Gender studies: women and girls Books

Book SynopsisWhat role did right-wing women play in the Nazi rise to power?Mothers of the Nation analyzes the work of women in the German Peoples Party and the German National Peoples Party - parties that covered the range from the moderate to the radical right. Looking at politics on both the local and national level, the author discusses issues ranging from social welfare to foreign policy. He shows that right-wing women, in keeping with the tradition of the German bourgeois womens movement, refused to stand up primarily for womens interests and instead invoked the Volksgemeinschaft (community of the people), a vision of harmony and cooperation of the groups involved in production.These right-wing campaigners believed that German women should use their newly won political rights to strengthen the Volksgemeinschaft by reconciling the divided nation and by infusing it with a higher morality. This stance proved to be both a liability and an asset. The emphasis on the Volksgemeinschaft made it difficult for female conservatives to fight for specific womens rights. Yet it also allowed them to paste over the conflicts between interest groups that tore apart Germanys bourgeois parties prior to 1933 and that divided politically active women as well. The ways in which women sought to contain the fragmentation that ultimately rendered their parties defenceless against the Nazis sheds new light on Weimar politics.Bringing the controversial story of right-wing women to life, this book offers a compelling account of gender and politics during a crucial period in German history.Trade Review'A significant and valuable contribution, not only to the history of the DNVP and the DVP, but to the social history of politics in the Weimar era in general.'Matthew Stibbe, Lecturer in History, Sheffield Hallam University'In this excellent study, Raffael Scheck explores a series of fateful paradoxes that imperiled Weimar democracy: attachments to household and motherhood propelled women into the public arena; the mobilization of female voters strengthened the nationalist, anti-democratic Right; the effort to imbue middle-class parties with the virtues of the people's community only helped the Nazis; and the campaign to protect Christianity legitimized eugenic legislation. Scheck's great contribution is to trace so well the seams of Germany's political culture between 1918 and 1933.'Peter Fritzsche, author of Reading Berlin 1900 and Germans Into Nazis'Raffael Scheck has brought together many disparate threads of evidence in a closely-argued and entirely coherent thematic stud

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Book SynopsisImagine a world where the oppressive, over-feminized images of women from advertising, television, films, and magazines have re-armed themselves with army boots, body modifications, and flamboyant hair. Is this just another fairy tale, and if so, why cant it be a reality? In Alternative Femininities, Samantha Holland unpacks the myth of model womanhood and considers how a particular group of real women define and practise femininity. These women, who see themselves as 'alternative', modify and subvert popular images of femininity. The choices they make in clothing, appearance and body modifications enable them to construct a personal look that is intimately tied to self-identity. Getting the balance right between over-femininity and not being feminine enough is a frequently voiced concern. Holland also addresses head-on the much-neglected issue of how ageing impacts on notions of femininity. What do these women think about fashion, gender and appearance as they grow older and less visible in our media-dominated society? Do they choose to tone down or stay out there, and what motivates their choice? A revealing look at contemporary femininity, Alternative Femininities gives voice to a previously silent group of women who struggle to resist sexist gender stereotypes, yet age with style, individuality and creativity. By looking at how real women negotiate self-image in an increasingly appearance-conscious society, Holland has provided a much-needed corrective to theoretical accounts of gender and femininity lacking in real data.Trade Review'This fascinating study explores the experiences of a group of women who adopt a consciously alternative style of dress; and in doing so it unpacks the complex and personal meanings of femininity as they are worked through at the level of body and clothes.'Julia Twigg, Ageing & Society (Journal)

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Book SynopsisIn struggles over access to land, Aboriginal women''s concerns have often remained unacknowledged. Their words - and silences - have been frequently misheard, misunderstood, misrepresented, misused.The controversy about ''secret women''s business'' in the Hindmarsh Island Bridge conflict has brought this issue to the attention of the general public. How can Aboriginal women assert their claims while protecting, by remaining silent, their culturally sensitive knowledge? How can they prevent their words and silences being misrepresented?Words and Silences explores the barriers confronting Aboriginal women trying to defend their land rights. The contributors to this volume provide insights into the intricacies of Aboriginal social and cultural knowledge, and introduce the reader to different understandings of how the gendered nature of Aboriginal land ownership adds complexity to the cross-cultural encounter. In lively and engaging prose they document the ongoing struggles of Aboriginal women across Australia, who are fighting to ensure they receive due recognition of their rights in land.

