THE SISTERHOOD OF MAN

by Kathleen Newland ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 21, 1979

The case for women's rights, Kathleen Newland (Worldwatch Institute) argues unassailably, is both a pragmatic and an idealistic imperative; and in this far-reaching, even-handed survey she examines the progress, prospects, and implications of change in seven socioeconomic arenas. What sets her work apart is its informed international compass: Newland draws on conditions in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Third World--as well as in the West--to support her argument. On legislative promise, for instance, she cites Colombia's 1974 reforms--abolishing patriarchal authority within the family--as more representative of the ""new egalitarianism"" than either Nepal's token revisions or America's comprehensive ERA. She is alert, too, to legislative limits: Qatar's 1970 constitution provides that ""All persons shall enjoy public rights. . . and equal duties,"" yet the women of Qatar still cannot vote. Reviewing the giant steps in education worldwide, Newland perceives that the very experience of going to school has positive results (independence, self-worth) as important as book-learning; moreover, ""the relatively uncontroversial goal of universal education"" just might, judging from statistics, reverse the resistance to population control--an unexpected dividend. But there are exceptions here too. In Indonesia, income is the chief influence on birth rate--until it's measured across, instead of within, economic classes; then the ""income-fertility link"" breaks down, and education re-emerges. Newland writes without illusions but not without hope, and she's selective in assessing real and apparent changes in each of her other target-fields: politics, women's health, the media, the family, and, most exhaustively, the employment front, She condenses a huge purview into a balanced skimmer, level almost to a fault, elucidating familiar issues by distilling both the salient and subtle features.

Pub Date: May 21, 1979

ISBN: 0393009351

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION