On Her Own: Growing Up in the Shadow of the American Dream

by Ruth Sidel

Interviews with women discuss the effects of an increase in working women and in teen pregnancy and reveal women as the new American dreamers who desire material wealth and are convinced they must succeed alone

Genres: Feminism, Gender Studies

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 16, 1990

Reviews

[amanda]

definitely dated (and with many 1980s references I did not understand, but also some i did (i'm looking at you Blue Velvet and Working Girl!!!!)), but overall very interesting when it comes to viewing how feminist perspectives have grown and changed throughout the period. could have done better when it comes to certain demographics, and definitely had some holes when it came to representation and the analysis of marginalized groups (ie: the maybe 2 mentions of queer women when it could have added an interesting caveat to Sidel's idea of the Outsider, as well as the lacking descriptions and representation of black men in relation to the opportunities and overall circumstances of black women). interesting to see such a focus on the career vs child debate and the interviews with young women at the time was insightful, as i obviously do not know what the overall opinion was at the time, also very interesting to see the cycles of feminism and how many of the points of focus are the same in our current day and age (not really in a good way bc we are still having problems with many of the same issues which is sad and dumb af) anyway i wish i was in school to discuss/write about this with others and would love a pov from someone who's older and was living this at the time (maybe i'll call my mom but idk how feminism-pilled she was at the time) ty emerson house for the oldass book even though i'm reading it ages after i took it