In this provocative new book, Shritha Vasudevan argues that feminist international relations (IR) theory has inadvertently resulted in a biased worldview, the very opposite of what feminist IR set out to try to rectify. This book contests theoretical presumptions of Western feminist IR and attempts to reformulate it in contexts of non-Western cultures. Vasudevan deftly utilizes the theoretical constructs of IR to explore the ramifications for India. This hypothesis argues that the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has predictive validity and is not a top-down norm but derived from the material and contingent experiences of nation states. This book enters the debate between feminist qualitative and quantitative IR through the lens of gender-based violence (GBV) under the CEDAW.

This book sets out to correct received accounts of the emergence of art history as a masculine field. It investigates the importance of female writers from Anna Jameson, Elizabeth Eastlake and George Eliot to Alice Meynell, Vernon Lee and Michael Field in developing a discourse of art notable for its complexity and cultural power, its increasing professionalism and reach, and its integration with other discourses of modernity. Proposing a more flexible and inclusive model of what constitutes art historical writing, including fiction, poetry and travel literature, this book offers a radically revisionist account of the genealogy of a discipline and a profession. It shows how women experienced forms of professional exclusion that, whilst detrimental to their careers, could be aesthetically formative; how working from the margins of established institutional structures gave women the freedom to be audaciously experimental in their writing about art in ways that resonate with modern readers.

Filling a long-standing gap both in women's history and in the material history of class culture, this book is a unique and necessary reassessment of the social and cultural scene during the inter-war period in England. By combing over the everyday practices of working-class girls in 1920s and 30s England, including a sharp focus on Bermondsey south-east London and oral testimony from women who grew up in the period, Milcoy demonstrates the persistence and ingenuity with which these teenagers gained access to the commercial leisure culture of the day, from hairstyles and fashionable dress to films, music, and dances. She shows how this access had a startling ripple effect, transforming the way young women rehearsed and contested their identities so that play, rather than work, became the primary mechanism for defining subjectivity and constructing femininity. When the Girls Come Out to Play is a refreshing and nuanced take on the social and cultural history of England between the World Wars.

In the early 1900s, Sarah, a single mother of six children, is trapped in the bloody upheaval marking the death of Czarist Russia and the birth of the Soviet Union. Facing bigotry, poverty, and bloody revolution, Sarah determines to escape the catastrophe engulfing her and her family. She vows to bring them to America.

In this memoir, author Isabelle Stamler traces her family's roots back to the small Belarussian hamlet of Vashisht, telling their story of the journey from Russia to a new life in New York City. From the Great Depression through World War II and beyond, "Sarah's Ten Fingers" narrates the trials and tribulations faced by this determined mother seeking a better existence for her family.

"Sarah's Ten Fingers" recalls Sarah's tenacity, strength, and intelligence-traits that have been replicated in her progeny, who are now teachers, lawyers, doctors, accountants, business owners, and writers. It portrays fifty years in the lives of a family that was brought out of hell by a pious Jewish woman seeking to attain the Golden Land.

Women's Voices in Ireland examines the letters and problems sent in by women to two Irish women's magazines in the 1950s and 60s, discussing them within their wider social and historical context. In doing so, it provides a unique insight into one of the few forums for female expression in Ireland during this period. Although in these decades more Irish women than ever before participated in paid work, trade unions and voluntary organizations, their representation in politics and public and their workforce participation remained low. Meanwhile, women who came of age from the late 1950s experienced a freedom which their mothers and aunts - married or single, in the workplace or the home - had never known. Diary and letters pages and problem pages in Irish-produced magazines in the 1950s and 60s enabled women from all walks of life to express their opinions and to seek guidance on the social changes they saw happening around them. This book, by examining these communications, gives a new insight into the history of Irish women, and also contributes to the ongoing debate about what women's magazines mean for women's history.

Maria Graham's story is as remarkable as her work, and this biography not only narrates her life but also delves into the representation she made of herself in her published and unpublished journals, diaries, memoirs, and letters. The result of her endeavours is a literary persona that appears far removed from the controversial woman that she actually was. Who is the woman behind the texts? How did she conceive them? Was she simply one of many other adventurous and articulate female authors of the nineteenth century, or did she for some reason stand apart? This book shows how she manufactured her identity at times by conforming to, challenging, or ignoring the rules of society regarding women's behaviour. She was a child of the Enlightenment in that she valued knowledge above all things, yet she flavoured her discoveries with a taste of romanticism. Her search took her to distant lands where she captured for her readers foreign cultural manifestations, exotic landscapes, and obscure religious rites; yet a reading of her work generates the impression that despite the dramatic descriptions of peoples and places, Graham's subject was, simply, herself. What we know of her story comes mainly from her own narratives, although there are significant letters to, from, and about her that round up the analysis. This biography reconstructs Maria Graham's literary image by means of significant passages of her work, memoirs, diaries, journals, and letters. The chosen texts are meant to illustrate salient features of her style and of her interaction with the prevalent ideologies of her time. The intention is to display a groundbreaking female intellectual who captured for her readers the ancientculture of India as deftly as she represented bloodthirsty bandits in the north of Italy or nascent countries in South America.

