Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life by Stephanie Staal

Nov 14, 2011 Rhiannon rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Rich Moms; Make-Believe Feminists

Recommended to Rhiannon by: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1452.The_Feminist_Readers_Network">The Feminist Readers Network on Goodreads</a>

Shelves: lady-writer, owned, read-in-2011, memoir, clubbies, its-a-gender-thing

Before I critique this book, I want to share a couple of things that I enjoyed about it, first.

1. Women's Colleges and Women's Studies Classrooms: I spent my first college-year at an all-women's school in New York State. Not since elementary school (and never after) had I felt so confident in my ability and authority as a student, my agency, my voice. Something about a room full of women really made me comfortable in terms of my education. I can't really describe it better than that.

I don't prop...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: feminist-readers-network, feminism, female-author, non-fiction, biographical-or-memoir, own-read, 2011

There were parts of this book that I thought were good, and parts that I thought were dull and ended up skimming over; mostly the memoir-style parts where Stephanie speaks about her daughter and husband. The message about marriage and children that I gleaned from this book was that it, as a lifestyle choice, eliminates not only any time to focus on yourself as a woman (and not just a ‘mother’) but also as a person in general.

Stephanie seemed to be having a crisis of self after birthing her chil...more There were parts of this book that I thought were good, and parts that I thought were dull and ended up skimming over; mostly the memoir-style parts where Stephanie speaks about her daughter and husband. The message about marriage and children that I gleaned from this book was that it, as a lifestyle choice, eliminates not only any time to focus on yourself as a woman (and not just a ‘mother’) but also as a person in general.

Stephanie seemed to be having a crisis of self after birthing her child, and that was what drove her to re-enroll in Fem Texts to study the feminist classics. She set out to determine whether you could be a wife and mother and still be a feminist, but by the end of the book I’m not sure that she really gave the reader an answer. It seems she finished her classes – feeling what, exactly? Pride in taking control and once again becoming a student despite having a small child at home? Reinvigorated as a feminist woman? Lost in a sea of third wave feminists with views she was unfamiliar/didn’t agree with? I’m not sure – and went back to the grind of being a wife and mother. Sigh.

I also took issue with her narrow-mindedness of what feminism is/can be. The books she discussed neglected to cover any issues of race, and some great feminist writers were overlooked completely. Did she really not have an opinion on what bell hooks wrote in Ain’t I A Woman? Her focus was very a middle-class heterosexual white woman kind of feminism, which I found disappointing (and also surprising; she mentioned numerous times that her mother is of Chinese origin, so that makes her a woman of colour, does it not? Why ignore this entire aspect of feminism when it affects her directly?)

Yes, we get it, she is living the epitome of a heteronormative existence, but she could at least present as open to the concept of radical lesbianism as a lifestyle choice for other women, even if not for herself. Instead she turned up her nose at the idea of lesbianism in general, which ain’t cool.

If anything this book reinforced for me that becoming a mother is not something that I want to do. Ever. To me, personally, it sounds awful to have to give up so much and lose yourself in the process of raising another person. It sounded a little to me like Stephanie was regretting her choices in getting married and having a baby, and if she was trying to get the point across specifically that she DIDN’T regret her choices then I think that message got a little lost. Regardless, she introduces the reader to a great list of feminist books as well as a glimpse into the conversations she had while taking her Fem Text classes. Overall I thought it was a bit too ‘memoir’ and not enough talking about what she read (which was why I picked up the book, after all)(less)

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Jan 06, 2011 Miranda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fic

Stephanie Staal's memoir reverses an oft-quoted feminist slogan; in her case, the political is personal. She provides a whistle-stop tour of some of the central texts of the feminist canon, read through the eyes of both her undergraduate younger self and her older, wiser, and more conflicted present incarnation as wife and mother.

Staal's wider experience informs her later reading in myriad ways. Having directly experienced some of the realities of motherhood and the compromises of marriage, she...more Stephanie Staal's memoir reverses an oft-quoted feminist slogan; in her case, the political is personal. She provides a whistle-stop tour of some of the central texts of the feminist canon, read through the eyes of both her undergraduate younger self and her older, wiser, and more conflicted present incarnation as wife and mother.

