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March is Women's History Month which book did you pick?

1. How have your life experiences been influenced by your gender or sex?
2. Do you consider yourself to be a feminist? Why or why not?
3. How did the book you selected represent the perspective/history of women?
4. Did you learn something new from your book?

Here are a few additional discussion starter questions related to women's history month
Who is a woman who currently inspires you?
Who is a woman from the past who inspires you?
Who is a woman that everybody should know about?
Who are your favorite women authors on the 1001 list?

1. I wanted to study medicine but my mother deemed it an unsuitable profession for a girl and didn't tell me until years later that I had been offered a scholarship.
I was one of the founders of a group called Feminist Teachers in the 70's. We had 50 or so members. I was outraged when a name change was mooted, but the name was changed to Women in Education and a year later we had 250 members. Still don't understand why feminism has such bad connotations for some.people.
Jacinda Adearne, New Zealand's new, young and pregnant Prime Minister inspires me with her refreshingly honest, graceful and sensible attitude.
Kate Shephard was a New Zealand suffragette, who made sure New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote in 1893.
Germaine Greer, the Australian feminist.
My favourite author is Vera Brittain who was a pacifist and wrote the wonderful Testament books (Testament to Youth, Experience and Friendship) three of my favourite books. Also Irène Némirovsky's Suite Française.

I read first, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

1. How have your life experiences been influenced by your gender or sex?

I think it affects everything. As a child in the 1970s I was told my choices for my future included teacher, nurse, stewardess or mom. That's it. But when I graduated HS I chose to enter the Air Force. I encountered a lot of sexism. I was verbally harrassed. I cried most evening when I got home for the first six months. Eventually my career took me to law school which wasn't much better. The men in that field did not respect me.

2. Do you consider yourself to be a feminist? Why or why not? Yes, and so is my husband. I am a feminist because I believe we should all have the same future prospects and should all be treated as well as anyone else.

3. How did the book you selected represent the perspective/history of women?

First off, I really enjoyed this book. I am not sure how well it represents the history of women around the world, or in my home country (USA). But, it seems as though it was likely quite accurate for the history of Chinese women. I really enjoyed the story of her mother most of all, but would have liked to know much more about her great grandmother. The life of a concubine -- especially one who was later freed from the boundaries of that -- fascinates me.

4. Did you learn something new from your book?

Yes. I really know very little about the history of China, or of the events that have occurred during my lifetime. I found the book shocking at times. It also seemed to confirm the impressions I held before reading it. I was very interested in the author's ability to leave China, and the fact that they have allowed her to return for visits even after writing a book that is so challenging to the Communist regime!
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The women who inspire me most are those who break boundaries. The year I was at NYU Law for my Tax LLM was the 100th year that women had been allowed to attend NYU Law. Those women entered law school in 1892! That inspires me.

My mother would have been delighted with teacher, nurse, wife, mother as prescribing my potential, although her own sister was a doctor at a time when that was very rare. Since then I have realized how undervalued teachers and nurses are in our culture and how either of those professions would have been a kind a triumph. However, my father thought there were no boundaries at all and if there were they were made to be broken down. He would have preferred that I be a doctor or a lawyer but I didn’t go anywhere near either of those professions. I have never felt my gender as a limiting factor for my work. On the other hand, I have certainly felt my gender as something that potentially made me vulnerable. In one of the oddest twists on my love of books, my first negative sexual encounter happened in a library where a male librarian attempted to molest me in the book aisles. It has not negatively impacted my love of books or librarians.

I read Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, and loved it.
1. I feel like my whole life has been influenced by being female. As a tomboy, I was told by some, not all, well meaning adults that girls don’t play tackle football. But I was also a child in the 70s, when women were starting to make noise about equality. So I was told by my female relatives and teachers that I could be whatever I wanted.
So I became a pharmacist. My class in pharmacy school was pretty close to 50% female. Yet, in one of our classes, we weren’t allowed to put our names on tests, because if the professor saw a woman’s name, she would be failed. The tests were graded by grad students.
Out in the real world, there were people who wouldn’t talk to the woman pharmacist. Surprisingly, at first elderly women were the worst. But as time has gone on, it's been men who just don’t want a woman to tell them anything.
2. Yes, absolutely. I am woman hear me roar!
3. The book shows the struggle to be a woman through almost 100 years of China’s history. It also shows the struggle to be considered an equal comrade in a Communist country.
4. I learned so much from this book- the combination of Chinese culture and Communism is volatile.

