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The Gate to Women's Country

4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 · rating details · 4,938 ratings · 337 reviews

Tepper's finest novel to date is set in a post-holocaust feminist dystopia that offers only two political alternatives: a repressive polygamist sect that is slowly self-destructing through inbreeding and the matriarchal dictatorship called Women's Country. Here, in a desperate effort to prevent another world war, the women have segregated most men into closed military garr...more

Paperback, 315 pages

Published 1999 by Voyager (first published November 1st 1987)

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Sep 21, 2009 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Elizabeth by: Beth Teske

Shelves: reviewed, fantasy-sci-fi

Fuck. I don't know how to talk about this book. This is one of those books that comes out a tradition of science fiction books: Herland, The Shore of Women, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series, and The Handmaid's Tale about women in utopian or dystopian societies. But it also comes out a feminist tradition in the nineteen-seventies and eighties of political theory about how to bring about the revolution (or liberation, whatever you want to call it). Books like: Sisterhood is Powerful and The ...more

47 likes · like · see review

Jun 13, 2010 Christy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: feminism-and-gender-studies, readinglist2-sf, science-fiction-and-fantasy, dystopian, utopian, dissertation, 20th-century-american-lit

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. On my second reading: I don't think I gave Tepper enough credit the first time I read this book.

The treatment of homosexuality still bothers me. Although, as one commenter has said, it could be argued that this is simply an authorial choice to make it easier for Tepper to explore the specific issues she wishes to focus on, it strikes me as too simplistic to simply say, "Oh, teh gay, we fixed that a while back," especially since the book is so much about questions of biology and essential nature...more

10 likes · like · see review

Apr 12, 2013 Katie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, feminism

Gender essentialist, heterosexist, cissexist garbage. Avoid at all costs.

6 likes · like · see review

Aug 28, 2012 Amy Sturgis rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: postapocalyptic-dystopia, science-fiction-contemporary

Tepper offers a fascinating meditation on how a post-apocalyptic people might seek to limit the potential for future violence and thus avoid another devastating (presumably nuclear) holocaust. The division of genders into Women's Country and the Warrior society is a deeply unsettling one. The men live a Hobbesian life that is nasty, brutish, and short, while the women preserve a disconcertingly passive-aggressive tyranny based on secrets and half-truths and closeted eugenics programs. The book s...more

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Dec 20, 2009 Emily rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

My review just disappeared and I really don't feel like regurgitating the specifics of my dislike for this book again, so this will be shorter than my original. How annoying.

Basically, the book left a sour taste in my mouth... The only options for civilization (or anything resembling it) are a primitive, polygamous society that abuses its women and leaves infant girls out to die; roving bands of Gypsies that act as traveling whorehouses; and Women's Country where the "Damned Few" keep the truth...more My review just disappeared and I really don't feel like regurgitating the specifics of my dislike for this book again, so this will be shorter than my original. How annoying.

Basically, the book left a sour taste in my mouth... The only options for civilization (or anything resembling it) are a primitive, polygamous society that abuses its women and leaves infant girls out to die; roving bands of Gypsies that act as traveling whorehouses; and Women's Country where the "Damned Few" keep the truth from everyone else. The book raised issues such as nature vs. nurture, the nature of men and women, what freedoms we can/should give up in exchange for safety, and who should make those decisions, but it never really dealt with the issues in anything resembling a positive direction.

Sex is used as a tool to satiate the warriors twice a year, not as a demonstration of love or even for procreation. Marriage is spoken of only a couple of times as a brutal shudder-worthy pre-convulsion custom. There is little affection between characters except for a mother and her children, especially her sons, who are sent to live with the warriors at the ripe old age of 5. Seems to me that if you are trying to create a society that values peace, thoughtful intelligence, and compassion, sending half of your population into an environment that intentionally devalues those very qualities in favor of brute strength, cruelty, "honor," and selfishness is just a bit counterproductive. And though the Councilwomen's goal of a peaceful society is laudable, their methods, which included subterfuge, deception, selective forced sterilization, and assassination, were not.

I didn't care for the play rehearsals that formed the "present day" part from which the flashbacks occurred. The play was supposed to be a comedy? Children being thrown from city walls? Women raped and murdered? Ok... All in all, I could have lived quite happily my entire life without ever reading this book...