Staal's wider experience informs her later reading in myriad ways. Having directly experienced some of the realities of motherhood and the compromises of marriage, she finds herself more sympathetic to the seeming contradictions in the lives of women like Mary Wollstonecraft whose practice did not always follow what they preached. Likewise, she has a greater depth of understanding of what de Beauvoir sacrificed in her desire to retain independence by not marrying or having children, and hence both what the philosopher lost and what she succeeded in keeping.

Staal finds that her experiencing both the life of a footloose professional and a mother struggling to write while her daughter naps gives her an insight lacking when she only saw the life of a conventional wife from the outside.

More problematic for Staal is the complacency of some of the other students in the class. She is horrified when one woman suggests that no sometimes doesn’t mean no and not one of her classmates protests, and she feels sad that most of the other students view radical feminism as too angry and unrealistic. However, her delight in revisiting her own experience of the texts through that of others is palpable.

My enjoyment of this book was very likely influenced by the similarity of my own situation with that of Staal; I too am at home with young children, questioning the validity of my choices and wondering if I am betraying my younger, idealistic self. Many of the issues and explorations were therefore directly relevant to my own experience. I am also very excited by the book list in the back!

However, the underlying message of the book is one that is relevant to all idealists, feminist or otherwise. As life progresses, and we grow older, we cannot help but fail in some of our hopes and aspirations. Life is complicated, and any one path chosen leaves another one unexplored. Accepting this is an essential part of growing up, of understanding that reality is made of shades of grey. But equally important is holding on to those early ideals, not letting ourselves slip into complacency, and keeping a sense of who we really are through adversity as well as joy.

ETA - I received my copy as part of Goodreads 'giveaways' program - thank you so much!(less)

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Sep 26, 2012 Shana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Kudos to my mother for sending me this book right when I needed it most! As I approach my late 20s, I have faced many challenges to my imagined identity versus what I feel I put out to the world. Turns out I’m not the only one!

As a wife and a mother to a young daughter, Staal begins to reflect on her feminist beliefs and learnings with a new eye. Like myself, she is a graduate of a women’s college (the similarities between us are eerily plentiful!) and felt that her perspective had shifted along...more

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May 26, 2012 Latoya rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

When I initially read the premise of "Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed my Life," I was estatic. I was estatic not only because the thesis for writing a book about feminist writing completely "rocked my socks," but also because my idea of an intellectual orgasm is to re-read the feminist prose I unearthed in my youth; the ones which gave me insight into the world and allowed me to interpret ideas of sex, love, and social, individual, political ideologies for myself. The genr...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Krista Danis rated it 4 of 5 stars

Stephanie Staal lives in New York working as a freelance writer and mommy/wife. Sharing the challenges she encounters while trying to navigate the sexist paths worn into her increasingly stereotypical lifestyle, Stall blends memoir with literary analysis in an accessible, if not naive, examination of her own well-worn feminist shoes. Though sometimes bored with her tendency to metacognate over the most detailed or trivial of events, I appreciate Reading Women for what it was and for where she co...more

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Jul 14, 2011 Angie Never rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: feminists, marriage, motherhood, new-york

The concept behind this book was quite wonderful, but the book itself fell short. The story starts as the author finds herself in the thick of motherhood and begins to miss the strong feminism that guided her early years. (At least theoretically. Later descriptions of her early years hint that she was not quite the feminist she fancied herself to be.) Her solution to this conundrum is to go back to college and retake the feminist classes that she found so inspiring in her 20s. What follows is ba...more

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Feb 19, 2011 Diana Renn rated it 5 of 5 stars

I just realized that Stephanie Staal is also the author of THE LOVE THEY LOST: LIVING WITH THE LEGACY OF OUR PARENTS' DIVORCE (Delta, 2000). This means that I have twice found immense wisdom, guidance and comfort in Staal's books. Both LOVE THEY LOST and her latest, READING WOMEN, offer a seamless blend of scholarship and memoir as a way to make sense of major life events, particularly for women. Like Staal, I attended a liberal arts college in the 1990s and gorged myself on feminist texts and w...more

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Apr 12, 2012 Abbey rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have many feelings about this book!

1. I appreciated how accessible it was. I read this thing in under 48 hours.
2. I felt like I was visiting some old friends! Simone de Beauvoir! Mary Wollstonecraft! It was great re-reading selections from texts that truly shaped my own feminist identity.
3. Using a memoir/biography style writing to connect the feminist texts was fantastic because...the personal is political.

