Sexual Poltics: The Legacy

I appreciate Sheila Tobias and her work; however, this book is stilted to give more of a negative commentary toward young feminisms. In fact, it's quite dismissive of a post-second wave feminist movement or ideology. The work is expansive and indeed offers a reflection of a big name in the field of women's studies. And, the book is worth reading, but with the warning that it exudes an at times part of that sanctimonious "mother" explaining what she has done and how you the "daughter" should be grateful. I can't help but also personalize this book based on her immediate and loud exit from Rebecca Walker's talk at Smith College. Even if Tobia didn't mean to do so--her exit looked like-- the roundtable wasn't worth her listening to. This book is written for an academic audience in Women's Studies, Women's History, and the like.

Is it over? Did it really happen? Why was the women's movement so appealing (to women) and so potent in getting age-old barriers overturned and age-old attitudes changed? And then, why did it fizzle? Even as high-achieving women moved into power in the private sector? even more ambitious women into Governorships? the Congress? perhaps the Presidency? "Faces of Feminism" explains it all: the assumption made by Feminists that all women, once enlightened, i.e. once they encountered the ideas of Betty Friedan, Kate Millett, and Germaine Greer would become feminists. (Wrong. Politically conservative women turned hostile.) And that all men, no matter what their political stripe, would oppose women's equality. Wrong again. Tobias comes an activist's recall (with a focus on people and events) with a historian's perspective and a willingness to challenge and critique - not the Women's Movement's goals - but some of its strategies and tactics. She divides the Movement into three phrases defined by the issues Feminists tackled: At first, equity issues (equal, pay, equal access to jobs, to credit, to business clubs (like the Rotary); then role-change issues, having to do with athletics (and athletic scholarships), combat, and the perqs that accrue to soldiers in War Zones, sexual equity - including abortion on demand and child care." Off came the gloves and out came the Big Guns calling for "Stop. Enough." Suddenly, the "family" needed to be defended. With third-generation issues, so called by Tobias because they divided feminists one from another, there was much to disagree about: whether there was room in the women's movement for women of color, whether pornography should be prohibited, or allowed under Free Speech, whether combat,e ven military service was good for women, and whether women should be encouraged to do "women's work" but just paid more; or pressed to fully desegregate the world of work. The book starts with a brief recap of the first wave - the women's suffrage movement and links women's coming of age both to the Vote and to their unstoppable entry into the U.S. labor force. It is entirely focused on the U.S. and especially the period 1963-1997. Highly recommended by the author.

Here is an excellent retrospective on the women's movement from the first wave to the present, in all its ramifications.Tobias does well in describing the various forms of feminism and in discussing the conflicts within the movement today.