For more book reviews, visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.(less)

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Sep 26, 2007 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the book that introduced me to Sheri Tepper. It addresses questions of why humanity is so violent and possible solutions, of gender politics, of what a future might be like if men and women did not live together as a rule.
In this post-apocalyptic future, matriarchal women live in walled towns, carrying on agriculture, arts, crafts and politics. Men live outside the towns in warrior garrisons, to protect the women.
The story is about our heroine and how she learns some of the secrets of h...more

6 likes · like · see review

Jun 10, 2009 Synesthesia rated it 1 of 5 stars

I hate this book. Maybe I should read it again, but there's so many other books I want to read, so many other books I'd rather read again than this one.
Maybe there was some sort of thing I missed the first time I read it in college, but mostly it made me mad.
They got rid of homosexuality, most of the men are brutes and facist and violent, except for the servitors. Yet the women still have sex with the brutish men even as they are trying to breed them out of existence.
Then you get some random sca...more

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Jan 16, 2009 Greg rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf-fantasy-and-other-dorky-shit, girls-girls-girls

I remember reading this book for a Science Fiction class I took in college. Unlike probably everyone else in the class, except for my friend Chris, I hadn't ever gone through a scifi phase, or ever liked reading scifi books. The closest I ever came was really liking Star Wars and other movies as a kid. I'd even tried once reading a Star Wars novel as a kid and thought it was stupid and gave up on it.

So I took this class in a genre I had no interest in, and the teacher was all gung-ho about sf b...more

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Jan 28, 2008 Kathleen rated it 2 of 5 stars

I have found Tepper to be frustratingly uneven as a writer. When her stories take on what might be called a "feminist" theme, they don't work as well for me as those who explore other themes.

This novel has a frame that I found especially irritating because the emotions described in the frame were never earned, and I did not find myself believing in or caring about them.

The inner story was, by contrast, quite engaging, and I found myself wishing that she had left out the frame entirely.

8 likes · like · see review

May 15, 2013 Tom rated it 3 of 5 stars

More like 3.5 and the end had me nudging the 4.

Women's country is the story of a society created after we almost wiped humans off the face of the earth with our wars. Their idea is to keep the women separated from the warriors. The boys are taken from their families at age five to train with the warriors. At age 15 they need to make a decision on whether they want to live inside the walls with the women or continue their lives as fighters. The wars that are fought include only the warriors so t...more

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Feb 25, 2009 Trixie B rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book found me while I was browsing through used sci-fi paperbacks and I bought it for two reasons. The first was that the cover treatment reminded me of Snow Crash thus endearing itself to me by association. The second is that I have particular interest in science fiction by women, since that's what my first novel will classify as, should I ever finish it.

Like most sci-fi by women, there isn't enough action or technology; gender roles are explored through interpersonal relationships, and...more

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Apr 28, 2008 Gretchen rated it 5 of 5 stars

A friend sent me this knowing full well that I didn't like futuristic novels-he said I am sending this to one of the strongest women I know! I have probably read it 100 plus times (it is like comfort food-I found myself reading it along with the New Testament the week my sweet husband died ). I like the empowerment given to some women even though the men can't or don't want to understand. The empowered women see themselves as the damned as they manipulate the DNA and the numbers of their civiliz...more

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Aug 04, 2007 carmie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi, favorites

This is my favorite Sheri S. Tepper book. Many people consider her work to be "lite," and that characterisation is accurate. But easily understood, broadly stated truths are truths nonetheless.

I enjoy this book first and foremost for its detailed and fascinating depiction of a post-apocalyptic matriarchal society (much less depressing than A Canticle for Leibowitz). The characters are well-fleshed out and compassionately portrayed, even the villains. And despite the futuristic setting, this is...more

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May 29, 2007 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia, feminism, fiction

The Gate to Women's Country takes place in a post-apocolyptic society where men and women are segragated. The women live in walled villages and control the economy and education. Boys are raised in the women's community until they are 5 at which point they are sent to be raised and trained by the men. Most of the men are warriors and live in separate garrison cities. Some men however, at the age of 15, chose to dishonor themseleves and return through the gate to women's country to be servants fo...more

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Dec 06, 2008 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was the third book for Off the Map; my friend Jess chose it. I enjoyed it a lot. I'm not usually a sci-fi reader and I hate apocalyptic stories but I liked this story; it wasn't nearly as oooooooooooohhh! racy as one might think b/c all these women live together, separated from the warrior men, after some sort of nuclear ending of the world (the "convulsion"). There's no girl-on-girl action, in other words.

