what if women ran the world
What if women ruled the world?
Feminist manifestos, anthologies, histories, and other writings by women
Introduction
This category of the website is here primarily as a supplement to the books discussed in Chapter 9b of Volume II of my book, Book About Books. I would eventually like to include here an annotated bibliography of several dozen books, but I have not yet read the books I want to add here. So it will be quite some time before I can add more, including manifestos and anthologies.
The main purpose of this category is to see what kind of world women would have made if they had been given the power to do so. This is not the same as simply electing or appointing women into positions in existing institutions, which is not to say that electing or appointing women would not make any difference, but rather that they would be severely constrained in their effect even if they wanted to improve the world from such positions.
Annotated Bibliography
Daring to be Bad: Radical Feminism in America 1967-1975, by Alice Echols (University of Minnesota Press, 1989)
This book is a history of a part of what was called the second wave of feminism. This book is very helpful in trying to understand that feminism was never a unified movement but consisted of various competing ideas.
Saturday’s Child: a Memoir, by Robin Morgan (W.W. Norton, 2000)
Robin Morgan was one of the major figures of second-wave feminism in the U.S.
Taking It Like a Woman: a Personal History, by Ann Oakley (Random House, 1984)
Ann Oakley was one of the major writers about second-wave feminism in the U.K.
Download – Ch6 of Living with the Sphinx
Living with the Sphinx is a book about feminist psychotherapy. The above chapter addresses the subject of abortion, one of the most controversial issues in the U.S. I am hardly an expert on the subject, but I feel it is impossible to discuss feminism without discussing abortion. See my comments on abortion in Chapter 9b and in the Conclusion of Volume II of my book and additional information here.
Download – Richard Taylor journal articles
These two journal articles about politics and abortion are comments by philosopher Richard Taylor, several of whose books I discuss in Chapter 8 of Volume II of my book. I consider Richard Taylor to be one of the outstanding teachers of philosophy, so I wanted to include his views here.
Finally, there are other kinds of writing by women. As I mentioned in the Introduction to Volume I of my book, I do not read fiction, although I will watch filmed fiction or plays, especially if the films are based on the work of an excellent writer. Besides fiction are other types of writing by women such as autobiographies and poetry, about which I will include more here at a later time. In the meantime, four poetry titles below are mentioned plus an excerpt from each.
Clarification or confession: I never liked or read poetry mainly because I didn’t understand most of it. I became interested in some of it later in life as one form of women’s writing which was easier for me to read than fiction because it was shorter and immediate. I was also interested in the question of whether women see the world differently than men. One place to look is writing. However, I was drawn to lesser-known or unknown women writers by what they wrote about, especially from ordinary experience, what they expressed, and their honesty.
“The Things that Change”, from Herb Womon: Poems and Art, by Zana (distr. By New Woman Press, 1983)
“It Will Take How Long”, from We Live in Bodies, by Ellen Dore Watson (Alice James Books, 1997)
“Seeing the Glory”, by Pattiann Rogers, from Articulations: The Body and Illness in Poetry (University of Iowa Press, 1994)
“Maintenance”, by Robyn Sarah, from Full Moon: an Anthology of Canadian Women Poets (Quadrant Editions, 1983)
There are many more poems by women that could be added to this category, but I do not have the time to do so now. Note: besides adding to all the categories on this website in the future, each category is subject to revision if I find something I need to add or change.
0 Comments