HOWEVER

1. This book completely discounts the third wave! THE only mention is Judith But...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Veronica rated it 4 of 5 stars

In Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life, Stephanie Staal confronts the all-too-familiar reality of finding yourself disconnected from your beloved college courses and their content. What prompts Staal to become disconnected is not so much leaving college and entering adulthood, but her journey into marriage and motherhood. In order to reconnect, Staal audits a series of courses she took at Barnard as an undergrad. So there's that privilege to content with here.

This memo...more In Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life, Stephanie Staal confronts the all-too-familiar reality of finding yourself disconnected from your beloved college courses and their content. What prompts Staal to become disconnected is not so much leaving college and entering adulthood, but her journey into marriage and motherhood. In order to reconnect, Staal audits a series of courses she took at Barnard as an undergrad. So there's that privilege to content with here.

This memoir/analysis of the women's studies canon is not an indictment of marriage or motherhood. Rather it is an honest examination of what happens when feminism smashes into domestic life. On top of that, her husband and Staal flee NYC after the birth of their daughter and the 2001 terrorist attacks for suburbia. So yeah, this is a bit of an indictment on suburbia and how Stepford some moms can become with their obsession over themes for children's rooms.

Staal uses the revisiting of classics like "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "Fear of Flying" to not add to the feminist critique of motherhood and marriage, but to critique the critique. Staal often makes mention of having years of life experience added to her view of classic texts. She talks about being a part of a generation who were raised by feminist mothers or with feminist messages who have now found themselves in a weird situation that is reminiscent to a 1950s housewife.

She also uses this opportunity to do some intergenerational thinking (it's unclear how much Staal added to any of the conversations in class) between GenX and Millennials. While most intergenerational issues seem to be pegged on Second Wavers versus Millennials, it was great to see a Gen Xer take it on like this.

There is a lot in this book for just about everyone who has ever read a women's studies book. You won't agree with all her conclusions. I certainly didn't appreciate her criticism of working-outside-the-home moms and her recollection of being a latch-key kid. But you will appreciate how she makes you want to go dig out your copy of that favorite book from undergrad.
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Nov 14, 2011 Bondama rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this book for my feminist group, and there were parts of it I did find quite interesting. On the other hand, this book was written in the eighties, and there is absolutely no doubt that quite a bit of the information is... if not outdated, then I guess one could say "surpassed."

Feminist books are a growing genre, and they are improving with each book, it seems. Because this is a deeply felt part of a person (I would say woman, but I suppose there are some men who count themselves feminis...more

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May 19, 2011 Sophie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, feminist-lit, social-commentary, contemporary-issues

I read this book very quickly--think less than 24/mostly while I was at work. It was very thought-provoking, particularly because of the (rather obvious) influence of the author's life experiences and personal thoughts on the book--which is to be expected. One definitely must read this book with the awareness that what Staal is writing is the result of her life and her experiences.

That being said, I enjoyed this book a lot. I read it only a few weeks after completing my first Women, Gender, and...more

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Mar 11, 2011 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have to admit that, early on in "Reading Women," I was concerned that Stephanie Staal would start writing that "the only true feminists are mommies," given her lengthy discussions about the birth of her daughter. It was that event which inspired Staal to return to her alma mater, New York's Barnard College, to audit the Feminist Text courses she had taken as an undergraduate ten years before.

Instead, what I got was a well-constructed look at the texts, both from the perspective of a naive unde...more

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Jan 17, 2011 Laurel-Rain rated it 5 of 5 stars

When author Stephanie Staal first read books by feminists Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, Simone De Beauvoir and Betty Friedan, she was a nineteen-year-old student taking Feminism 101 at Barnard College in NYC. At that time, she was poised on the threshold of what appeared to be a limitless future.

A decade later, as a wife and mother who had traded in stability for the flexibility of free-lance and moved from Manhattan to Annapolis, Maryland, the life she had envisioned had seemingly shrunk...more When author Stephanie Staal first read books by feminists Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, Simone De Beauvoir and Betty Friedan, she was a nineteen-year-old student taking Feminism 101 at Barnard College in NYC. At that time, she was poised on the threshold of what appeared to be a limitless future.

A decade later, as a wife and mother who had traded in stability for the flexibility of free-lance and moved from Manhattan to Annapolis, Maryland, the life she had envisioned had seemingly shrunk, while she felt like a shadow of that former self.

