Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I generally don't write reviews but I must thank the authors for writing this book. It should be interesting to note that I am a liberal black woman who used to consider herself a feminist...that is until I read this book. I found this book based on reviews from another book called Manning Up by Kay S. Hymowitz. I was trying to get to the source of the tension and battles between the sexes. It used to be that these so called battles were nothing more than harmless back and forth words...everyone would shake hands and go home. Nowadays it is going far beyond this harmless chatter into full blown fights where everyone loses. This book sheds light on feminism which may be causing this tension. From a woman's perspective, I feel like we have all been bamboozled into thinking the career is everything. Fortunately, I've never quite fallen prey to this assumption but I have obsessed over my career a time or two nonetheless. My generation believed that once you graduated college and got a good career then your life would be set. Well, not so fast...most of us never factored the biological clock into this equation. And now I have friends in their 30s and 40s who have to make tough decisions of whether to hurry up and marry any man who wants to have a child or settle for a sperm bank. That's not what feminism was supposed to bring us. This is not what we bargained for when we accepted it. On the other hand, I have co-workers who are rushed to get into the office and rushed to get home to take over the 2nd shift (being a mother!). They're tired and weary and would rather stay home and take care of their family. It's an impossible dream because now their lifestyles are dependent upon a two income household. From a black woman's perspective, I feel like feminism wasn't exactly our fight. Our fight in the 60's and 70's were for basic civil rights so I believe black women in that fight were bamboozled into thinking this would help black women in our community. Instead, we now have the highest rate of baby out-of-wedlockness and lead the way in abortions. It has utterly been a disaster for our community and now my generation and the generation after me are left to pick up the pieces. I viewed a documentary on welfare, which in my opinion, helped progress the feminism movement so that mothers would no longer have to lean on fathers for help..they would now look to the government. I believe the authors make a great case against feminism in our society. They present numerous stories and examples of how feminism isn't working but the one piece of evidence most women can not refute is that women are simply not as happy as they were years ago. You can easily prove this by reading women's blogs, magazines, and other social media for women. I will leave you with this excerpt from a letter written by Alice Walker's daughter about her life growing up as the child of a black feminist. It is quite shameful how she treated her daughter once she found out she was pregnant. "my mum taught me that children enslave women. I grew up believing that children are millstones around your neck, and the idea that motherhood can make you blissfully happy is a complete fairytale...My mother's feminist principles coloured every aspect of my life. As a little girl, I wasn't even allowed to play with dolls or stuffed toys in case they brought out a maternal instinct. It was drummed into me that being a mother, raising children and running a home were a form of slavery. Having a career, travelling the world and being independent were what really mattered according to her...I love my mother very much, but I haven't seen her or spoken to her since I became pregnant. She has never seen my son - her only grandchild. My crime? Daring to question her ideology..Then there is the issue of not having children. Even now, I meet women in their 30s who are ambivalent about having a family. They say things like: 'I'd like a child. If it happens, it happens.' I tell them: 'Go home and get on with it because your window of opportunity is very small.' As I know only too well...Then I meet women in their 40s who are devastated because they spent two decades working on a PhD or becoming a partner in a law firm, and they missed out on having a family. Thanks to the feminist movement, they discounted their biological clocks. They've missed the opportunity and they're bereft....Feminism has betrayed an entire generation of women into childlessness. It is devastating."