|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Women's
Studies
|
    |
| Click
here for current Cover to Cover
Women's Studies titles on ABE Will open in a new window - prices in UK Pounds. |
A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water. Eleanor Roosevelt |
| Selected Titles: |
 |
What is She Like? Lesbian Identities from the 1950s to the 1990s Rosa Ainley Cassell 1st 1995 'Dyke', 'queer', 'diesel', 'butch', 'femme', 'zami', 'drag king', 'lesbian feminist', 'kush', 'sapphic' — just some of the names we use to describe ourselves, these 'labels' make a statement about how we identify as lesbians, be it sexually, politically, socially or simply as a fashion statement. But what are 'we' really like? In What Is She Like? Rosa Ainley looks in depth at how lesbians see themselves and at the questions of identity that have always defined and divided the lesbian community. Covering the period from the 1950s, with its repressive influence on sexuality in general, through so-called sexual liberation in the 1960s, to the freedoms and limitations of (lesbian) feminism in the 1970s, she brings exciting and illuminating perspectives to bear on lesbian lives in the 1990s, when lipstick lesbians are the darlings of the mainstream media. Ainley deconstructs the bizarre popular myths and stereotypes which often surround the twilight world of lesbianism, substituting for them a celebration of the multifarious nature of the lesbian subculture which has evolved during the late twentieth century. In a series of fascinating interviews interspersed with the text, over twenty women, of varying ages, races and backgrounds, talk frankly about their lives and lifestyles as lesbians, focusing on their own identity in terms of politics, leisure pursuits, fashion and affiliations. Rosa Ainley is an editor, writer and photographer. Past publications include Death of a Mother: Daughter's Tales (Pandora 1995). Her work has appeared in a range of publications from The Guardian to Town and Country Planning to Diva. 8vo. Glazed pictorial boards. Fine+. 475 gms £25.00 |
Ingenious Women - from tincture of saffron to flying machines Deborah Jaffe. F'word by Sandy Toksvig Sutton Publishing 1st in paperback 2004 From preserving saffron to windscreen wipers, dishwashers to bras, women have invented countless unusual and ingenious devices and gadgets. Huge, profitable companies exist as a result of the ideas of women like Melitta Bentz, who devised filter papers for coffee. The ideas of Countess Ada Lovelace were crucial to Charles Babbage and his work on the analytical engine. Yet most female inventors have been denied their place in history, even though they have been at the heart of it. Ingenious Women examines an intriguing cross-section of female inventors from aroundthe world, beginning with the first British woman patent-holder in 1637 andending with Maria Montessori's educational equipment in 1914. Margaret Knight,an American, eventually won a lengthy court battle with her employer which allowed her to retain ownership of her patent for a machine to make flat?bottomed paper bags. Martha Coston also had a fight on her hands when shedeveloped her late husband's idea for signal flares at sea, as the navy claimed itwas theirs. Madame Roxey Caplin was awarded the prize medal as 'Manufacturer, Designer and Inventor' at the Great Exhibition in 1851 for her corset designs, but two patents which were taken out, based on joint designs, were in her husband's name.In this fascinating book, Deborah Jaffe introduces the women who saw themselves as inventors, electricians, engineers, milliners, nurses, motorcar drivers, gentlewomen, spinsters, wives or duchesses, and gives them their rightful title of 'ingenious women'. The outbreak of the First World War was a watershed in women's lives but, as this book shows, their innovative ideas had already been making an impact on all our lives for nearly 300 years. 4to paperback 210 pages. Very, very small area of delamination at foot of front cover, otherwise Fine 565 gms £5.00 |
 |
 |
Women and Mystical Experience in the Middle Ages Frances Beer Boydell Press 1st 1992 This book is a study of three medieval women, Hildegard of Bingen, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Julian of Norwich, all of whom were mystics. Although they differed radically in temperament, they largely transcended the antifeminism of their times — perhaps as a result of the confidence arising from their extraordinary spiritual experiences — and articulated their special revelations, even when they diverged from orthodox doctrine, in their writings. Each of the women is here more fully revealed to a 20th-century audience by Frances Beer's close textual analysis of her work, supported by such biographical detail as remains. Their social milieu and historical context, carefully considered, also help us to understand them as individuals: however liberated, they are to some extent products of their environments. Hildegard's perception of her Creator is informed by the heroic ideal, while Mechthild's erotic experience seems to reveal the influence of the minnesingers. The solitary Julian's experience of tender intimacy with her Lord, to be shared with any who would be Christ's lovers, reveals an egalitarian confidence in the ability of the individual soul to progress towards oneness with the divine. Each
of the writers displays her `womanliness' in a variety of ways —Hildegard
by the inclusion of grand female figures such as Ecclesia and Synagogue,
MechthiId by the elevation of the Virgin to divine status, equal to her
son, and Julian by her understanding of the motherhood of God. Their individual
natures are also further revealed through the author's examination of
their resolution of a number of theological problems. By contrast, the
works of two medieval men writing for women are also explored, for an
indication of the degree to which their approach might be informed by
antifeminism, and to compare their approach to the experience of union
with that of Hildegard, Mechthild or Julian. |