The women who have inspired me are so numerous: family, friends and writers/singers/performers who feel like friends.
My favorite female authors from the list are Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, Alice Walker, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, Isabel Allende, Angela Carter, Louise Erdrich, Jeanette Winterson, Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie, and Ali Smith.
It’s a really white list, isn’t it?

I read The Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
I definitely think of myself as a feminist as I believe in equality for all people.
3) I found this book to be amazing. The way Munro was able to capture the simple actions and strongly diverse characters of a small town was remarkable. I felt as if I recognized everyone and everyone was also new. My grandmother was from a small town in Canada and there were moments when I felt I was meeting her also. The intertwining of our main character’s life of the mind and the awakening of the life of the sexual body was so well done. The paragraph about French Garnett slowly, slowly moving his hand next to hers was incredibly sensual. Also, it brought to mind memories of myself as a young girl.
I also simply loved the language.
I did not necessarily learn a different way of life or even a different approach to life but nevertheless I felt that I had learned a lot in reading this book.

I read Out of Africa

1. How have your life experiences been influenced by your gender or sex?

I grew up in the sixties with Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem, and Simone de Beauvoir among others which did impact my life experiences. I also became a nurse because options for women in careers included teacher and nurse but first of all wife and mother. Though I became a nurse, I continued to advance until I was an advance practice nurse. I have spent my career as the primary support for my children and for my spouse. So I may have had a traditional primary female career. I've been self supporting and a key provider to my family. I am looking forward to retirement however because I just want to do some fun things and not have to go to work every day.

2. Do you consider yourself to be a feminist? Why or why not? I don't think of myself as feminist or non feminist. I believe that there should be equal rights and opportunities but I also think we are going to far and depriving men of rights and respect. Kind of like The Power.

3. How did the book you selected represent the perspective/history of women? I selected my book because this women intrigued me, she is everything I think I would have liked to been. She tried to run a farm by herself. She loved her farm, she loved the animals, nature and the people of Africa. She was fiercely independent and did things many women did not do.

4. Did you learn something new from your book? I learned a lot about Somali culture. I live in an area with a large contingency of Somali so I found this especially insightful. I know the book is old but I think much of it was still relevant. The author also depicted the differences between 3 people groups of Africa and I thought this was very interesting.

Here are a few additional discussion starter questions related to women's history month
Who is a woman who currently inspires you? My daughter. I am in awe of her dedication to her daughters, she is investing in their futures. She is a good mother. I am inspired by her energy. They keep her so busy and she reaches down and finds the energy.

Who is a woman from the past who inspires you? my grandmother

Who is a woman that everybody should know about? There are many great women in the past who have contributed in small ways to women's history. I've read the book about the Chinese Women and it is great. Loved this book by Karen Blixen.

Who are your favorite women authors on the 1001 list? I have to say Toni Morrison and after her, I really like Siri Hustvedt though I only read one book. I also like Virginia Woolf, Joan Didion, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood.

I read the book On Beauty

1. How have your life experiences been influenced by your gender or sex? Being a mother has made me a better person. I am not certain that males experience the same impactfulness that I feel women feel with parenting.
Educationally I think my gender influenced the career decisions that I made. No one in my family had gone to college before me. I graduated from high skill number one in math. Looking back I am stunned no one suggested a career in a math related field. Instead all career advice was very pragmatic.

2. Do you consider yourself to be a feminist? Why or why not?
I think I become even more of a feminist as I grow older. There are so many subtle inequities in our culture.

3. How did the book you selected represent the perspective/history of women?
This book was about women and race relations. The matriarchs in the book are noble women who are worthy of much respect. The setting was the Boston area in a very academic setting. This time period was the time I was growing into womanhood.

4. Did you learn something new from your book?
I can't think of anything per se that I learned. But I think every book brings subtle shifts in my consciousness. The pleasure of reading allows me to be another person for a while.

Who is a woman who currently inspires you?
Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Who is a woman from the past who inspires you?
Without a doubt my grandmother. I miss my Nana to this day. She worked so hard, loved so much, and tried to do good.

Who is a woman that everybody should know about?
Nobody specific but female comics, any female who has opened doors for other females.