This timely new book explores the formation of the Radical Feminist Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, its prominent leaders and organizations, and the issues it sought to address. Radical Feminists: A Guide to an American Subculture provides a current, comprehensive introduction to the Radical Feminists of the 1960s and 1970s, familiarizing readers with the individuals, organizations, actions, and philosophies that comprised this now-historic movement. Of course, the feminists of the 1960s and 1970s stood on the shoulders of the crusaders who came before. Thus, the book looks at important historical events that paved the way for Radical Feminism, also examining the influence of the Women's Suffrage, Civil Rights, and New Left Movements. Specific social and political issues that concerned the Radical Feminists are explored, including sexuality, sex roles, contraception, and abortion; equal opportunity; feminism in the media; and women in leadership. Finally, the work scrutinizes the fate of the Radical Feminists and their legacy, discussing how their work affected the women's movement overall and how it affects the women-and men-of today. Biographical profiles of prominent individuals and organizations involved in Radical Feminism A primary documents section, highlighting important works from the Radical Feminist era Photographs and illustrations Tables and sidebars Timelines of the Radical Feminist era and its historical precedents A glossary defining terms pertinent to Radical Feminism

Women Writing the Neo-Victorian Novel: Erotic "Victorians" focuses on the work of British, Irish, and Commonwealth women writers such as A.S. Byatt, Emma Donoghue, Sarah Waters, Helen Humphreys, Margaret Atwood, and Ahdaf Soueif, among others, and their attempts to re-envision the erotic. Kathleen Renk argues that women writers of the neo-Victorian novel are far more philosophical in their approach to representing the erotic than male writers and draw more heavily on Victorian conventions that would proscribe the graphic depiction of sexual acts, thus leaving more to the reader's imagination. This book addresses the following questions: Why are women writers drawn to the neo-Victorian genre and what does this reveal about the state of contemporary feminism? How do classical and contemporary forms of the erotic play into the ways in which women writers address the Victorian "woman question"? How exactly is the erotic used to underscore women's creative potential?

This book offers an overview of the contributions of author Nora Roberts to the popular literary market. Nora Roberts's captivating biography and extensive canon are explored in this comprehensive reader's guide, including coverage on her early works, critical successes, trilogies and quartets, short stories and novellas, futuristic mysteries written as J.D. Robb, and titles under other pseudonyms. Reading Nora Roberts shows how this remarkable author expands the limits of the genres in which she writes, exploring feminist ideas, Celtic and Western settings, psychological and religious themes, and Gothic and supernatural elements. The book also highlights Roberts's willingness to have her characters face serious real-world issues, including sexism and racism, gun violence, abortion, suicide, corporate greed, and career burnout. Details models of dialogue, slang, and humor, illustrating Nora Roberts's intuitive replication of human quandaries and compromises Includes a timeline of Nora Roberts's life and career, which began in 1979 with a novel and magazine story and advanced to story anthologies, novellas, romances, sagas, trilogies and quartets, Gothic romance, and futuristic thrillers

In The Feminine Mystique, Jewish-raised Betty Friedan struck out against a postwar American culture that pressured women to play the role of subservient housewives. However, Friedan never acknowledged that many American women refused to retreat from public life during these years. Now, A Jewish Feminine Mystique? examines how Jewish women sought opportunities and created images that defied the stereotypes and prescriptive ideology of the "feminine mystique." As workers with or without pay, social justice activists, community builders, entertainers, and businesswomen, most Jewish women championed responsibilities outside their homes. Jewishness played a role in shaping their choices, shattering Friedan's assumptions about how middle-class women lived in the postwar years. Focusing on ordinary Jewish women as well as prominent figures such as Judy Holliday, Jennie Grossinger, and Herman Wouk's fictional Marjorie Morningstar, leading scholars from a variety of disciplines explore here the wide canvas upon which American Jewish women made their mark after the Second World War.

It is July of 1925 when, on a whim, fifteen-year-old Doris Bailey decides to keep a diary-a place where she can openly confide her dreams, hopes, and ambitions. Doris is flirtatious, untamed, and romantic, imagining herself in and out of love with each passing day.

In this first volume of Th e Doris Diaries, her great-niece, Julia Park Tracey, shares Doris's journals capturing a year in the life of a precocious teenager in the rapidly changing world of the mid-1920s. Doris chats on the telephone and dances to records on the Victrola. Not only does she flirt, kiss, and ride in cars with boys, but she also sneaks out, cuts school, and chops off her hair. While Doris constantly pushes the boundaries of acceptable behavior for a young girl, she retells juicy gossip from St. Helen's Hall, a military academy dance, and an Oregon dude ranch-sharing an unforgettable glimpse into a treasure trove of authentic American life in the Northwest.

"I've Got Some Lovin' to Do," with commentary, footnotes, and photographs, presents an entertaining portrayal of an American girl brimming with curiosity, a zest for life, and a hunger to experience love for the first time.

"Treasures in the Attic: Gifts from a Woman of Faith "is the true story of author Dell Anne Hines Afzal's grandmother, Lois Annie, and the treasures she left their family. It is documented in memory of her love and strength and shows the trials and tribulations of how she lived her life. It also shows an extremely hard-working, honest, and loving woman who would not allow those heartaches she suffered in her life to limit or taint her examples to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Learning of her tragedies and hardships and how she survived them has given Afzal a sense of purpose and a belief that she can do all things through faith and hard work.

Her purpose in sharing her grandmother's life with the reader is to offer comfort and hope to those who are suffering. She offers her prayers and absolute faith in the understanding that whatever pitfalls may be thrown our way, we must never give up and we are not alone.

The treasures found in her attic on the day she moved from her treasured home of over fifty years offer a glimpse of true caring and respect she left for those she loves. The miracle of the recovery of those gifts and a lost member of the family will open your heart and soul to the true miracles of life.