In This Issue

In this issue: Reviews Review of Harry Shaffer's Women in the Two Germanies: A Page 2 Comparative Study of a Socialist and a Non-Socialist Society by Leslie Adelson Review of Anne Cameron's Daughter of Copper Woman Page 3 by Lore_ne Ludy Review of Kate Millett's Going to Iran Page 4 by Leila Rupp Review of Alice Walker's The Color Purple: A Novel Page 5 - by W. Maurice Shipley Review of European Women on the Left: Socialism, Feminism, Page 5 and the Problems Faced by Political Women, 1880 to the Present. Edited by Jane Slaughter and Robert Kern ~ by Beth Green Litwak ,' Review of Virginia Huffer's The Sweetness of the Fig: Page 8 Aboriginal Women in Transition by Erika Bourguignon Review of Naila Minai's Women in Islam: Tradition and Page 9 Transition in the Middle East by Marsha Mcclintock Review of Latin American Woman: The Meek Speak Out. Page 9 Edited by June H. Turner by Cynthia Steele Review of Real Life: Writers from Nine- Countries Illuminate Page 10 the Life of the Modern Woman by Toyo S. Kawakami Review of Marianne Katoppo's Compassionate and Free: An Page 11 Asian Woman's Theology by Roberta Miller Author/Title Index to Women's Studies Review, Vol. 4, 1982 Women in the Two Germanies: A Comparative Study of a Socialist and a Non-Socialist Society. By Harry G. Shaffer. New York: Pergamon Press, 1981. Leslie Adelson, OSU, Dept. of German Focusing on the issue of women's rights and roles in pressed group from the state, which may or may not the law, at the workplace, in the schools, and in have their best interests at heart. Similarly, the public life, Harry Shaffer critically compares life heavy emphasis on family life--married women with for women in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) children--overlooks all the issues that modern femi- with that in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). nism has raised about lifestyles and sexuality. By His premise is first of all an historical one. An claiming to discuss only what applies specifically introduction stresses a common socio-political tra- to women and then proceeding to elaborate on how dition, which the FRG more or less maintained in its laws, work, education, and home life affect married legal constitution, but which ·the GDR firmly reject- women with children, Shaffer reveals the bias that ed when the two modern states were founded in 1949 the nuclear family is indeed the proper, albeit not after the end of World War II. The considerable ad- sole domain for women. The question as to how wome vancement for women which Shaffer ascertains in the can pursue an education and "their family obliga- GDR as compared with the FRG is attributable, he ar- tions" at the same time is one that could be raised gues, to the fact that the GDR plans for the good of with regard to _men as well but is not. More signi- society as a whole. The FRG, as the "non-socialist" ficantly, Shaffer's bias allows for no fundamental country, has failed to pursue such a radical course critique of the institution of family per se. Wome:r:i for changing women's lot.,.in society. This is not to in non-family situations are given, at best, minimal say, however, that th'e GDR has achieved true equali- attention. ty for women, nor that in every instance women in the GDR have more rights than their counterparts in Women in the Two Germanies· eschews any theoretical the FRG. A discussion of the labor laws concerning reflection on feminist politics altogether. It is pay, maternity leave, and child care provisions not insignificant that the abundant statistical sur- points out, for example, that housework is legally veys cited are frequently government surveys. Like- valued in the FRG, while it is not in the GDR. Wom- wise, the women's organizations discussed in one en in the latter country also often receive somewhat chapter are by and large affiliated with traditional lower salaries than their male colleagues. The ar- political parties or, ·very broadly, with women in gument that it is easier for women in the GDR to particular professions. The word feminist appears combine family and career is essentially qualified in quotation marks, while Shaffer draws from the two pages later by a discussion of the extra demands very moderate newspaper publication Die ·Zeit for a made on female workers in the GDR to be model moth- definition of feminist goals. The statement that ers and housewives as well without the benefit of a the West German women's movement is in its formative radical reassessment of men's responsibilities in stages is all the more striking given Shaffer's cu- family life. Indeed, Shaffer concludes that the rious