine Press, 1986. WSR 9.3 (1987): 26-27. Exploding Into Life. By Dorothea Lynch. Photos by Eugene Richards. Rev. by Carol Bininger. Fee, Joyce. Elsa: I Come With My Songs, The Autobiography of Elsa Gidlow. By Elsa Gidlow. San Francisco: Booklegger Press and Druid Heights Books, 1986. WSR 9.4 (1987): 15-17. Feinberg, Renee. The Equal Rights Amendment: An Annotated Bibliography of the Issues, 1976- 1985. Rev. by Deborah Bokowski. Feminist Approaches to Science. By Ruth Bleier. Rev. by Judith B. Moody. Feminist Theory: The Intellectual Tradition of American Feminism. By Josephine Donovan. Rev. by Leila Rupp. Ferguson, Marjorie. Forever Feminine: Women's Magazines and the Cult of Femininity. Rev. by Willa Young. Ferguson, Moira. First Feminists: British Women Writers, 1578-1799. Rev. by Barbara McGovern. ------. Rev. of Jane Austen: Feminism and Fiction. By Margaret Kirkham. Sussex: Harvester Press; Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble, 1983. Methuen, 1986. WSR 9.4 (1987): 19-20. Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Ed. by---uiryl Cumber Dance. Rev. by Glynis Carr. Fink, Steven. Rev. of The Silent Partner, a Novel, and "The Tenth of January". By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. New York: The Feminist Press, 1983. WSR 9.3 (1987): 23-25. First Feminists: British Women Writers, 1578-1799. Ed. and with an Intro. by Moira Ferguson. Rev. by Barbara McGovern. Flynn, Elizabeth A. and Patrocinio P. Schweickart. Gender and Reading: Essays on Readers, Texts, and Contexts. Rev. by Nancy M. Grace. Forever Feminine: Women's Magazines and the Cult of Femininity. By Marjorie Ferguson. Rev. by Willa Young. Freda Kirchwey: A Woman of the Nation. By Sarah Alpern. Rev. by Kevin White. "From Feminist Parables to Woman-Church: Affirming our Multi-Faceted Spirituality and Inherent Power." By Roseanne Hoeffel Garner, Stanton. The Captain's Best Mate: The Journal of Mary Chipman Lawrence on the Whaler Addison, 1856-1860. Rev. by Peg Carr. Gender and Reading: Essays on Readers, Texts, and Contexts. Ed. by Elizabeth A. Flynn and Patrocinio P. Schweickart. Rev. by Nancy M. Grace. German Women in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: A Social and Literary History. Ed. by Ruth-Ellen B. Joeres and Mary Jo Maynes. Rev. by Erliss Glass. Gidlow, Elsa. Elsa: I Come Wilth My Songs, The Autobiography of Elsa Gidlow. Rev. by Joyce Fee. Glass, Erliss. Rev. of German Women in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Certuries: A Social and Literary History. Ed. by Ruth-Ellen B. Joeres and Mary Jo Maynes. WSR 9.1 (1987): 15-16. Gold, Penny Schine. The Lady and the Virgin: Image, Attitude, and Experience in Twelfth- Centruy France. Rev. by Jean Blacker. Gonzalez, Maria C. Rev. of Las Mu·eres: Conversations from a His anic Communit . By Nan Elsasser, Kyle MacKenzie, and vonne Tixier y igel. 1980; rpt. New York: The Feminist Press, 1983. WSR 9.3 (1987): 6-8. Goscilo, Helena. Russian and Polish Women's Fiction. Rev. by Laura Weeks. Grace, Nancy M. Rev. of Gender and Reading: Essays on Readers, Texts, and Contexts. Ed. by Elizabeth A. Flynn and Patrocinio P. Schweickart. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986. WSR 9.1 (1987): 13-15. Graubarth-Szyller, Bobbie, Juliana Padgett, and Julesd Weiss. Discovering Wellness in a Nursing Home. Rev. by Margaret Cruikshank. Green, Gayle, and Coppelia Kahn. Making a Difference: Feminist Literary Criticism. Rev. by Josephine Donovan. Griffith, Elisabeth. In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Rev. by Kathy Casto. Growing Up Female: Adolescent Girlhood In American Fiction. By Barbara A. White. Rev. by Susan Koppelman. Hall, Ann C. Rev. of Playbook. By Maxine Klein, Lydia Sargent, and Howard Zinn. Boston: South End Press, 1986. WSR 9.2 (1987): 17-18. Hard Country. By Sharon Doubiago. Rev. by Sue Lape. Hartley, Terry. Rev. of Romantic Imprisonment: Women and Other Glorified Outcasts. By Nina Auerbach. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985. WSR 9.1 (1987): 7-9. Hoeffel, Roseanne. "From Feminist Parables to Woman-Church: Aff'll'IDing our Multi-Facited Spirituality and Inherent Power." WSR 9.4 ( 1987): 17 -19. Holmes, Helen Bequaert Holmes. Rev. oT'l'he Mother Machine: Reproductive Technologies from Artificial Insemination to Artificial Wombs. By Gena Corea. New York: Harper & Row, 1985. WSR 9.1 (1987): 2-3. Huffman, Sharon. Kate & Allie. WSR 9.4 (1987): 12-13. Hunt, Linda. Rev. of Cora Sandel: Selected Short Stories. Trans. by Barbara Wilson. Seattle: Seal Press, 1985. WSR 9.1 (1987): 18. Hutner, Frances C. Equa!Pay for Comparable Worth: The Working Woman's Issue of the Eighties. Rev. by Virginia Midkiff. HydroOothic Highway to Health: Women and Water-Cure in Antibellum America. By Jane B. negan. Rev. by Jacquelyn Slomka. Hyers, Suzanne. Rev. of Lesbian Etiquette. By Gail Sa1188er. Trumansburg, NY: The Crossing Press, 1986. WSR 9.2 (1987): 26-27. Immodest Acts: TiieTife of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy. By Judith C. Brown. Rev. by Leila Rupp. In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. By Elisabeth Griffith. Rev. by Cathy Casto. In Her Prime: A New View of Middle-Aged Women. By Judith K. Brown, Virginia Kerns, and Contributors. Rev. by Marcia Bedard. Jacobsen, Josephine. Adios, Mr. Moxley. Thirteen Stories. Rev. by Elizabeth Evans. Jane Austen: Feminism and Fiction. By Margaret Kirkham. Rev. by Moira Ferguson. Jeffreys, Sheila. The Spinster and Her Enemies: Femirusm and Sexuality 1880-1930. Rev. by Elizabeth Linder DaGue. Jelinek, Estelle C. The Tradition of Women's Autobiography: From Antiquity to the Present. Rev. by Jacquelyn Marie. Joeres, Ruth-Ellen B. and Mary Jo Maynes. German Women in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: A Social and Literary History. Rev. by Erliss Glass. Jordan, Roean A., and Susan J. Kalcik. Women's Folklore, Women's Culture. Rev. by Glynis Carr. Kano, Susan. Makin~ Peace With Food: A Step-By-Step Guide to Freedom from Diet/Weight Conflict. Rev. y Chris Smithies. Kate & Allie. By Sharon Huffman. Kirkham, Margaret. Jane Austen: Feminism and Fiction. Rev. by Moira Ferguson. Klein, Maxine, Lydia Sargent, and Howard Zinn. Pli

Beecher, Maureen Ursenbach and Lavina Fielding Anderson. Sisters in Spirit: Mormon Women in Historical and Cultural Perspective. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987. The Bodybuilding Woman. Serial. New York: Symmetry Publishing, Inc. Evans, Mary. Jane Austen and the State. New York: Tavistock Publications, 1987. Fisher, Sue. In the Patient's Best Interest: Women and the Politics of Medical Decisions. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1986. Flowers, Ronald Barri. Women and Criminality. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1987. Franklin, Margaret Ann and Ruth Sturmey Jones, eds. Opening the Cage: Stories of Church and Gender. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1987. Gelles, Richard J. Family Violence. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc., 1987. Graham, John. Women in Chess. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 1987. Jackson, Douglas N. and J. Philippe Rushton, eds. Scientific Excellence. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, 1987. Knauss, Peter R. The Persistance of Patriarchy. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1987. McK.inlay, John B., ed. Issues in the Political Economy of Health Care. New York: Tavistock Publications, 1984. Mernissi, Fatima. Be ond the Veil: Male-Female namics in Modern Muslim Societ . Bloomington: Indiana University ress, 1987. Moldow, Gloria. Women Doctors in Gilded-Age Washington. Champaign, IL: University o Illinois Press, 1987. Nickerson, Elinor. Golf: A Women's History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc., 1987. Oggel, L. Terry, ed. The Letters and Notebooks of Mary Devlin Booth. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Inc., 1987. Schmidt, Josephine A. H There Are No More Heroes. There Are Heroines: A Feminist Critique of Corneille's Heroines, 1637- 1643. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, Inc., 1987. Spitzer, Robert J. The Right to Life Movement and Third Party Politics. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Inc., 1987. Unterbrink, Mary. Funny Women: American Comediennes, 1860-1985. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc., 1987.

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