Modern American Women: A Documentary History

Rating:
Summary: good - but there are better anthologies
Review: Susan Ware's documentary history of women in the 20th century has some great material, but very little of it is ground-breaking, and much of it is a rather narrow representation of the female experience. There are the ubiquitous documents and accounts of the Progressivism and the sufferage movement, the impact of the Great Depression and World War Two on the home, and the "birth" of feminism in the late 1950's and 1960's, through to material on the sexual revolution of the 80's. Frankly, I was a bit diasppointed.

As a history teacher, I am regularly appalled at the relative lack of attention that women in history are given. If one were to judge by the materials in this book, women have not had much influence in America. Obviliously this is not the case, hence my rating. Furthermore, women of color are not well represented, nor are the experiences of immigrants, rural women, and similar groups. Ware's anthology is primarily comprised of the experiences of white, urban women. A strength of the book are its 3 "photo essays", depicting the obstacles women faced in the workplace, at home, and in education.

In my opinion, better books on the subject are Rosalyn Baxandall's _America's Working Women_ and Gerda Lerner's _The Female Experience_.