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(More customer reviews)Women's Voices, Feminist Visions is certainly not a perfect book, but given the immense demands of its subject matter it does the job with aplomb nevertheless. My work brings me into contact with a lot of social science textbooks and yet this is the one that ends up sitting on my desk atop my magazines since I read it so frequently. For students new to women and gender studies it's an excellent primer with mostly short, easily digestable readings.
What sets this book apart is that it's half straight-textbook, half-anthology. In most women's studies courses anthologies are the law of the land simply because encapsulating women's (and men's) diverse experiences with gender in society is a challenge at the best of times and it's simply more sensible and effective to allow a diverse array of thinkers and writers representing the various feminisms and the diversity of gender academia and activism to speak, as it were. Nevertheless, Susan Shaw and Janet Lee try their best with lengthy introductions to each chapter which corrals a related set of readings. Their intros try to cover the basics of gender in society: what are institutions? What does religion have to do with gender? What is patriarchy? What does social construction mean? Etc. etc. These questions are ably answered with deft summary in a convincing narrative.
The cartoons interspersed throughout are sometimes funny and sometimes a bit cheesy, but to each their own and I suppose they should be applauded for trying.
This book, out of all the gender studies texts I own, is perhaps the most activist oriented of them. It is not the only textbook with the f-word emblazoned on its cover but it does take it the most seriously out of all of them. It hits the ground running in Chapter 1 with a robust defence of feminism as an idea, taking on the various myths about feminism and women's studies, which should be helpful to 101 level students and a welcome aid to the professor in that regard. Throughout the text are lots of helpful boxes which highlight women's rights activists from the last 150 years: I appreciate the effort to shine the spotlight on as many women of colour as possible as well. While the book is a strident advocate for feminism in theory, it is self critical of feminism's often difficult relationship with working class women, women of colour- inclusive of Native women and Asian women as well- and a lot of critical analysis of feminism occurs in the text, both in Shaw and Lee's narrative and in the readings themselves, a good chunk of which are from a diverse population of feminists and scholars. 'Big names' are there, but represent a small minority of readings, thankfully. Having read all of them I can safely say that what was selected deserves to be put before as many students as possible.
On the issue of inclusiveness, Shaw and Lee's intros and statistics do often mention men in society and how various gender issues can affect them as well. It's fair without drawing false symmetries, which can be a difficult line to thread. But if you're looking for numerous readings on masculinity/ies, there are better books out there for that. The Gendered Society Reader, Men's Lives, and Feminist Frontiers leap to mind.
The book also has ideas for gender activism, points students to the Southern Poverty Law Centre's website, the American Association of University Women website and gives them pointers on how to hold a protest or what anti-discrimination policies they can pressure their college into enacting. This may certainly discomfit some who feel that this is a bit too radical, but personally a lot of it seems only beneficial. Who could object to a campus policy enshrining equal protections for LGBT students, for example? Women's Studies courses have always been about channelling the experiences of diverse populations into a multiplicity of narratives that can educate young people about the state of our society, and provide them with the confidence to feel as if they can shape it. To that end, its epistemology and focus has always been a bit different from, say, physics. Its empiricism is rooted in lived experience, in addition to copious research, surveys, and statistical data (much of which is quoted extensively in this book). This text takes the foregoing quite seriously.
If, however, you want something less advocate oriented, you can't go wrong with Feminist Frontiers.
Women's Voices, Feminist Visions deserves a lot of credit for integrating a sizeable number of women of colour into the text with a wide array of views across the spectrum. They are not grouped in a 'Feminist Diversity' section or somesuch, but spread throughout the text with a plurality of views on every broad subject the book discusses. This text also deserves praise for its chapter on religion which explores how religion and faith can be empowering for women as well as oppressive, and grants space to a good number of thinkers. From reclaiming Islam and Judaism, to perspectives on Christianity from Elizabeth Cady Stanton through to the present day, and a good overview of Goddess-worship and neopaganism, it's elucidating in a way that makes the book stand out from other feminist readers that don't collect many readings on the subject of faith. It also excels at discussing, at least in an introductory way, disability activism; this a trend in anthologies that I hope to see continue.
My only major criticism is the lack of transgender voices. There is one reading here, but trans feminism deserves a better treatment than what professors Shaw and Lee gave it. Still, that's what the future is for.
This is an excellent introductory text; I find it to be clear, lucid, approachable and just plain fun to read.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings
Women's Voices is an introductory women's studies reader crafted to include a balance of recent contemporary readings with historical and classic pieces.This student-friendly text provides short, accessible readings reflecting the diversity of women's experiences.Chapter introductions provide background information on each chapter's topic, including explanations of key concepts and ideas and references to the subsequent reading selections.This new edition includes revised chapter framework essays that reflect the most up-to-date research and theory in the field.
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