Deciding to pursue the feminist classics seemed like a way to rediscover herself, so she signed on to sit in on Fem Lit classes at the university; and thus began her journey into understanding her relationships and herself, while revisiting the tomes she had once studied.

From the perspective of her life in the moment that she began this journey, she viewed the literature and the theories from a different vantage point. She discovered that she could identify with the first-wave feminists, like Mary Wollstonecraft and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, while coming to odds with former heroines, like Beauvoir; she also learned to make peace with post-feminists like Katie Roiphe. She stated near the end: “Sometimes I grappled with the divisiveness of second-wave feminism and the ambiguity of third-wave feminism, while the postmodern theory I would have analyzed with delight as a college coed was cause for vexation when viewed in the framework of my daily life. Yet even these theoretically dense texts provided important opportunities to question and challenge my own beliefs, my own reactions.”

As I read this intriguing memoir/journey, I couldn’t help but compare this author’s experiences to some of mine. Despite the fact that my own niche could most closely be categorized as “second-wave feminism,” I could see that we had some similar experiences. When awash in the enthusiasm of intellectual pursuits and the passions of political activism, we are often unable to imagine how our theories will stand up to the lives we live. When we are faced with the day-in-and-day-out living, especially as parents, we have to reexamine our former beliefs.

Studying Staal’s journey and reading her thoughts took me back to the thesis I wrote for my master’s degree in counseling, in which I examined, researched, and theorized about useful therapeutic interventions for relationships in flux: relationships undergoing radical changes in terms of divisions of labor; attitudes about roles; and what a “rewritten marriage contract” in the face of change might look like. I theorized that, as an aftermath to these changes, stress might develop and require therapeutic interventions. As I wended my way through my thesis, and then tried to apply some of what I discovered to my own life, I reached a stalemate. I was unable to recreate the family I envisioned, so I struck out on my own. Redefining my life in a new incarnation led to another kind of journey.

Staal’s "Reading Women" opened my eyes to one woman’s quest and how feminism had altered her life and the lives of the women who embarked on their own voyages of discovery. From this book, I also concluded that, despite apparent progress, we still have a long way to go to achieve our goals.(less)

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Jan 12, 2011 Johanna Loporto rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sometimes you come across a book that makes you question everything about yourself and your life. This is the case with "Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed my Life" by Stephanie Staal, in where I won at Goodreads. What is a feminist? Do femenists work or stay at home with their children? Do they have husbands or prefer not to marry? Can women be free to enjoy sex while doing housework, shopping for groceries,caring for children and still call themselves feminists? These are t...more Sometimes you come across a book that makes you question everything about yourself and your life. This is the case with "Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed my Life" by Stephanie Staal, in where I won at Goodreads. What is a feminist? Do femenists work or stay at home with their children? Do they have husbands or prefer not to marry? Can women be free to enjoy sex while doing housework, shopping for groceries,caring for children and still call themselves feminists? These are the questions Stephanie Staal once again asks as she goes back to school retaking Feminists Texts 101 as now a married and a mother, while juggling the demands of domesticity and a career.

Staal does an exceptional job showing how feminism has evolved through time and relating it to the lives of men, women, and children. Much like Staal, I question my position as a woman in society always taken for granted. I come from traditional family, my mother stayed home cooked and cleaned while my father worked. My husband also comes from a traditional home in where his mother also stayed home, cleaned and his father worked. Like Staal, I also demanded change in this generation in where the husband (my husband) is expected to help with the cooking and cleaning, while I also worked. There were many days in where I refused to cook, clean, hop for groceries, or anything expected of the "woman" and then he caught on.

I am a self-proclaimed feminist, a title I learned to wear upon taking Women Studies courses in college as well. I try very hard to break that mold of carrying out tasks tied to my sex but, as I try to break that mold, society always finds a way to impose them on me. Feminism is just not political or cultural, it is a daily fight of equality in where I find too many times loosing.

While taking Fem Text, Staal related her memoirs to her books in where she first read as single undergraduate student and then again as a mother and a wife. Did her perspective change? Absolutely, Feminism has a different meaning once you are married and have children. The books Staal cites as reference such as "Vindication of the Rights" of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft to Erica's Jong, "Fear of Flying", books I have long forgotten but now craving to read once again, Staal shows the perspective of Feminism through time.