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Book SynopsisWriter, activist and artist Connie Panzarino was born in 1947 with the rare disease Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type III, formerly called Amytonia Congenita. Throughout a childhood filled with both pain and joy, she strove to define herself: "I knew I was different. Now I had a name for the difference, like being Italian or Jewish. I was an Amytonia. I didn't understand if that meant that I would never walk, or if all it meant was lack of muscle tone. I didn't know that most children with this disease die before they're five years old." In this deeply moving and eloquent memoir, Connie Panzarino describes her decades of struggle and triumph, her relationships with family members and long-time lover Ron Kovic (author of Born on the Fourth of July), her eventual turn to lesbianism, and her years of pioneering work in the disability rights movement. Filled with spirit, passion and defiance, The Me In The Mirror tells the story of a remarkable life.

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Book SynopsisCries for Help opens a window on the closed world of Holloway, other women's prisons and the lives of those held there in the 1970s. This was an era when personal style and charismatic leadership was the order of the day for governors and prison officers, before ideas of 'new management', when problems were solved using personal initiatives. It catalogues the daily lives of women prisoners, their anxieties, fears and preoccupations. The book looks at a lost segment of the population, hundreds of women who were hidden from view, lacking a voice, part of a system for men that hardly knew what to do with them. It contains stories about murderers and other serious offenders and looks at their personal correspondence, including that of moors murderer Myra Hindley.Trade Review'I hope that [the prison] authorities in particular will read and reflect on her brutally honest, human and very relevant book': Lord David Ramsbotham

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Book SynopsisFifty years after the Moors Murders and 15 years since Myra Hindley died in prison, after one of the longest sentences served by a woman, The Monstering of Myra Hindley raises some delicate and searching questions.They include: "Why was Hindley treated differently?", "Why do we need to create demons?" and "What impact does this have on our whole notion of crime, punishment and justice?" Set against the political backlash of one of the most noto-rious cases in English criminal history, this is a perceptive, first-hand portrayal of the most talked-about and maligned of women. The Monstering of Myra Hindley is written by one of the closest people to her, Nina Wilde. Wilde not only sets the record straight on certain matters, she also provides new insights about one of the most infamous women in Britain. It contains until now private information, 'home-truths' and describes a journey charting a special relationship. Everyone, the author included, recognises the plight of the victims but this should not be allowed to mask other wrongs that, with hindsight, become increasingly apparent in Hindley's case.Trade Review'I think she became a national scapegoat for that part of the social mind that is cruel and has contempt for vulnerability'-- Dr Gwen Adshead; 'The book has two main arguments. Hindley was treated as she was first because she was a woman and consequently what she did was worse because she was a woman. Second the unfairness she experienced was because the press would not leave her alone and continually brought up the story and the evil nature of her character... I think Wilde is right on both counts... the book is written well and makes the above arguments well. It thus serves as a reminder that tariff decisions on life imprisonment should be decided upon by the judiciary and that they should be carried out without political bias or influence.'-- Prison Service Journal.Table of ContentsForeword; Introduction; Timeline; 1.Cookham Wood; 2.The Outsider; 3.The Nature of Myra's Injustice; 4.Public and Political Involvement; 5.Reputation, Retreat and Remorse; 6.The Media and the Press; 7.Myra As Public Property; 8.Constant Threat and Observation; 9.Hypnosis and Other Distractions; 10.I'd Like to Help You, But...; The Prisoner; Select Bibliography; Index.

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