Daughters of Feminists/Young Women With Feminist Mothers Talk About Their Lives - Hardcover

Glickman, Rose L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312097786 ISBN 13: 9780312097783

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1993

Synopsis

Fifty young women describe how their mother's feminism has shaped their own values, choices, and goals, and discuss their views on sexuality and feminity, work, private and public images and roles

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

A pastiche of interviews with daughters of women who struggled individually and collectively as part of the women's movement of the 60's and 70's. Although Glickman (Russian Factory Women, 1984--not reviewed) raises many women's issues here--sex, politics, racism, and class prejudice among them--her work may be lost in the shadow of Mother Daughter Revolution, by Elizabeth Debold et al. (reviewed above). Glickman sought out 50 women in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago to find out how their mothers' commitments to feminism had affected their lives. The cross-section of daughters included women from conventional families and mother-only families; African- Americans, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic whites; lesbians; and married-women-with-children. What the author found was both gratifying and disturbing from the feminist point of view: Most daughters admire their mothers' struggles and appreciate the benefits passed on to them--but they don't want to repeat the battles and would rather write checks to feminist causes than organize ``movement'' groups. Daughters have learned from their mothers that economic self-sufficiency is mandatory, but also that careers that ``make a difference'' are more important than big bucks: Though many approach their lives and work with a social conscience, concern for the environment is likely to override the advancing of a feminist cause. Some women even shy away from calling themselves feminists, and, although they resent the so- called ``fake feminism''--TV ads and sitcoms that show women juggling career, marriage, and mothering without a wrinkle in their silk blouses--they're too distracted by daily demands to find remedies to it. Unfortunately, Glickman doesn't help much. Despite a few provocative insights about the differences between privileged white feminists and African-American and Hispanic feminists, she's chosen to ignore any discussion of the mother-daughter relationship, surely critical in passing along a women's agenda. Bland conversations informed largely by the author's profeminist bias. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Interviews with 50 young women whose mothers were engaged feminists throughout their parenting years are the basis for Glickman's enlightening study. Her subjects live in New York City, western New York state, Chicago, and the San Francisco Bay area; their mothers are among feminism's committed participants but not its national media darlings. Glickman explores a wide range of issues with these young women, aged 18 to 35: their attitudes toward the word "feminism" and the experience of "growing up feminist"; their fantasies and expectations; their ideas about femininity, work, friendship, sexual options, single life, marriage, and parenthood; their evolving relationships with their own mothers; and their hopes--and sense of responsibility--about the future. Glickman's subjects include women of all races and sexual preferences, from urban, suburban, and small-town backgrounds; their opinions reflect these differences and the personal choices these 50 individuals have made as well as the child's-eye view of the women's movement they share. Daughters of Feminists vividly demonstrates the inadequacy of facile media oversimplifications about the women of Generation X. Mary Carroll

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0312097786
• ISBN 13: 9780312097783
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192