Who are your favorite women authors on the 1001 list? I really liked Zadie Smith. I want to read more from her.

I read Wild Swans to start with, but I plan to read at least one more of the choices for this month. They all look so good!

1. How have your life experiences been influenced by your gender or sex? As a child, I think I unconsciously limited myself to things that other girls and women did for the most part - it's not that I was ever told I couldn't do something that I wanted to do because I was a girl, but I just tended to do things that other girls and the girls and women before us did, like cooking, caring for kids, playing more 'feminine' games, etc. I always wanted to be a mom, and expected that I would be, because most of the women that I knew were. I first remember realizing how silly these gender norms were in my early teens, but I grew up in a large extended family that didn't see women as somehow inferior to men in any way. It was very eye-opening to me to see how wildly different our experiences can be as women.

2. Do you consider yourself to be a feminist? Why or why not? Absolutely. I believe we need total gender equality and advocate for equal women's rights.

3. How did the book you selected represent the perspective/history of women? It certainly does. The book is about three generations of women in China during the 20th century. It deals with the rise of communism and Mao Zedong, and the impact this had on their lives.

4. Did you learn something new from your book? Yes! I had not read much about this time period in China and I learned so much.

Who is a woman who currently inspires you? There are so many: my mom and grandmother, Gloria Steinem, Emma Watson, RBG, and Hillary Clinton.

Who is a woman from the past who inspires you? Sojourner Truth

Who is a woman that everybody should know about? again, Sojourner Truth

Who are your favorite women authors on the 1001 list? Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen, Charlotte, Anne and Emily Bronte, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou

March is Women's History Month which book did you pick?
Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro

1. How have your life experiences been influenced by your gender or sex?
Looking back on my childhood I see how intense socialization in respect to gender roles was during that time. In 6th grade, the teacher asked what the students wanted to be when they grew up. When I said that I wanted to be a doctor a couple of boys made a joke about that being a man's job and therefore I must be male. The teacher didn't even correct them. Needless to say, I went into nursing instead. That felt like a big achievement and rebellion at the time since my parents said I should focus on finding a man who could support me instead of wasting my time with college. Now I teach nursing, so I have always been in a female-dominated profession. I have spent enough time in college pursuing advanced degrees to have graduated from medical school a couple of times over, so I probably should have gone in the first place. I am also amazed at how quickly and disproportionally men rise through the managerial ranks so quickly in female dominated professions. My grandmother was very progressive for her time and broke a lot of the typical gender role expectations. My mother, however, is just the opposite, and is strongly against anything feminist. During most of my childhood we also belonged to a religious denomination with very stringent (and oppressive) gender role expectations.

2. Do you consider yourself to be a feminist? Why or why not?
I never used to consider myself one in my younger days, but I feel I become more feminist with each passing year.

3. How did the book you selected represent the perspective/history of women?
It showed a girl's coming of age experiences during a time when there were very clear-cut roles for women. She begins to fall into those expectations and realizes that is not who she is. She learns this both from her own experiences and from observing the women around her. It is an ideal book for this challenge.

4. Did you learn something new from your book?
Not really.

Here are a few additional discussion starter questions related to women's history month
Who is a woman who currently inspires you?
Oprah Winfrey. I do hope she runs for office in the next presidential race.

Who is a woman from the past who inspires you?
My grandmother, who died fairly recently. It makes me sad to put her in the "from the past" category.

Who is a woman that everybody should know about?
Shirley Chisholm. She was the first woman to run for US president and the first African-American woman elected to Congress.

Who are your favorite women authors on the 1001 list?
In my personal opinion, there aren't nearly enough. Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Margaret Atwood, Isabel Allende, Edith Wharton, Clarice Lispectof, Alice Munro, Alice Walker, the Bronte sisters, Jhumpa Lahiri, Barbara Kingsolver, Virginia Woolf, Jeanette Winterson, & Toni Morrison.

I read Out of Africa.

1. How have your life experiences been influenced by your gender or sex? Mostly the issues were small - looking back, my brother and I did very gendered chores and he did far fewer than I, nor was he ever expected to take on any responsibility for our younger siblings, but I was. However, I was encouraged in school and by my parents to study whatever I was good at and especially encouraged to study science, though I ended up doing an archaeology degree, which had scientific elements but was a more artsy degree.

It’s been interesting how many people think that as a woman, I shouldn’t have travelled Asia and Africa on my own.

Certainly, in Korea I experienced a lot of sexism when I had male bosses. That was frustrating.

2. Do you consider yourself to be a feminist? Why or why not? Absolutely. I think the world has so long to go until women are treated equally in all spheres.

3. How did the book you selected represent the perspective/history of women?
You know, I didn’t think it really did. I was sort of surprised that she didn’t really talk about whether it was hard to be a woman running a farm solo or anything. When published under her male pseudonym, I could see it easily being confused as a male narrative.

4. Did you learn something new from your book? In theory, yes, I learned a lot about the people of Kenya. In reality, I’m not sure I trust her perspective at all. While I think she was good hearted and relatively kind and well meaning, I also though she came across as really racist.

Here are a few additional discussion starter questions related to women's history month
Who is a woman who currently inspires you?
RBG, Emma Gonzalez

Who is a woman from the past who inspires you? Yoo Gwan-Soon, a fighter for Korean independence who was tortured to death by the Japanese.

Who is a woman that everybody should know about? Jocelyn Bell, who discovered pulsars, though her male colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize for her work.

Who are your favorite women authors on the 1001 list? Margaret Atwood. My favourite author on or off the list.

I had read the other selections previously, so I read On Beauty.

1. How have your life experiences been influenced by your gender or sex?
It is a combination of personality and gender, but as an extreme introvert and a girl, I have never put myself forward. I have chosen (and been encouraged, both overtly and subtly) to play a supporting role, rather than taking a lead. I have never been taught to be comfortable taking a strong position and holding it. I would much rather avoid conflict, reach a consensus and/or defer to stronger opinions. I believe these are valid and valuable management methods, but are not always seen so by the more male/extroverted world.

2. Do you consider yourself to be a feminist? Why or why not?
In the words of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists

3. How did the book you selected represent the perspective/history of women?
The books was more focused on the philosophies of race and class. But from the female characters represented, it has an almost traditional view of gender. Kiki, the African-American wife of a Caucasian-British academic, is a nurse and a care-giver. She is "earthy" and pragmatic. Charlene is the traditional stay-at-home wife and mother. Zora is an ambitious, aggressive almost harpy woman. Victoria is beautiful and sly, portrayed as unconsciously using her sexuality as a weapon. But the book is told from so many different perspectives, that Smith is able to add dimension to the surface stereotypes of each of the characters.

4. Did you learn something new from your book?
Nothing explicit.

Who are your favorite women authors on the 1001 list?
Edith Wharton, Iris Murdoch, Toni Morrison, Clarice Lispector, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Flannery O'Connor

1.How have your life experiences been influenced by your gender or sex?  My parents raised us that we could do anything. I know my mother told me her mom would only allow her to be a teacher. My father taught us to work on cars and we were given tools as gifts. Sometimes I feel I let my family down since I went into a profession that is primarily female.

2. Do you consider yourself to be a feminist? Why or why not? I do consider myself a feminist although I do not hear the word much any more. I more think of it as equality.

3. How did the book you selected represent the perspective/history of women? Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China was a biography of three female family members.

4. Did you learn something new from your book? Absolutely! These were three very strong women. I also learned more about the history of China, Mao's Cultural Revolution and Communism.

Here are a few additional discussion starter questions related to women's history month

Who is a woman who currently inspires you? Michelle Obama.

Who is a woman from the past who inspires you? Mileva Marić. In 1896 Mileva is the only woman studying physics at an elite school in Zürich. Unfortunately she is over shadowed by her famous husband Albert Einstein. Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867�1934) was the first woman scientist to win worldwide acclaim and two Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry. Pierre Curie chose to include his wife in all their research they worked on together. Albert Einstein did not include his wife on any of his papers that she was supposed to have helped.

Who is a woman that everybody should know about? I find this incredibly hard to answer but I will go with someone from the present. Malala Yousafzai who despite being shot in the face still advocates for women.

Who are your favorite women authors on the 1001 list?  Margaret Atwood, Maya Angelou, Agatha Christie, Donna Tartt, Zora Neale Hurston, Rose Tremain, Laura Esquivel,Isabelle Allende, Harper Lee, Barbara Kingsolver and Daphne du Maurier.

