A dry look at late-20th-century feminist leaders in academia, by a psychologist and professor of higher education at UCLA (Astin) and a senior program associate at the Center for Creative Leadership in San Diego (Leland). Inspired by the 1983 Wingspread Conference in Racine, Wisconsin, at which a group of women leaders from diverse fields met to share their observations about the impact of the women's movement on the lives of women, the authors followed up with this study of 77 female leaders in higher education—including university presidents, professors, writers, and activists—and their personal experiences as agents of change. The pool is divided into three categories—predecessors, instigators, and inheritors- -according to the phase of the 1970's women's-liberation movement in which the women initially became involved. Excerpts from the responses describe the evolution of feminist leadership from the inception of the women's movement, when change was believed to be best effected through improved education, through its current sustaining phase, when women leaders use their personal power and political savvy to try to achieve their goals. The results are largely predictable: a passion for social justice—motivated by experiences with Nazis, civil-rights campaigns, or the male- dominated workplace, depending on the era—propelled all three groups of women into action, even if the vehicles counted on for change have not remained the same. Along the way, the feminist experience has fostered the development of a unique style of leadership that emphasizes listening to and empowering others rather than giving orders or hiding behind an intimidating hierarchy of gatekeepers. A meandering portrait whose flat, nonchallenging style detracts substantially from the book's effectiveness.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1991
ISBN: 1-55542-357-4
Page Count: 221
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1991
An intimate and provocative glimpse into the lives of adolescent schoolgirls at two West Coast middle schools by journalist Orenstein (formerly managing editor of Mother Jones). Orenstein was motivated by the disturbing findings of a 1990 study from the American Association of University Women. It revealed that girls' self-esteem plummets as they reach adolescence, with a concomitant drop in academic achievement- -especially in math and science. By sixth grade, both boys and girls have learned to equate masculinity with opportunity and assertiveness and femininity with reserve and restraint. In her attempt to delve more deeply into this phenomenon, Orenstein observed and interviewed dozens of young girls inside and outside their classrooms. The resulting narratives are likely to move and vex readers. The classrooms at Weston Middle School ring with the symptoms: Even girls who consider themselves feminists tend to ``recede from class proceedings'' while their male classmates vociferously respond to teachers' questions; girls who are generally outspoken remain silent in the classroom. When probed, they tell Orenstein that they are afraid of having the wrong answer and of being embarrassed. They are not willing to take the risks that boys routinely take. The girls are overly involved with their appearance, with clothes and beauty products, instead of their studies. Sexual desirability becomes the central component of their self-image, with negative feelings often translating themselves into eating disorders. At the Audubon Middle School, with its predominantly minority population, it is apparent that ``the consequences of silence and marginalization for Latinas are especially dire.'' The Latina girls we meet often become gang members and mothers, while school becomes increasingly irrelevant. A comprehensive bibliography and annotated notes enhance Orenstein's ardent and significant exploration of the adolescent roots of key women's issues. (First serial to the New York Times Magazine)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-385-42575-9
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
While the coming of August is enough to send most psychoanalysts fleeing the needs of their patients for the beach, it appears that not even death can keep the wizened Fromm (On Being Human, 1993, etc.) from dispensing wisdom. Fromm gained renown less for his writings about clinical psychology than for his more contemplative works that fused the insights of psychoanalysis with those of existentialist philosophy to ask—and occasionally answer- -the Big Questions traditionally left to priests, rabbis, and barkeeps. But this posthumous collection focuses on the relationship between analyst and analysand, and its goal is much more modest than that of some of his other books. Fromm is concerned here, it seems, not with building a better world but with building a better shrink.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-8264-0654-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Continuum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
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