silence on the development of the women's family roles in both countries have to change signi- movement over the past decade, particularly as it ficantly if true equality of the sexes is to be related to the experience of the student protest achieved. movement in the FRG. While citing only· one official women's organization in the GDR, Shaffer unfortu- While Women in the Two Germanies certainly provides nately probes no further. The failure to consider many interesting and important details of various recent developments in feminist culture is an over- aspects of German women's lives in the twentieth sight for which- his treatment of both countries can century and Shaffer most definitely cannot be be equally faulted. It is perhaps even more mis- faulted for failing to take the GDR seriously, the leading in the case of the GDR, where women writers lacunae in this study are glaring for a book pub- have been raising questions that find no other pub- lished in 1981 on the status of women in German so- lic forum. (Notable among them is the author Chris- ciety. Shaffer's microscopic stated interest in ta Wolf, who will be a Distinguished Visiting Pro- women's rights obscures a broader vision of feminism fessor in German and Women's Studies at OSU in as something that extends beyond equality between Spring 1983.) the sexes to a more radical transformation of exist- ing societies. Tellingly, patriarchy is never at Shaffer concludes his study with the finding that issue in Sbaffer's book. The assumption that the . neither in the FRG nor in the GDR is there complete state in the GDR plans for the good of society at equality for women, who must exert more effort them- large and that this automatically implies the good selves to achieve it. To be sure, this is a politi- of women ignores the hardly esoteric issue of patri- cal reality. Yet, this exertion must also be a men- archy in a socialist economy. The repeated refer- tal one. Strategies for achieving radical equality ence to the FRG and the GDR as female entities presuppose the asking of radical questions. One (she/her) is a minor detail that nonetheless under- will look in vain for them in Women in the Two Ger- scores the failure to distinguish women as an op- manies. I -!-------------------------------------------- Daughters of Copper Woman. By Anne Cameron. Vancouver, B.C.: Press Gang Publishers, 19Hl. Lorene Ludy, OSV, Unfverafty Ubrarfes This book fullfills the promise of the back cover the historical past: the arrival of Europeans and teaser: "Wea Ying together the lives of mythic and the disruption of the matriarchal culture. The So- Imaginary characters, Daughters of Cop,er Woman ciety of Women, the keeper of the values instilled offen a shining vision of womanhood. o how the by the myths, is threatened with destruction and be- apirltual and social power of women--though relent- comes secret. The twentieth-century characters--Su- leaely challenged--can Endure and Survive." zy, the narator Kt-Ki, and the child Liniculla-- emerge between the tales Granny recounts about the The book beiins with myths. Copper Woman le strand- resistance to the invadiRg patriarchy. And the mo- ed in a new land and survives with the advice and tive for telling the stories is made clear. "This •glc of Old Ones. She creates the incomplete man- isn't stuff just for Nootka, or just for Indian, or nDdn, Snot Boy, with whom she conceives a daughter just for Indian women, or just for the few of us in llowita. After a fiood, the daughten of Copper Wom- the society. This stuff is for women." Women all an and sons of Mowita repopulate the world: "One over the world, the daughters of Copper Woman, have oouple became the parents of the black people, one been preserving their piece of the truth, and when oouple became the parents of the yellow people, one all the pieces are united women wW know their Wom- oouple became the parents of the white people, and anspirlt. "We must reach out to our sisters, all of one couple became the parents of the Indian people, our sisters, and ask them to share their truth with and so we are all related, for we all come from the us, offer to share our truth with them •••• The last Belly of Copper Woman." Mowita learns to Ii ve with treasure we have, the secrets of the matriarchy, can her solitude, then is joined by Copper Woman, to- be shared and honoured by women, and be proof there 1ether producing children of happinellB. My brief ts another way, a better way, and some of us remem- reoounting does not do justice to the power of these ber it." •yths and the embodied meHages about women.

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