As the name suggests, it’s a collection of essays by women from various time and regions. Being too much into fiction, this audiobook took some time to finish. Started this long back, but was constantly putting this aside to happier things.
It can be considered both happy and sad book. Happy because it shows how far women in general have progressed since the world wars, which can make some people content. Although, I rarely feel happy for the changes. It’s just feel not enough. Getting the short end of the stick doesn’t feel like an achievement, does it?! I felt a constant desperation and sadness through the book. Nobody needs to exceptionally empathetic to understand the situation of the women described here. They just did their best to survive. It’s survival of the fittest in the living world, as per Darwin. The fittest are the one’s with obvious money and power. Sometimes these are just men, an obvious usual case, sometimes they are white, cis-gender, upper cast people. All the priveleged ones, should read this book. Nothing to lose, may gain a lot of insights and EQ.
The book tells the takes of many women; the plight of young mom’s stuck in the industrial revolution trying to do too many things in their life while being manipulated by the industrialists, the Armenian American women struggling to carve a place in the society for themselves, the fate of an Indian slave in Carribbean sugarcane fields, the Anglo-American women finding a way to open own businesses, the story of the women in Fried Green Tomatoes, the terrible stories of women in Leningrad. It has been a rollercoaster ride throughout, most of it seemingly going downhill. Progress and development has forever been at someone’s expense, the weaker ones always being at the receiving end.
Feminism has been there forever. All those who think they don’t support feminism and are being equalist instead, guess what, you have been living a lie in your bubble. Feminism is asking equal rights ,nothing more nothing less. It’s not about involving brutal strength, as some would point out that they think they do more work and therefore deserve more. Just treat women as equals. Need not be chivalrous at all. That’s too much of a burden anyway.
Until, I write again.🙂
Just Being Me 