Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women

by Christina Hoff Sommers and Christina Hoff-Sommers

Book Overview

In Who Stole Feminism?, philosophy professor Christina Sommers has exposed how a group of zealots are promoting a dangerous new agenda that sets women against men in all spheres of life.

In case after case, Sommers shows how these extremists have propped up their arguments with highly questionable but well-funded research, presenting inflammatory and often inaccurate information and stifling any semblance of free and open scrutiny...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684801566
• ISBN13: 9780684801568
• Release Date: May 1995
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic, well-reasoned book from an enlightened woman

For proof of Mrs Hoff-Sommers assertions in this informative and very readable book one need look no further than the authors of all the previous 1 star reviews. They are the perfect reason why we ought to listen closely to people like Mrs Hoff-Sommers, if only in the hope of saving future generations from being similarly affected. It is clear that few of them have turned a page of this book. True, Equity Feminism is an oxymoron in the class of Marxist Capitalism. But her demonstration that its aims were noble, and vastly different from later Gender Feminism are convincing, as are her reasons why a once noble but long since misguided movement has resulted in our society producing the kind of people it is. Buy and read this interesting book, and don't be put off by the so-called reviewers below who condemn without reading.

A true feminist's work of courageous journalism

Feminism is a word that means different things to different people, which is why some people support equal rights for women but criticize feminism, but why on the other hand some feminists take criticisms of feminism as attacks on women.Sommers tries to give us new terms. On the one hand, there are "gender" feminists who fabricate data, blame men for almost every ill, and have an uncanny ability to interpret almost anything as oppression of women. She differentiates them from "equity" feminism, a feminism that respects and likes men, deplores portrayals of women as helpless victims of patriarchy, and seeks sane equity between the sexes, recognizing that there are issues on all sides of questions involving gender.In lucid, carefully researched and documented prose, Sommers als lays out how the former group of extremists have damaged the cause of gender equity, created a wholly unnecessary war against the sexes, and often debased academic standards and made for some genuinely terrible laws.The worst part about criticism of Sommers is claims that she's a "right winger" (she isn't), that she trashes the idea of equality for women (she doesn't), or that she's polemical and mean(she isn't). What she is is a fair-minded and thorough researcher who tells the truth and documents her research in ways that can be verified. And in doing so demonstrates just how logical, competent, and capable women can be.This is a must-read for anyone who cares about sexual politics, or just the relationships between men and women.

Well written, well researched

As is the case with books that address tightly heald beliefs, the reactions can be extreme praise and extreme criticism. Certainly, there are those who will take exception to the author's politics, but her main conclusions, namely 1) The brand of feminism that seems to dominate the media does not represent the average woman, 2) This feminism, or gender feminism as the author terms it, has used sloppy studies to gain political advantage, 3) This political advantage has been used to pour large amounts of capital into programs directed soley at woman, and more often at woman on college campuses, and 4) This is being done at the expense of the needs of males, particularly young males. While I would have liked a more in-depth examination of the methodology of the various studies, that is what references are provided for. She does make a clearly written critique of the studies that the 'gender feminists' use to bolster their arguments, as well as many of their more radical claims, such as questioning the validity of the scientific method. All in all, a well written, well researched book. She is clear in her biases, but she has provided a powerful statement as to why she holds these biases.

Well Reasoned

A well written and researched book. The author identifies two basic types of feminists: equity and gender. She seems to believe that the great majority of historical feminist figures prior to the 1960's based their arguments upon equality of economic opportunity, full political liberty, fair and equal treatment under the law, etc. It's difficult for most reasonable people to not support such admirable goals.However, she sees gender feminists as being of a more radical variety that seem to equate maleness with innate evil. She is very effective at pointing out outright lies, misrepresentations, and simply incredibly sloppy research on the part of some gender feminist writers. She additionally argues that any school of thought based upon demonizing an entire group of people because of a certain physical characteristic must be held to be highly suspect. The holders of these views too often find themselves in close company with racists, xenophobes, etc. Understandably, true believers of this sort do not enjoy their errors pointed out to them--witness the malicious ad hominen attacks of some of the prior reviewers. Ms. Sommers wrote a very good, thoughtful book. I think society needs feminism, but not of an insanely ideological sexist kind.

"Truth is no enemy to compassion and falsehood is no friend"

Besides using facts, and debunking the high status of gender feminists like Faludi, Mackinnon, and Wolf with their own words, Sommers shows us how the lies used to disseminate their brand of feminism hurts our society. How can a problem be sufficiently answered if gender feminists, or any group for that matter, muddles the truth with exaggerations. The March of Dimes study that falsely attributes the majority of birth defects to battery is symbolic of the problem. The true problem is that not enough pregnant women are screened for battery. Like Sommers said, the false but sensational claim that battery is the number one cause of birth defects works great for gender feminists. But the true problem--that not enough women are screened for defects--will be unanswered because the truth often does not make headlines. In the few but vicious poor reviews of this book, I have yet to see one that found any errors that undercut Sommers' larger argument--that gender feminists are liars, and use the stigma of the label of "anti-feminist" for political gain and ultimately hurt a mainstream feminism that "never recognized their leadership" Instead of saying that Sommers' book is poor, I would like to have one person show that it is so, rather than just making the assertion. Until then, this reader will continue to regard Sommers as the genius she appears to be.