BUT, it's interesting how the author compares/contrasts what's happened to these wome...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

I first read this book when I was in high school and frankly, I neither understood it nor enjoyed it. Later, after reading most of Tepper's backlist in my twenties, I decided to revisit this novel and found it to be provocative and well thought out, if dated at that point. It is one of those, how shall I say, books written by women with the mindset of the feminist movement of the late seventies/eary eighties. So if you take it from that particular historical perspective, it's easier to swallow....more

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Mar 13, 2011 Ashley rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I first read Sheri S. Tepper's The Gate To Women's Country during a Dean's Honors Seminar on Utopian societies when I was a senior in college.

It was the first book of the genre I had read. I was blown away by the ideas expressed in this book. The Gate To Women's Country is set three hundred years after an apocalypse. In the aftermath of what are called the "convulsions" two societies have formed. From Publisher's Weekly: Tepper's finest novel to date is set in a post-holocaust feminist dystopia...more I first read Sheri S. Tepper's The Gate To Women's Country during a Dean's Honors Seminar on Utopian societies when I was a senior in college.

It was the first book of the genre I had read. I was blown away by the ideas expressed in this book. The Gate To Women's Country is set three hundred years after an apocalypse. In the aftermath of what are called the "convulsions" two societies have formed. From Publisher's Weekly: Tepper's finest novel to date is set in a post-holocaust feminist dystopia that offers only two political alternatives: a repressive polygamist sect that is slowly self-destructing through inbreeding and the matriarchal dictatorship called Women's Country. Here, in a desperate effort to prevent another world war, the women have segregated most men into closed military garrisons and have taken on themselves every other function of government, industry, agriculture, science and learning. The resulting manifold responsibilities are seen through the life of Stavia, from a dreaming 10-year-old to maturity as doctor, mother and member of the Marthatown Women's Council. As in Tepper's Awakeners series books, the rigid social systems are tempered by the voices of individual experience and, here, by an imaginative reworking of The Trojan Woman that runs through the text.

Recent events making the news prompted me to re-read this book. Neither of these societies is a true Utopia, but Tepper presents some valid points. Women are at our best when we're educated. When we're sovereign over our own mind, bodies, and spirits. When we're free to make whatever choice is right for us- to be single, to be a wife. To be a mother, or to not. To hold a paying job or to be a stay-at-home mom. To believe that God, if we believe in God, does not hate women and does not think us weak.

Warning- Spoilers below. If you don't want to know anything about what you might come across in the book if you choose to read it, stop reading now. Otherwise, read on.

Tepper presents some interesting ideas. Are women inherently less violent? I don't think that's the case. But I do think that women have different priorities on when violence is appropriate. In Women's Country, if the men of the garrison choose to go to war with another garrison, it is hand to hand combat. Only the men die. Women and children, who didn't choose to enter into the war, are not a by-product casualty of the devastation of war. On the other hand, when the Council women of Women's country realize some decisive action must be taken against some of the men in the garrison, Stavia's mother, Morgot, points out that when in this situation, the women seek only to kill, never to wound.

The Councilwomen and the Servitors who truly know what is going on in Women's Country (and that is too big of a spoiler for me to give away here) call themselves the Damned Few. They realize they are working for what they feel is the good of society at large. Yet they are not operating with transparency, which opens its own set of ethical questions. Tepper addresses those briefly, but these are the unanswerable questions the reader should take away and analyze for him or her self.(less)

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Jan 23, 2011 Kathleen Dienne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Some books aren't just meaningful. In the case of this book, it changed me. Since finishing this book, years ago, I never again read post-apocalyptic fiction the same way. I didn't read feminist material the same way. Heck, I didn't read evolutionary biology the same way.

