Woman

The American History of an Idea

De: Lillian Faderman

Narrado por: Laurel Lefkow

A comprehensive history of the struggle to define womanhood in America, from the 17th to the 21st century

“Lillian Faderman’s is a book many of us have been waiting for, the first comprehensive history of American women to capture the rich discoveries that have been made over the last half century, juxtaposing the abstraction of ‘woman’ with the range, resilience, and resistance of real women.” (Ellen Carol DuBois, author of Suffrage: Women’s Long Battle for the Vote)

What does it mean to be a “woman” in America? Award-winning gender and sexuality scholar Lillian Faderman traces the evolution of the meaning from Puritan ideas of God’s plan for women to the sexual revolution of the 1960s and its reversals to the impact of such recent events as #metoo, the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, the election of Kamala Harris as vice president, and the transgender movement.

This wide-ranging 400-year history chronicles conflicts, retreats, defeats, and hard-won victories in both the private and the public sectors and shines a light on the often-overlooked battles of enslaved women and women leaders in tribal nations. Noting that every attempt to cement a particular definition of “woman” has been met with resistance, Faderman also shows that successful challenges to the status quo are often short-lived. As she underlines, the idea of womanhood in America continues to be contested.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Lillian Faderman (P)2022 Yale Press Audio

The full picture

10/10 would recommend girls and women read at some point in life. We deserve to know and understand the most accurate picture of our past as women.

Stunning

It is a great story of the gender, power, culture, and cultural production everyone should be aware of

Excellence

Lillian Faderman takes us back in time through the last 400 years of US history. I found myself fascinated with stories new to me and delighted to meet again in historical context, figures such as botanist Suzanna Wright and left-wing radical Bernardine Dohrn. Ms. Faderman subtly warns us not to become complacent because the struggle continues. It’s a fabulous book.