For Her Own Good: 150 Years of the Experts' Advice to Women

by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English

Book Overview

A provocative new perspective on female history, the history of American medicine and psychology, and the history of child-rearing unlike any other. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385126514
• ISBN13: 9780385126519
• Release Date: June 1989
• Publisher: Anchor Books
• Length: 369 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

PERSONAL VALIDATION

These are not "New Ideas" This is neither "provocative" nor "controversial" Those are bogus words intended to distance oneself from the sad reality of gender stereotyping. The book is REAL - any woman who has not been singled out for patronizing advice is lucky indeed-- or is living in a fool's paradise. "Helpful suggestions", chin-tilting, lowered deep voices from men -- judgments -- "authorities" -- teachers -- therapists -- cocky Romeos -- telling you to relax, don't worry, stop thinking so much, support your man, shop more, etc. At least they don't force us to wear pessaries anymore, or to drink hot cow blood (like Victorian physicians did) -- but it can be just as grueling emotionally to hear the constantly patronizing, paternalistic gibberish. Great book! VERY very necessary reading. Related: The Yellow Wallpaper, Idols of Perversity, The Madwoman in the Attic, The Woman's Book of Myths and Secrets, and Gyn-ecology. These are all eye-openers. Though some would prefer to live blind, I recommend dealing with the issues that affect our lives and our decisions every day..

A real education for women of our time

As a "baby boomer" woman, I really appreciated the chance to look back and review the history leading up to the changes we saw in our generation regarding women's rights and women's choices. It was particularly illuminating to have the transformations I myself experienced since childhood encapsulated in such a clear format; it helped me understand how my own grandmother and mother saw their roles. I enjoyed the authors' pithy and practical writing style.

Read it!

This book offers insight into our everyday lives - turned and twisted, yet redily accepted without questions. Very detailed and informative, the authors provide us with an objective historic prospective coupled with a passionate rhetoric of disbelief. Read it! Learn from it!

After 20 years, I still think about this book.

I read For Her Own Good in college but this book still sticks with me. It's funny, because I haven't gone back to reread it. Yet the historical perspectives it had given me has allowed me to be more thoughtfully critical of the articles I read now and the decisions I make with my own health.I am surprised with the one reviewer who is so dismissive. I wonder if "his" is a case of Flat-Earth syndrome or paranoia. Certainly this book has a point of view and is not neutral, but the facts are valid. Misperceptions as to women's health existed in the past, and perceptions are still evolving to best of our collective abilities.I found this book fun and fabulous. Fun because history can be surprisingly shocking. And fabulous because the viceral reaction I had to it and how it has sharpened my awareness of what is said or believed in the name or science.

Very impressive

This was a fantastic read. I would love to hear what the authors have to say about women and children in the past 20 years, altough it isn't too hard to figure it out. The chapters directly on women as healers were very inspiring- makes me want to make sure I only give birth with direct entry or lay midwives. I find it heartbreaking that so many people, and especially women, suffered so much at the hands of "medical doctors" in past centuries. So many women healers suffered because of the arrogance of the untrained, unseeing men who shouldered their way into the healing professions. So many women and babies suffered when the "experts" told them how to raise their babies, and we continue to see that today in the voices of James Dobson and Gary Ezzo. Mistrust any "expert" who doesn't give the tools to cope on your own or who insists they know more than the woman who is there day in and day out. Mistrust anyone who wants to train your child to be a follower of these "leaders" 9or their standby, the right wing Christian interpretation of God) instead of learning to be themselves. Once it was the marketplace they were trained for, now it is service to God, but all of the techniques are similar.Fortunately there have always been women who were willing to NOT conform and to speak their minds and to change the prevailing view. Thank the heavens for them. We still need them.