The great science fiction is first and foremost "literature of ideas." This is an interesting and emotionally powerful set of ideas in a well told story. One thing I think many of the critics of this book have missed is that it'...more

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Jan 12, 2010 Glen Engel-Cox rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read this book for our book club, and that's pretty much the only reason I would have picked it up. This is not because of its feminist slant, but because I generally despise books about post-apocalyptic societies. I'd much rather read about some horrible technological dystopia than a utopian vision of people running around in furs and gardening. The first third of this book did nothing to dispel that fear that this was one of those books either, from its beginning of feudal ceremony of the le...more I read this book for our book club, and that's pretty much the only reason I would have picked it up. This is not because of its feminist slant, but because I generally despise books about post-apocalyptic societies. I'd much rather read about some horrible technological dystopia than a utopian vision of people running around in furs and gardening. The first third of this book did nothing to dispel that fear that this was one of those books either, from its beginning of feudal ceremony of the lead character Stavia having to part from her fifteen-year-old son to the backflash of Stavia as a young girl learning her craft as well as dealing with her smitten sister. Yes, the mystery starts early and gives you something to hope for: what prompted this division of the sexes and how is it maintained, what is the secret that the Women's Council possess, and why exactly is Stavia such a basket-case if she's one of the leaders of this community? Thankfully, this is a science fiction novel, and all these questions are eventually answered, and in such a way to prompt some thought. Like most science fiction novels of ideas (as opposed to those of adventure or style), even at its short 300 pages, this would likely have worked better at half that length. Most of the bulk is built around the time construction of the book where you go from 40-year-old Councilwoman Stavia preparing than performing a mash-up of the aftermath of the Trojan war back to the real action of Stavia learning about her society and alternating between rebelling and fulfilling its destiny. The play conceit is interesting, but destroys some of the tension of the other story (i.e., you know Stavia survives her ordeals) without being clear enough in its underlying thematic elements.

That said, I enjoyed the book much more than I expected to, mainly due to Tepper's skill in plotting and her clear writing style. It's nice to read a science fiction book that doesn't try to be hipper-than-thou or more-erudite-without-a-fault. If anything, by having such an unadorned method of delivery, Tepper allows more access to the idea she is presenting, a worthy goal if her intention was to spark debate and discussion (and, ultimately, a perfect choice for a book club book). I disagree with her basic concept for a number of reasons, but I thought it interesting to consider. The Gate to Women's Country didn't change my mind about post-apocalypse stories (nor did A Canticle for Leibowitz or any of the other classic post-nuke-em books), but I don't regret having read it and may well read another by Tepper in the future.

Below are questions (and spoilers) for book club discussion.

Does Tepper's concept that violence can be bred out of human males (following the Laplander method of acquiring more docile bull reindeer) favor genetics over culture? If so, is this a flawed concept or do you agree that violence is a genetic trait in males?

Is the selection for males with heightened perception (i.e., ESP) supposed to indicate that only males with more empathy can cohabit with women, as there seem to be only two types of servitors: the ones with ESP and the girly-men?

Why is a cadre of warriors with nothing better to do (i.e., no real work to speak of) so easily foxed? Wouldn't a good warrior have better information (maps, spies, exploration teams of their own, preparations)? Or is Tepper saying that violent men are just dumb?

It is revealed that it is only the servitors who are siring children, but what Tepper doesn't write about is whether the servitors also engage in sex with the women (the insemination process is artificial following carnival, but what about the other ten months of the year). Are we to assume that all the servitors are so unsexual and docile that jealousy and possession are no longer a part of them? (The ending with Joshua killing Michael indicates that this may not be so, but seems entirely too facile for the central concept.)(less)

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Nov 28, 2009 Ed Mestre rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sheri Tepper has yet to let me down. I don't read a lot of science fiction, but when I do it is most often Philip K. Dick or Tepper. Dick for his street philosopher questioning the nature of reality, psychedelic prankster approach. And Tepper's imaginative & unique, often non-linear writing with a definite, but never strident, female perspective. In the 3 books of hers I've read, "Fresco", "Family Tree", & here "The Gate to Women's Country" the protagonists are women.

In this one she tak...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars

Tepper presents a post-"convulsions" (read post-apocolypse) world, focusing on a society called Women's Country in which women have structured a world where they control and provide for all of society from walled towns while isolating the aggressive male instinct in "protective" men's garrisons. While the women, and non-aggressive males referred to as servitors, provide the necessities of life in the towns, physical conflict is left to the aggressive male soldiers in the garrisons. The soldiers'...more Tepper presents a post-"convulsions" (read post-apocolypse) world, focusing on a society called Women's Country in which women have structured a world where they control and provide for all of society from walled towns while isolating the aggressive male instinct in "protective" men's garrisons. While the women, and non-aggressive males referred to as servitors, provide the necessities of life in the towns, physical conflict is left to the aggressive male soldiers in the garrisons. The soldiers' sole purpose is to protect the towns from and train for and engage in conflict with other aggressive males, the post-convulsions conflict structured to completely avoid harm to women, children and occupants of the towns and generally limit the bloodshed of the combatants and any spillover destruction.

While this feminist society is presented idealistically, Tepper also does present the exceptions, imperfections and warts that real human life would entail even in any utopian society. Women's Country is not the only social structure in this post-convulsion world; readers also meet the rigid, exaggeratedly Talibanesque patriarchal inhabitants of Holyland, and the not insignificant number of "gypsies," prostitutes, carnies and other traveling performers, non-conformists who live loosely allied with, but outside of Women's Country society, and the unexpressed impression is that readers are only being introduced to a small part of the post-convulsion world. Also, men and women are presented in ways that do not necessarily fit a rigid, doctrinaire feminist script - that is to say, some women characters behave badly and some male characters do not, and characters display real human frailties of bad behavior and mistaken judgements. And ethical uncertainty exists in gray areas of Women's Country rules and controls. As Margot admits relative to such ruling council judgements, "we [the council women] are the damned" - many politically necessary decisions have questionable ethical effects.

This post-convulsion world scenario is presented to readers through the non-linear storyline of Stavia, an inhabitant of Marthaville, from the age of ten until her late thirties. Stavia is smart and capable but makes her share of human misjudgements, the major of which is her long attraction to Chernon (a longgg, overwrought devotion reflecting extremely bad judgement if not complete blindness, that seemed extremely unrealistic to me given Stavia's intelligence and otherwise general good sense), which has almost devastating consequences for herself and for Marthaville.

Of note, and I felt effectively used throughout the book, are bits from a fictitious play called Iphigenia in Ilium (a take-off of Euripides' The Trojan Women) which is used as a motif to underscore the story's feminist viewpoint, by presenting the incongruity of society's traditional, from the ancient Greeks onward, take on the soldier as hero, while women remain the unsung victims of so many of these soldiers' "heroics." And also of note, there is an unfortunate, and unnecessary to the storyline, reference to the curing of gay-ness by selectively breeding out a gay gene.

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Jan 21, 2009 Jenni rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: feminism, sf

I really enjoyed reading this - even as a re-read where I had an inkling of the rabbit-solution that Tepper was going to pull out of the hat. This was not helped by the fact that when I searched for the in-story play "Iphigenia at Ilium" to check whether it was in fact a real historical play, varius of the webpages talking about it should have had spoiler warnings. I tried not to look and didn't remind myself of the outcome too much - to save you, dear reader, doing the same I can reveal that no...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Ellie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: far-future, dystopia-or-post-apocalyptic, read-in-2012, politics-and-intrigue

I want to give this book five stars. The Gate to Women’s Country is an immensely powerful book, and I know that it won’t leave my mind for some time. This is a book to make you think, and it does that brilliantly. There are just a few things that stop me from being able to call it perfect.

The world in this book is very well thought out, and feels utterly (and terrifyingly) believable. The dynamic between men and women in this dystopia is one that I definitely buy, though I do think the book edge...more I want to give this book five stars. The Gate to Women’s Country is an immensely powerful book, and I know that it won’t leave my mind for some time. This is a book to make you think, and it does that brilliantly. There are just a few things that stop me from being able to call it perfect.

The world in this book is very well thought out, and feels utterly (and terrifyingly) believable. The dynamic between men and women in this dystopia is one that I definitely buy, though I do think the book edged a little close to a purely ‘women good, men bad’ view at points. There were good male characters in the book, but there were hardly any bad women. Myra is the worst of the female characters that we see, and she’s just bitter and petty and foolish – not close to the level of evilness seen in the men. None of the women are portrayed as having any leaning towards violence or other typically male attributes, which I found a little unbelievable.

There’s also the issue of how homosexuality is dealt with. The idea is that it’s been ‘cured’ carries a billion unfortunate implications, and I wish that the matter had just not been mentioned at all. It’s just a throwaway sentence, but to me it pulled the whole book down a little.

The plotting is excellent. For a long time, it felt like nothing much was really happening, but gradually the plot unfolded and what had seemed like unimportant details were suddenly crucial. The ending is one of those that makes you look at the whole book differently, and makes you realise how subtly the clues had been woven into the story.