I love this book, and through the power of re-reading as Staal also points out, I will one day be re-reading this book as to get a newer perspective. Staal gives a fresh perspective on Feminism to the woman of today, women struggling to keep afloat managing home and work. I think this is a book that every woman (and man) should read, especially if they are entering mommyhood, marriage or simply as a reference to relate to feminist literature.

About the Author

Stephanie Staal spent several years in the film and publishing industries as a literary scout before turning to writing as a career. After working as a features reporter for the Newark Star-Ledger, she wrote The Love They Lost: Living with the Legacy of Our Parents’ Divorce (Delacorte, 2000), a journalistic memoir about the long-term effects of parental divorce on her generation, and, more recently, Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life (PublicAffairs, 2011). Her articles and essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Marie Claire, among other publications. A graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and Brooklyn Law School, she lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York. To continue reading, go here.
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May 05, 2013 Alex Templeton rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love those moments when I pick up a book that is exactly what I wanted/needed to read at the time. Stephanie Staal, a thirty-something mother, returns to Barnard to reconsider feminist texts that she first read there as a college student. Needless to say, her ideas about marriage, motherhood, work, and life have changed as SHE has changed. As a 31-year old woman who has been an avid feminist since at least college and has found herself in the world of marriage and potential motherhood, I was s...more

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Feb 01, 2011 Jay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, 2011

Reading Women is half memoir and half women studies book. Stephanie Staal reaches a point in her life where she finds herself married and with a child, having given up a successful career, focusing on the family. She starts to wonder what happened to her feminist ideals and whether she could still call herself a feminist or not.

To answer these questions, she heads back to school to retake the Feminist Texts class she took years ago.
From this point, we learn how Staal relates to these texts in...more

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Jan 27, 2011 Hope rated it 3 of 5 stars

Stephanie Staal was facing an identity crisis. Relocated from NYC to Annapolis after giving birth to her daughter, she was confused, isolated and definitely did not fit in with the local mommy klatch. One day she randomly takes another look at the old Feminine Mystique. Cue epiphany: Shocked at how much more relatable Friedan’s 60s tome is to her now, she returns to her alma mater to re-take Feminist Texts.

Billed as “part memoir, part literary adventure, part social observation,” Reading Women...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fancypants, pop-feminism

Stephanie Staal sets out to reread the great feminist classics 10 years after college to get a grip on a life seemingly spinning out of control with demands of marriage and motherhood. There were a lot of things about this book that appealed to me: feminist classics, women's colleges, retrospective examination of the college experience from a standpoint of a life-crisis. And in many ways this book was quite good. I got more excited about authors I knew I ought to read but hadn't yet, and I found...more Stephanie Staal sets out to reread the great feminist classics 10 years after college to get a grip on a life seemingly spinning out of control with demands of marriage and motherhood. There were a lot of things about this book that appealed to me: feminist classics, women's colleges, retrospective examination of the college experience from a standpoint of a life-crisis. And in many ways this book was quite good. I got more excited about authors I knew I ought to read but hadn't yet, and I found out about a few women that I'm putting on my to-read list. It would serve as a decent introduction to feminist texts for women who have little knowledge of them and who have an interest in being married and having children.

Unfortunately, the book fights between being a survey of feminist classics and being a memoir of Staal's marital problems. Interesting discussions of books such as The Dialectic of Sex and A Room of One's Own are interrupted by lengthy, and sometimes only tenuously related, passages about Staal's difficulties with her husband and her child. The point is presumably to illustrate the continued relevancy of the work-family balance in women's lives (certainly an important topic), but the personal passages don't seem to come together as a political problem faced by many modern women, instead of the the problems of one isolated family. Perhaps the book has more resonance for women in situations similar to Staal's, but it fails to become relevant for feminists of diverse identities.

Similarly, the book also does not reflect the feminisms of diverse women. Out of 26 books Staal chose to read, only one is written by a woman of color, and she does not address womanism or the massive contributions of feminists of color at all. Staal is multiracial herself, and part of the lack of diversity in her reading list can be put down to the canon's focus on white women, however there are many more women of color (and queer women) on the reading lists for the class she took than there are in her book. Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Cherrie Moraga, Gloria Anzaldua, Alice Walker, Angela Davis are all passed over, even in the third chapter which details the divisions among 70's feminists. Staal discusses the feminist sex wars in this chapter, but nothing about pushback from second-wave women-of-color against the overwhelming focus on the needs of white women.

