Page 6 RAIN April/May 1983 ACCESS: POLITICS Women, Resistance & Revolution Sheila Rowbotham Random House, Inc. 201 E. 50th St. New York, NY 10022 $2.45, 1973, 248 pp. Sheila Rowbotham draws a map of sorts, winding her pathways along the Women’s Movement from the thirteenth century through today, tying it together, inexorably, with the working- class’ struggle. She disclaims her work as "a proper history of feminism and revolution”; yet as a feminist and a Marxist, she "traces the fortunes” of women’s liberation along with socialist revolution. The ideas and the facts are complex; but the touchstone throughout is that "the liberation of women necessitates the liberation of all human beings.” She believes emd carefully demonstrates that the roots of women’s oppression lie within the isolation of women’s consciousness. She often illustrates female resistance through the writings of women like Mary Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mme. de Stael, George Sand, Flora Tristan, Margaret Fuller, and Emma Goldman. Wollstonecraft, in the Vindication, did speak for us all as she reflected, "I long for a little peace and independence. . .1 am not fond of groveling.” Like other historians of the women’s movement, Rowbotham sees that the key to freedom from domestic, economic, and sexual oppression throughout history has been the education of women, and that the methodical exclusion of women from society stems from being denied the means of supporting themselves. Equally, that as long as freedom is defined by men, and as long as we are defined by men—we are all incomplete. She implicates the inception of romanticism as the birth of the Barbie Doll consciousness, that the romantic woman cult of the eighteenth century was "a crop of egg-faced, ringleted, bonneted, fragile girls.” They may have been more vulnerable, overall, than the skinny, long-legged cover-girls of today; but the deptendence on male approval is still a strong motivator. Rowbotham views these Barbies as symbols of centuries of female subordination. On one hand, she believes that feminism has been an influential imprint only as long as it has dovetailed with larger radical movements. On the other, she laments that the women’s movement has often depended on the sympathies of sensitive, unintimidated men. "To take their conclusions as in any sense final would be to ignore this and to abstract them from their own space and time. Despite the depth of their historical analysis, the range oftheir knowledge, and the extent of the commotion their writing has helped to create, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were still a couple of bourgeois men in the nineteenth century.” The real struggle has always rested on our own devices. For myself, I was most taken with her assertion that we should stop sneering at other victims (men and other scoundrels) of a society and economic structure that is almost bigger than life itself. That while we should look out soundly for our own interests, the movement for peace and freedom depends on eveprone’s cooperation. For Rowbotham, "it is only when the feminist (or the Black or the working-class militant) understands, perceives, feels themselves as pitted against a total oppressive system rather than simply against the indignity which is done to them through subordination of their own kind, that a revolutionary political consciousness can start to grow.” I recommend this book to all women and men who participate in the struggle to find new ways of living and perhaps, most importantly, to those who do not. —Camille Cole Camille Cole is a freelance writer and grant proposal consultant. Women’s Reality Anne Wilson Schaef Winston Press 430 Oak Grove, Ste. 203 Minneapolis, MN 55403 $6.95, 1982, 169 pp. I’ve always suspected that women and men were grounded in very different cultures. I always had a nagging feeling that I was growing up in a foreign culture; one that didn’t recognize my feelings, thoughts, perceptions, and values. This book was the first thing I have ever read that put all those feelings into words. Anne Wilson Schaef, a feminist therapist and theorist, contends that a female system co-exists with a white male system and several ethnic/racial systems. Her view is that the white male system is the dominant one in our society, permeating all of the processes and patterns of our lives. She likens the dominance of the white male system in our society to pollution. ...when you are in the middle ofpollution, you are usually unaware of it. You eat it, sleep in it, work in it, and sooner or later start believing that that is just the way the air is...' We are so accustomed to being a part of the white male system it is difficult to believe that there is any other way. Yet women have always known that they had different perceptions about the world. Wilson Schaef describes the differences between the female system and white male system in their definitions of time, relationships, sexuality, and power. She is careful to emphasize that these systems are different, rather than right or wrong. This book is not perfect, of course. At times it oversimplifies or introduces concepts that are not fully explored. But for me, it was an affirmation of something long believed—that, indeed, women and men are culturally different. Perhaps, in the acknowledgment of those differences, lies the potential for uncovering a new bit of truth about all of our lives. —Linda Stout Linda Stout, a social worker living in Boise, hopes to survive Reaganism. Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism Sheila Rowbotham, Lynne Segal, and Hilary Wainwright Alyson Publications, Inc. P.O. Box 2783 Boston, MA 02208 $6.95, 1981, 270 pp. Beyond the Fragments explores the meaning of feminism and its relationship to the Left from the perspective of three British socialist feminists. Although the book describes the British reality, we can learn many things pertinent to this country. The issue of not being taken seriously as feminists by some male Leftists is still a problem. Many women, even politically conscious ones, still have self confidence problems, which according to Rowbotham is related to our powerlessness. On the other hand, some things have changed — activists have begun linking the issues of sexism, racism, and imperialism, and have begun working with the trade union movement. The book is divided into three long essays — Sheila Rowbotham’s "The Women’s Movement and Organizing for Socialism”; Lynne Segal’s "A Local Experience”; and Hilary Wainwright’s "Moving Beyond the Fragments.” Rowbotham’s essay is the longest and the most interesting. She expands on some of the ideas developed in her book Woman’s Consciousness, Man’s World, blending keen political insight with personal experience. The authors assert that socialists have much to learn from feminists. Many women have shied away from participating in politics because they haven’t felt welcome in the male- dominated groups, where they feel they may be "used” by "cold socialists” who don’t give people recognition for their individual efforts. Further, many women are put off by intellectual £ui-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz