Igrew up in a conservative home in a conservative state with a religion that enshrined conservatism more than Christianity. Fortunately, I was allowed to read, and reading has become a salvation of sorts. As I’ve aged and expanded my horizons, I’ve nonetheless grown concerned that I might have picked up some bad habits along the way. I’m recognized as an expert in my field, but I strive not to be one that oppresses others. Instead, I seek to empower others, and that includes women. Thus, I picked up this book, now in a revised edition supplanting its classic in the late 1970s.

Throughout history, women have been told who to be much more than they’ve been empowered to do the telling. When they’ve held leadership roles, their audiences are often limited to other women and children. Sometimes, the “children” part is even limited just to girls. The role of an “expert” has often functioned to put women in a box, not of their own making. Experts, however, changed their advice over time. This confusion often obscured rather than helped.

Things were not always so. Before the industrial revolution, women used to play a recognized, necessary role in an agrarian society. After industrial workplaces took root, it became hard to put women into a society organized around male work. Women were always put in a place, though this place tended to change with time. In this book, Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English document how experts came to rule the roost, so to speak, of womankind and how women eventually rebelled to find their own perspectives after the twentieth century’s feminism.

It’s been almost two decades since this revised edition has been published. Personally, I’ve grown more awake to the contributions of women around me. American culture seems even more entrenched in culture wars, to the point of empowering anti-feminists, seemingly just for effect. This book remains important to remind us of where we’ve come from. Humanity need not suffer endless wars over how much to restrict people from choosing, and people can have real choices without destroying society. Centralized experts do not know everything. This book contributes a reasoned explanation for these feminist views and empowers readers to choose for themselves. ( )

I read this a few years ago so only have notes made at the time to go by although I think the book was reasonably interesting:

This book was published in the 1970s and is a feminist study of the medical advice given to American women over the past 150 years or so. ( )

Co-authors Ehrenreich and English trace two centuries of women’s history from the industrial revolution into the 1970s. A 2004 epilogue extends the history into the early 21st century. Ehrenreich and English are critical of the growth and influence of scientific experts who proffered advice to women (mostly middle-class) on how to live. The goal posts continually moved so that each succeeding generation of “experts” corrected the “advice” of the preceding generation. The Secret History of Home Economics covers some of the same ground in a much more engaging manner. ( )

I really did not enjoy this book with a very left feminist point of view that much. The one chapter I enjoyed somewhat focused on women who practiced medicine in the 19th century, mostly without formal training and a license. Other chapters focused on the invention of "housework" and on child rearing, particular focusing on Dr. Spock's advice. I do not recommend this book. ( )

I didn't realize this was a re-release of a 1976 work. Not at all what I expected from the blurb, much more medical in nature. Some truly horrific interventions performed on women's wayward uteri and other 'pathologically' female organs. ( )