An outspoken opponent of ideological feminism dissects the changing roles of women over the last fifty years in this energetic, pithy memoir.
Over the past few years, young voices from Katie Roiphe to Wendy Shalit have started to question the assumptions of women's lives since the advent of feminism and the sexual revolution. But how did we get from there to here? A well-known essayist, editor, and lecturer, Midge Decter's conservative stands on modern social issues have historically raised controversy. An Old Wife's Tale is her thoughtful, pointed examination of the role of women over the last sixty years, as viewed through the lens of her own life. From stories of her youth during after World War II to wry observations about the supposedly oppressed housewives who were her peers in suburban Long Island, to analysis of her later roles as single mother, publishing executive, happily married woman, and doting grandmother, Decter takes unstinting aim at those who in her view have completely reordered the roles and expectations of both men and women--with confusion and misery the result for both.
Midge Decter is an author and editor whose essays and reviews have appeared in Harper's, The Atlantic, National Review, The New Republic, and The Weekly Standard. A regular contributor to Commentary, she is also the author of several books, the most recent being An Old Wife's Tale. She is a member of the board of the Heritage Foundation, the Center for Security Policy, First Things magazine of the Institute on Religion and Public Life, and the Clare Boothe Luce Fund, and she lectures widely on a variety of subjects, from the family to foreign policy. She lives in New York City with her husband, author Norman Podhoretz.