Sadly this is not the only instance of Staal's limited focus. Unfortunately, Staal doesn't seem to have a framework for intersectional feminism and seems to have trouble understanding the needs of women who don't share her privileges. Lesbian feminism is described as indulgent, abstract and impractical. "Too many women had beloved men in their lives, whether fathers, husbands, or sons, and portraying them as disposable would only ward these women from feminism's ranks" (241). Staal assumes that there is only one feminism and that it's purpose is to draw as many women to its cause as possible. But lesbian feminism does not exist for the needs of heterosexual women. Just as some women sometimes need a feminism that includes and embraces men, some women at some times need a feminism that is centered around queer/women-only spaces. These feminisms can coexist. Just because one woman wants men in her feminism, doesn't mean that another woman can't have have radical lesbianism as her feminism. Or that one woman can't subscribe to both philosophies. These things are fluid, and ought to be, to mirror our needs at different times in our lives.

What Staal fails to recognize, again and again, is the multiplicity of feminism, that feminism has become about more than "women's issues" -- that it has become about social justice -- that it is now feminisms, and that these feminisms concern themselves with the oppression of many different groups and many different kinds of oppression. Describing a class discussion about Judith Butler's ideas about gender identity, Staal says "while contemplating [queer theory and the idea of gender as a spectrum] had the appeal of a brainteaser, I was similarly exasperated. So what? I thought" (246). So what? Only that the oppression of queer, transgendered, and intersex folks is inextricably linked to the oppression of women. Only that many queer, trans and intersex folks are feminists and/or women. Only that their needs should be just as central to feminisms as the needs of straight upper-class white cis women.

I found myself wincing through the latter part of this book as it became increasingly clear that Staal had very little grasp of not only queer theory, but also of what things are unacceptable to say about queer folks. A student's comment that trans women are "men paying... two hundred dollars to dress up as a women, and then we teach them how to act like stereotypical women" is left uninterrogated or analyzed as if it were a completely unproblematic statement. Perhaps I'm idealizing women's studies classrooms, but I have a hard time imagining that comment not being addressed as offensive and transphobic. That Staal doesn't even address it is problematic and indicates that her "keen[ness] to bolt the classroom and leave behind postmodernism" comes not only from discomfort with jargon and dense theory, but also from discomfort with the mixing queerness in with feminism.

I've been increasingly harsh in my status updates while reading this book, and for good reason. Staal seems to have little patience with feminist topics that are outside her comfort zone. The entirety of the sex-positive movement is written off as "trading on lewdness," while queer theory and lesbian feminism are alternatively portrayed as being indulgent, impractical, too theoretical, and generally beyond the pale. However, for all that, Staal seems aware of the limitations of her survey and her criticism. "As someone who, at the root of things, identifies herself as a feminist, I turned to these books as a way of grasping the difficulties that I was facing at a specific time and place in my life, when as a woman, I felt drawn and quartered by love and guilt, confusion and frustration. The slant of my circumstances therefore determined the titles I selected to write about," she says. "My thoughts and opinions are just that, and I'll wager that many a professor or doctoral student would gleefully tear my interpretations apart -- and probably rightfully so." I enjoyed most of Staal's interpretations and don't intend to tear the others apart for the sake of academic pique. In fact I considered giving this book as a gift to my younger cousin because I very much enjoyed the earlier parts about Virginia Woolf et al; however, for me, the constrained focus of the book on topics primarily of interest to privileged women outweighed my enjoyment of her survey of earlier feminists.(less)

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Dec 16, 2010 Catherine Brennan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I won Reading Women through Giveaways and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wasn't sure whether I would be able to relate to Stephanie as a working mother and wife at nineteen, but found I could identify with her. Reading Women gave me an insight to what my own mother went through, as well. Putting aside a career to stay at home with the kids, similar to the author. My mom is next in line to dig into Reading Women. Stephanie Staal's writing style makes even mundane tasks, like caring for her daughter or...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Leire rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was thrilled. And surprised. I couldn't stop reading. I am not a mother yet, I am not married and I am not even in my thirties but, as a reading woman, I could identify myself perfectly with Staal. It makes you think, it makes you laugh and it makes you want to read more and more and more, but most of all, it makes you feel like a woman, like a real one, a human being and a very important part of society. I enjoy her view and opinions on Mary Wollstonecraft as much as on Virginia Woolf, Charlo...more

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Feb 22, 2011 Witskee1 rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've never thought of myself as a feminist. But I'm not not a feminist either.