More than Munitions - women, work and the engineering industries 1900-1950 Clare Wightman Longman 1st 1999 In this important new book, Clare Wightman examines the role of gender in explaining the experiences of women and men at work. Taking women's employment in the engineering industries between 1900 and 1950 as her focus, Dr Wightman challenges the special place given to male dominance in many of the existing accounts of women's work and looks afresh at contentious issues. The result is a lively book which will be of enduring interest to students and academics alike in the fields of gender, social, and economic history. As a source of paid work the engineering industry is enormously important. Not only were women employed in both World Wars making munitions and weapons, but they also worked in the newly-emerging manufacturing industries which were to play a key part in the life of the twentieth century. It was women engineering workers who made consumer goods like light bulbs, refrigerators, radios, televisions, and telephones, as well as wind-screen wipers and ignitions for cars. A focus on this sector is highly relevant for a better understanding of the complexity of women's working lives in the first half of the twentieth century. The book opens with an introduction to the theories behind women's employment followed by two general, scene setting chapters: the first on women's paid work generally (including comparisons drawn with the United States .and continental Europe) and the second on the nature of the engineering industry between 1900 and 1950. Clare Wightman then goes on to examine the whole history of women in the engineering industry during this period. In particular, she explores women's experiences during the First and Second World War, the significance of mass production and assembly lines and women's relations with employers and the trade unions. She looks at what happens to the concepts of 'women's work' and 'women's pay'. Designed with a student and academic readership in mind, this book is an important addition to the literature. It is the first study to tackle the nature and structure of women's employment in the important and apparently masculine engineering industry during an era of rapid technical change. Accessible, engaging, bang up-to-date, and at times controversial, More than Munitions is sure to be widely welcomed. 8vo paperback 207 pages, ex library. Minor bumps + wear to edges of covers, otherwise VG+. 245 gms £20.00 |
 |
 |
From Reverence to Rape - the treatment of women in the movies Molly Haskell New English Library 1st 1975 YOU'VE COME A LONG WAY BABY... AND IT'S ALL BEEN DOWNHILL. From the tremulous virgins and rip-roaring flappers of the Silents to the raped and brutalised sex objects of the sixties and seventies, the treatment of women in the movies is a tale of betrayal. Where once the movie industry backed films that highlighted the strength and independence of such stars as Dietrich, Hepburn, Crawford and Stanwyck, today we are given blatantly sexist films in which women are dehumanised and demeaned. `The closer women come to claiming their rights and achieving independence in real life, the more loudly and stridently films tell us it's a man's world.' FROM REVERENCE TO RAPE - sardonic, pungent, funny and informed - is a chronicle of these changes. Controversial and genuinely original, it takes a tough look at sex and sexism in the movies and, in so doing, tells us as much about our culture and ourselves as it does about our films. For the treatment of women in the movies is more than a question of art or entertainment. If films have flattered and amused us, reflecting our most cherished beliefs, they have also distorted truth and reinforced delusions, perpetuating stereotypes and shaping values. FROM REVERENCE TO RAPE is both a portrait of our past and an interpretation of our present. In the force of its argument, it is perhaps also a signpost for the future. But FROM REVERENCE TO RAPE is also a vivid and witty history of the movies of the glitter and the gossip, the creative flair and the plain hard work that have gone into six decades of movie-making. In the words of Richard Roud, programme director of the New York Film Festival and film critic for the Guardian, Most books on women in movies read as if they had been composed by a computer. Molly Haskell scores because she is as much interested in movies as she is in women. And her knowledge of film history and her critical sense make FROM REVERENCE TO RAPE not only a penetrating survey of the way women have been portrayed in movies, but also a very revealing study of film itself. Her thesis - that the situation has deteriorated over the years - seems at first unlikely. By the end, one is totally convinced.' 8vo. Page edges slightly tanned, otherwise VG++ in a VG++ wrapper. 720 gms £12.00 |
A New Woman Reader - fiction, articles, drama of the 1890s Carolyn Christensen Nelson (ed) Broadview Press 2001 "This is a timely and marvellously useful anthology. Packed full of unabridged key documents from the period, Nelson's A New Woman Reader is a significant contribution to the burgeoning field of fin-de-si~cle studies. It will also be an invaluable teaching tool: the choice of contextual material to support the short stories and New Woman play is unerringly judicious." Salty Ledger, Birkbeck College, University of London In the 1890s one phrase above all stood as shorthand for the various controversies over gender that swirled throughout the period: "the New Woman." In New Woman fiction, progressive writers such as Sarah Grand, George Egerton, and Ella D'Arcy gave imaginative life to the plight of modern women—and reactionaries such as Grant Allen attempted to put women back in their place. In all the leading journals of the day these and other writers argued their cases in essays, letters, and reviews as well as in fiction. This anthology brings together for the first time a representative selection of the most important, interesting, and influential of New Woman writings. "This
collection of essential texts, introducing and discussing |
 |
| TOP |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|