Writing-wise, it was also very good. The prose was beautiful in places, and I loved how the play was interjected into the main plot to reflect themes and run parallel to the story. In some places I felt a little thrown off by the POV – for the majority of the book it feels as if it’s in third person limited, sticking to Stavia, so I was quite surprised when it became omniscient. In the second half of the book, a load more characters are introduced, which felt a little odd after its focus on Stavia.

The dialogue felt a bit stilted and expositiony at times, and child Stavia spoke exactly the same as adult Stavia. This wasn’t much of a problem though, as this book is much more about the ideas than the story and characters.

Stavia was a really good character, and a great example of a strong female character who’s not an action girl. However, I never bought into her relationship with Chernon. He was a complete jerk from the moment he showed up (even without knowing his ulterior motive) – Stavia felt too level-headed to fall for someone like that.

(view spoiler)

Overall, The Gate to Women’s Country is a brilliant, thought-provoking book with a few critical flaws keeping it from perfection. I’ll definitely be raiding my parents’ shelves for more of Sheri S. Tepper’s books.
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Aug 20, 2012 Tracey rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper

Okay, the premise of this book was good. It is about a dystopian society where women and men live separately in a matriarchal society. Men live as warriors and women maintain "civilized society" within the gates of women's country. They are the keepers of knowledge - medical, historical, sociological, etc. The story revolves around Stavia and flashes back from her childhood to her adulthood. Interspersed in the book are parts of the Helen of Troy pla...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Martin rated it 4 of 5 stars

One thing I hate about many books is that they often starts off with flying colors with amazing prose and plotting, making me think it's going to be my new favorite book. And then they usually glided, or stumbled, down into disappointments by the end of the story, when the author clearly ran out of ideas or got simply lazy.

Not with this author.

In fact, I hated the first 25 pages. The writing was too forced, too 'overwrought,' as Tepper attempted to set up the background and history of her story....more One thing I hate about many books is that they often starts off with flying colors with amazing prose and plotting, making me think it's going to be my new favorite book. And then they usually glided, or stumbled, down into disappointments by the end of the story, when the author clearly ran out of ideas or got simply lazy.

Not with this author.

In fact, I hated the first 25 pages. The writing was too forced, too 'overwrought,' as Tepper attempted to set up the background and history of her story. But the story gradually grabbed a hold of me with its relevant feminist interpretation of the Iliad/Odysseus (and maybe Aeneid), juxtaposing it with a eco-feminism dystopian reality. She kept her best cards until near the end, and I enjoyed the overlapping of her ideas with the characters' struggles, and how it blended together quite seamlessly. The writing seemed to improve by the conclusion as the plot became more driven and the ideas much clearer.

For thousands of years (and they still are), women have been raped, pillaged, murdered, objectified, and used as currency for men. Tapper imagines a walled city, a feminist utopia, where they are treated as equals and nothing of the aforementioned by the patriarchal hegemony will happen to them. However, outside the walls, the patriarchal flag still wave with all its ugliness. Basically, Women's Country is about a heroine, who remembers a terrible bildungsrowoman journey she had as a young woman that transformed her purview from a innocent girl's into a grown woman's. Along her journey, Tepper poses many problematic questions and themes arising from the two sexes - the ownership of women, the identity (or the lack thereof) behind the names, the nature of man, evolutionary biology, and the male gaze in literature.

**SPOILER**
It has been said the writer is guilty of essentialism, which means she reduces men into stereotypical evil beings. I think this is partially true, as she exhibits this somewhat with Chernon when he takes sides with the boys who kidnapped the heroine Stavia. But I am going to give Tepper some license on this, because of the simple enormity that men has done to women throughout history, and, besides, Tepper did write some male characters that does not reveal any ill-will or possessiveness towards women. What I didn't like out of her ideas was about eugenics - she posited the idea of trying to eliminate the combative and possessive nature of man through artificial selection by the women. Fascinating stuff, to be sure, and I enjoyed her radical ideas, but eugenics opens a can of worms that leads to a very slippery slope to more exclusion towards minorities (e.g.., Deaf people, people of color).
**SPOILER**

I read this book for a book club, and I groaned when this book was picked - I didn't want a sci-fi book about an apocalyptic future, but I am happy to say Tepper exceeded my expectations. (less)

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Dec 28, 2009 Ash H. rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 03, 2012 PointyEars42 rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: make-a-movie-of-it

My brain keeps telling me that most of this was a non-fiction textbook for humanity's future. I assume that either my memory is fuzzier than expected or that said brain has edited the memory to fit in with years of being a relatively smart woman surrounded by excruciatingly dumb/mean men and being horrified at how many copies they keep spawning while all of the intelligent ones breed minimally and responsibly.

