What Women Really Want: How American Women Are Quietly Erasing Political, Racial, Class, and Religious Lines to Change the Way We Live

by Celinda Lake, Kellyanne Conway, Catherine Whitney (Contributor)

A profile of today's women evaluates the ways in which women are reshaping American society and paving new ground for future trends, revealing how an increasing number of women are choosing to remain unmarried, work in non-traditional jobs, and have children later in life. 40,000 first printing.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published October 12, 2005

Reviews

[Donia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Statistics are just one side of the story for every person interviewed. How questions are asked, how the language is used, the mood of the person being interviewed, the pollster and so forth. I bought this book used because I wanted to know more about Conway. I didn't find out much really and thought the book was very poorly put together.

[Meg - A Bookish Affair · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book for free at a conference that I attended a few years ago. The author promised that her research was groundbreaking. Sadly all of her research simply showed what was common sense to me in really bad writing. Sigh... pass on this one.

[CTEP]

For May’s book club, I read Celinda Lake and Kellyanne Conway’s What Women Really Want: How American Women Are Quietly Erasing Political, Racial, Class, and Religious Lines to Change the Way We Live. The authors view women’s sociological impact on politics, religion, race, and class in relation to history and it’s resulting impact. They emphasize that modern women act as activists in a passive manner. Long gone are the days of the suffrage movement and bra burning parades. The authors contend that modern female activists do not "knock on closed doors" to see change, they simply educate themselves and contribute to society through service and their professional development. Very empowering stuff.

I thought that I would truly resent the authors’ chapters on political history, policy, and change. To my pleasant surprise, the snarky ladies talk about hilarious trends in political vocabulary like Huppie, Luppie, Nascar Dad, Waitress Mom, Volvo Democrat, and Seabiscuit Candidate. I would tell you what all of these things mean, but that takes the fun out of it. With that note on the uber-liberal language and agenda pushing of this book, the authors do not claim to be objective about any of the topics. They are poster children for the modern feminists of the world so do not read this if that sounds unpleasant.

I would recommend this book to CTEP nerds everywhere because it is an interesting read with plenty of controversy. I can relate to their discussion of gender dynamics from professional and personal experience. Even if you disagree, What Women Really Want is a provoking, and certainly not-boring, book.

[Chris Wilby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very true, Women have a different view and its better

[Lauren RM · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a total impulse by at a small bookstore near my school. Overall it was compelling and inspiring, but I can't really say I'll ever want to read it again.

I think it's great that two women who butt heads over pretty much every political issue there is could collaborate on this book and do such a good job of it. I have an innate and fostered distrust of statistics and doubt the exact numbers, but I still believe that the trends they report hold true. I see them around me.

I enjoyed being able to read the book and think "oh, there's my grandma, there's my mom, and there's me." It was really inspiring to have a written documentation of the amazing changes women have made to the world around them simply by living their lives the way they want. Reading their "used to be" boxes really made me appreciate living during and after those changes, too. Just in case I forget how lucky I am.

[Gena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book written by two political pollsters is fascinating!

[Carolyn Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly objective and auspicious bi-partisan research. Highly recommend.

[Ramona · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too dated, too non-confrontational, too dry.