I just finished Lives of Girls and Women. It was a coming of age story of a girl’s life in small town Canada during the mid-20th century.
Though it is a slice of life, Munro cleverly pulls in Del’s female influences, as well as her male ones, though the men are portrayed as mostly conventional.
The women, though. Her mother is an early feminist intellectual, though a bit eccentric, and attention seeking at times. Del’s spinster aunts are kind, but from an older era. Her best friend Naomi reminds me of the girls who go to college to get their MRS. degree.
And Del always finds herself at a crossroad, trying to decide which way to go to become herself.
Alice Munro is a wonderful writer. Most of her books are short story collections. This is her only novel. And it’s one I’ll be thinking about for the feminism that it slyly displays. 4 stars from me.

I read Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
I have a new favourite woman writer! I loved this book. It was readable but I also identified so much with the lead character in the story of her growing up in small town Ontario. I learnt what a wonderful writer Munro is, a can imagine small town life in Ontarion and I was powerfully reminded of what growing up was like. The protogonist was not, perhaps, as argumentative and strident as I was at the same age, but the emotions were so similar to be magical.

I read Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China and finished it last night--cutting it close again!
1. How have your life experiences been influenced by your gender or sex?
Completely. I grew up in the 70s/80s. I was not allowed to play team sports until 6th grade, because my mother insisted sports were for boys only and she wouldn't have me play with boys. In 5th grade a friend's mom convinced her soccer and softball had girls only teams. She then made me choose one because one sport is plenty for girls. In high school I was not allowed to play sports or be in the orchestra because those are "non academic wastes of time". My brother got to play a sport. Which he quit. He is younger.

I could go on and on. But my parents wanted a boy when I was born, because everyone wants a boy. Apparently. If they had had a boy I doubt they would have had another.

2. Do you consider yourself to be a feminist? Why or why not?

Yes, but as someone else said "feminist" to me means equality, which, I think, is more of an older definition (that I grew up with).

3. How did the book you selected represent the perspective/history of women?

I thought it represented 20th century women in China very well. From the grandmother with bound feet who was a concubine, to the mother who worked tirelessly for the state and her family, to the daughter who held so many different jobs but was still trapped by the class rules about who she could marry.

4. Did you learn something new from your book?

It was fascinating. I majored in history, but never took an Asian history survey or a course in Chinese history (I took a course on the Mongols for that requirement--and it was fascinating). Most of my knowledge of Chinese history comes from memoirs like this. I should probably read a general history.

I read On Beauty

I answered question 1 and 2 when I discussed the Alice Munro book earlier this month.
3. How did the book you selected represent the perspective/history of women?
In that On Beauty speaks to the relationship between men and women in both an academic setting and within the families portrayed, the book did represent a particular perspective on contemporary history of women.
4. Did you learn something new from your book?
I do not feel as if I learned about academic settings or even race relations but nevertheless in examining the delicate balance of family relations in a mixed race household I do feel as if I had been opened to a subtly different perspective than I had previously. The white male main character is intimately well described but nevertheless a caricature in his complete egotism and inability to be able to feel what others may be feeling. His complete inability to modify his behavior in order to better understand others both defined the novel and also made it much more difficult to read. The teenagers are also all caught up in their own vision of themselves but I enjoyed their struggles to find meaning within the options the world offered to them. The main female character was the most engaging. Some reviewers criticize Smith for drawing these richly detailed but unlikeable characters. Let's just say that I understand the criticism. It forced me out of the book pretty often. There were moments when I just said; "really Zadie?, did you have to make it that obvious". So many people adore her books and I understand that also but I don't think I have found the book that really allowed me to love her storytelling as well as her writing.

Who are your favorite women authors on the 1001 list?
I would have to put Toni Morrison and Margaret Atwood on this list. This month allowed me to add Alice Munro also.

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I just finished Lives of Women and Girls, so I will answer the book-specific questions for it (I answered the others earlier this month for Wild Swans):

3. How did the book you selected represent the perspective/history of women? This book is really just a glimpse of a coming-of-age period in one girl's life, but I think Del's experience combined with the experience of the women around her (her mother, a boarder, her elderly aunts, her friend) really do a great job of representing the lives of many different types of women and girls during this period.
4. Did you learn something new from your book? I wouldn't say I really learned anything new, other than I would definitely like to read more of Munro's work. The writing is beautiful!