Feminism: A Very Short Introduction

Here's a romp through the history of feminism in Britain. The topic is vast, and so one has to give credit to the author for her straightforward approach, focusing on key thinkers and campaigners and their works. Such approach is great because it's quite linear to follow, and so makes for a simple read. It's great too because it allows, by focusing on such works, to get a thorough idea of the major books written by such women and which have enriched a movement at times contradictory and divided! (For bookworm like me wanting to remedy to gaps in my knowledge on the topic, such 'book list' hinted at while reading was truly helpful...).

Again, it's mostly focused on Britain (two chapters alone are dedicated to the suffragists and show more suffragettes). It can be a weakness for those not British and wanting a wider perspective; or, on the contrary, it can be a strength, since British feminism has had a major impact upon Western feminism, itself having created reaction (pro or against or mixed) among these women not living in the Western world, and whose ordeals, even today, are widely different than that experienced by Westerners. The author, in fact, ends the book by a chapter dedicated to such international experiences (too short and too broad to be truly arresting, but nevertheless making a point when challenging the ethnocentrism of Westerners, and the dubious notion of a so-called 'sisterhood').

I felt particularly welcome (especially in these times when the radfems seem to have hijacked public debates!) the critical stance of the author against these trends which emerged from the far-left, as well as against these academics seeming to live in la la land (Catherine McKinnon and Andrea Dworkin, for instance, are being dismissed as 'melodrama masquerading as feminism'...). Her liberalism felt like a breeze...

Ideology aside (if you're a radfem, don't be put off) here's a great introduction. show less

Great little book. I feel really great after reading it. So often I feel like online feminism in microblogs and short articles just point out to me all the injustice in the world. It is great to read the amazing and wonderful steps that women and men over the years have taken towards making society more egalitarian. The amount of progress that has been made in just a few hundred years is incredible.

There were some quotes that really made me think about my own life and reassess my priorities. The Very Short Introduction books always get criticized for being too short and not going into enough detail, for living up to their names, basically. This book has given me a bunch of authors to read more of and a bunch of ideas to give my mind show more something to mull over. show less

Maybe it's the format of Very Short Introductions, but I found myself not trusting the author in the least. It ruined the book for me. Walters presents the book in an academic, disinterested tone, but spends the entirety of it making value judgments. "So-and-so's writing is clear and poignant, and despite being written 500 years ago, still resonates strongly with women today." In fact, the whole book seems to read like a "how not to write on Wikipedia" article; it's chocked full of weasel words, and often makes references to "a recent scholar" who has "convincingly argued" something --- but doesn't tell us who that scholar was, or what their convincing argument looks like! And if you wanted footnotes to do any research for yourself, show more well, you're out of luck! None of this is to say that one mustn't make value judgments. If Walters had put herself into the book, saying that /she/ found so-and-so's writing clear and poignant, I'd be all for it. show less

Understanding the necessarily limited scope of a book in Oxford Press’s ‘Very Short Introduction’ series, author Margaret Walters mostly confines herself to the history of British feminism, expanding to a global focus only after the second-wave feminism movement in the 1960s and 1970s. She has a keen knack for picking adverbs that succinctly set the tone and context of any given quote or opinion. However, these clever winks to the reader breakdown when she wields them to criticize present day feminist thought. The whole movement has been so steeped in a factionalism, understandable only in its historical context, that it seems naïve to use this book as a forum to criticize contemporary ideas.

Understanding the necessarily limited scope of a book in Oxford Press’s ‘Very Short Introduction’ series, author Margaret Walters mostly confines herself to the history of British feminism, expanding to a global focus only after the second-wave feminism movement in the 1960s and 1970s. She has a keen knack for picking adverbs that succinctly set the tone and context of any given quote or opinion. However, these clever winks to the reader breakdown when she wields them to criticize present day feminist thought. The whole movement has been so steeped in a factionalism, understandable only in its historical context, that it seems naïve to use this book as a forum to criticize contemporary ideas.

The nice thing about the VSI series is that the books are indeed very short and generally well-written. The expected not so good things are that that aren't very in-depth (duh, hardly a ding given the series name) and that they are usually written by someone on the inside, so to speak. A knowledgeable insider to be sure, but with the accompanying sympathies and biases.

Nonetheless, this one, like the few others I've read, gives you a decent history and background. Certainly enough to hang your hat on and put other feminist works etc. in context and give you a starting point for further exploration of the subject.

Rather than being a history of feminism, this book is almost entirely a history of the suffrage movement in the UK. Only passing mention is given to modern feminism, and even less to feminism anywhere else in the world.

It might do a decent job at the material it covers, but is far narrower in scope than it professes to be.