Reading this in my teens made me start paying attention to how women were treated in f...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Suz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dtb-own, award-winner, feminist, post-apocalyptic, science-fiction, women-sff-authors

This book is a dystopian, post apocalyptic future with some interesting gender politics. It lacks the punch, I think I was expecting, but it was an interesting novel.

In this future world, the main society featured is one where there are walled women's towns, ruled by a matriarchal council, and each town has a garrison of men that live outside the walls. The two only mix twice a year, for a festival that seems to be centered around procreation for the next generation. The novel showcases the powe...more

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Sep 28, 2010 Zach rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: feminism-gender, post-apocalyptic, science-fiction

The Gloria Steinem of second-wave-inspired post-apocalyptic novels of gender separation? (making Walk to the End of the World Shulamith Firestone, perhaps, and The Shore of Women... Simone de Beauvoir? I don't know, I haven't actually read those two yet) Anyway my point is that this is the sort-of-essentialist (but maybe not?) liberal feminist version of the story, wherein men and women are fundamentally different and need to be mostly kept separate for their own good, except for those "womanish...more The Gloria Steinem of second-wave-inspired post-apocalyptic novels of gender separation? (making Walk to the End of the World Shulamith Firestone, perhaps, and The Shore of Women... Simone de Beauvoir? I don't know, I haven't actually read those two yet) Anyway my point is that this is the sort-of-essentialist (but maybe not?) liberal feminist version of the story, wherein men and women are fundamentally different and need to be mostly kept separate for their own good, except for those "womanish" men who have opted out of the warrior lifestyle and live among the women (no, not gay men-homosexuality has been medically eliminated... I know, I know), and where women are just better suited to lead because of their biological drive to nurture.

Anyway 300 years after the "Convulsion" women live in towns while the male warriors are garrisoned outside of them, kept uneducated and without access to most tools or technology in order to prevent another war.* We explore this world through a Councilwoman's daughter, Stavia, whose main purpose appears to be making terrible choices in order to drive the narrative along. Not that there's that much narrative, anyway-this book is an exercise in social worldbuilding and little else. There's an "enemy" culture introduced like 2/3s of the way through to provide some conflict and a short adventure, but their whole episode feels rather tacked on, which is too bad, because if they had been developed from the beginning it would have strengthened the novel considerably.

I remain, I must confess, a little mystified as to whether Tepper was trying to reinforce or deconstruct this essentialist society-although much of that might be my own disdain for such ideas rendering it a little difficult for me to take this stuff seriously. I guess it didn't help that the society didn't really make any sense at all anyway.

* It must be noted too that a lot of negative reviews of this book on here center on Tepper's "unfair' characterization of men, which is great because A) turnabout is fair play, chumps, and B) these male characters are carbon copies of the heroes of most speculative novels.(less)

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Jun 21, 2012 Barb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: a-fict, sci-fi

Fascinating view of life after a catastrophic event. The few living people find ways to survive and build interesting cultures. The main characters live in a society where the women hold most of the knowledge and sceintific skill inside a fort while they are protected by the garrison comprised of males over 4 yrs old. Two basically seperate societies. The women feel that war and the distruction that occured was because of men so they are selectively breeding with those males that are more compas...more

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About Sheri S. Tepper

Sheri Stewart Tepper is a prolific American author of science fiction, horror and mystery novels; she is particularly known as a feminist science fiction writer, often with an ecofeminist slant.

Born near Littleton, Colorado, for most of her career (1962-1986) she worked for Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, where she eventually became Executive Director. She has two children and is married to Gen...more

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“The sidesaddle was designed to protect a maiden's virginity, while risking the maiden's neck. Rather much for rather little, I thought.” — 48 people liked it

“I think... girls have a hard time being interesting. It’s actually easier to be famous, or notorious, than it is to be interesting. In our world, girls climb very well until they hit puberty-sexual maturity-and then they begin to fall out of the tree. They start role-playing instead of thinking, flirting instead of learning. They start admiring how smart the boys are-or how athletic or how handsome-instead of concentrating on their own intelligence.” — 8 people liked it

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