I am a female, and I think Stephanie Staal's Reading Women is a great bridge for people just learning about the issues surrounding feminism. She talks about a lot of basic things that aren't necessarily the exciting part of feminism. Things that any female can relate to. Balancing work and family, household chores, raising a child and more. She does this in a realistic, honest way that really connected with me. I am e...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Lindsay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Such a palpable story of the struggle for balance between theory and reality, between what we say and what we do. In reading this book, it became very clear to me how much identity--especially a woman's identity--is a balancing act. No matter what stage of life we inhabit, it seems our identity is always in flux, on the verge of becoming something else.

This is also a story of perspective. Of how experience changes not only the way we see ourselves, but how we see everything else in relation to...more

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Dec 31, 2010 Tara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, peaked-my-interest

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I received this pre-release book free through the Goodreads First Reads Program (www.goodreads.com) on December 2, 2010 and immediately proceeded to the first page.

The plot of this book interested me when I read about it on the Goodreads First Reads page, so I was looking forward to hearing how a fellow thirty-something's life had been changed by the books of feminism.

In her thirties, Stephanie Staal decides to return to her college alma mater, Barnard College, after experiencing what I would ca...more

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Dec 24, 2010 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

Stephanie Staal was poised to have it all as she graduated from Barnard College in the 1990's. For the next several years she focused on work and career.

Then, she married and became a mother, moving from NYC to Annapolis, trading full-time work outside the home for freelance work from a home office.

Her frustrations mount as the difficulties of balancing the demands of motherhood, her relationship, and her own needs become more strident.

In an effort to find her footing once again she turns to th...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: feminism

Full review here

As a teenage undergrad, Stephanie Staal took Feminist Texts and was inspired by the ideas and stories of the women she read. Now, Staal is in her 30s, a wife and a mother. Feeling a bit lost, she re-enrolls in Fem Texts at her alma mater and chronicles her experiences the second time around, and how her perspective has changed.

Overall, I enjoyed it, and I think even those who aren’t Official Feminists (my friends’ term for former Women’s Studies students) but have an interest in...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Marija rated it 4 of 5 stars

Being a feminist, having a baby, being confused.. I have been there and done that. This book is amazing because it is honest and because it adresses the real problems that young feminists face, once life stops being theory, lietature and fiction, and becomes breastfeeding, dipers, and a lot of guilt, because, despite being a mom (maybe also a wife), a woman still has her own needs and wants to articulate them in one way or another. And to UNDERSTAND what is happening, how life has changed and wh...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nook, feminism

I enjoyed this book. For what it was, it was fun. Most of the works were familiar and I enjoyed going back to them.

However, I'm sorry to say that I didn't really find Staal changed by these great books of feminism, most of which were second wave, and did not address many of the issues I find really important in feminism. 2nd wave feminism is great, but it was mostly a movement of economically privileged white women. These books are very important... I am not downplaying their part in the movemen...more

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Mar 18, 2011 Jess rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: feminism, womens-interest, books-i-own, books-libraries, favorites, memoir-biography

Staal began this book by auditing Fem Texts at her alma mater when the famous feminist book The Feminine Mystique suddenly rang very true to her. From here we discover Staal’s life as a mother, freelance writer, wife, and woman and how they relate to what she’s reading in her class.

I have read several different contemporary feminist texts and what I really liked about this one was that it made feminism personal. It dealt with some of the issues that get glossed over today. Like how women try to...more

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Aug 01, 2011 Adrienne Urbanski rated it 4 of 5 stars

This memoir proves that classic feminist texts are still relevant today by author Staal drawing paralells between her real life experiences and the theories present on the page. As a new mother and wife suddenly thrust out of the professional world and into a domestic one, Staal feels lost about her place as a woman in the world. In order to find herself, Staal decides to audit a Feminist Texts course at Barnard. As she reads she finds guidance and strength in her own personal affairs. Both comp...more

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title link	preview: Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life
avg rating	preview: Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life Goodreads rating: 3.64 (331 ratings)
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Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life

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