Women & Power: A Manifesto

The content of this review is mainly criticism, but of course a book such as this, written by a woman, will always be more valuable than mansplained feminism such as Dennis Potter's Black Eyes or Thelma and Louise or Personal Services, the sort of culture I'm aways unimpressed by, leading friends to think I'm anti-feminist. Also, I don't really subscribe to the cult of Mary Beard, which makes me suspicious in some people's eyes.Beard's thesis is that modern oppression of women is directed by ancient historical standards.She's right (unless you subscribe to the view that the ancient literary standards, like dictionaries, were descriptive rather than prescriptive), but oppression of women is only one of many historical oppressions.She takes us back to Telemachus shouting down his mother in the Odyssey.But if we go back a little bit to Iliad book 2, we find Telemachus' father (Odysseus) shouting down Thersites, who represents all commoners. It might be argued that upper class men's oppression of women is just the tip of the iceberg (and it's a symptom, not the illness), although women constitute over half of all the people who are or have been oppressed. When an upper class man wants to kill another upper class man, working class men have to do the dirty work. That gives them an ambiguous kind of "power". Beard acknowledges this sort of universality with approximately 6 words in the whole book - because the book is basically two "unedited" lectures, and Beard wonders if she should have edited them before publishing; I think she should, as there's far too much that is unsaid, and I'd have valued her saying more.Beard compares the response to a female Labour MP messing up (Diane Abbott) with the response to a male Tory MP (I forget which one) messing up, and infers that the response to Abbott was sexist only and had NO political motivation from the right-wing media! Beard also refuses to take political sides when looking at the American media's treatment of Hillary Clinton. This isn't representing Beard quite fairly - her main POV is the nature of attacks against women, not their causes, but see below.Beard fails to discuss the merits or demerits of women such as Thatcher, Marcos, Gandhi, Qing, Ceaușescu, Mandela (she doesn't name all of those - I just offer them as examples). She wants to redefine power (but not in this book), but doesn't examine the possibility that power corrupts. Does she want to redefine power as something that doesn't corrupt? I can't remember. Read the book. [added later: Or there's the pomo definition of power as living, or perhaps better, owning the "episteme" - I would imagine that's the way she wants to go. Giving women their rightful share of "power" would involve rewriting the episteme to include them. The problem is, you'd also have to be a lot more inclusive of a lot more men as well]We get some (publicly acknowledged since at least Thatcher) stuff about them having to impersonate men (i.e. deepen their voices) to impress (that might be sexism or it might be more basic psychology - we are mostly told to obey our fathers). Does the Gorgon mask cause oppression of women, or is it merely a convenient shorthand symbol to express underlying misogyny? For example, Beard omits to mention the use of the Devil's eyes (and horns) to characterise Tony Blair (and other men).And twice we read that Theresa May was "made PM in order to fail" I don't know what Beard means, but it seems like a bit of a tendentious apology for a woman who is doing as PM pretty much the same thing she did as Home Secretary. [British politics have moved on significantly since I wrote that, so it may well have lost any sense or import]

Thought-provoking, humorous, engaging, fewer than 100 pages with fascinating illustrations, based on two lectures the author gave in 2014 and 2017. Her thesis (developed with reference to Western culture starting with the ancient Greeks and Romans, and, among other things, to the virulent sexist abuse she receives on social media each time she speaks on the telly) is that, while some women (including herself) may smash some glass ceilings, and even if gradually there is better childcare provision, equal wages, etc, women in general won’t achieve equal power and respect until we all (men and women) disentangle and discard maleness from our understanding of what ‘power’ is.Here’s a quote from her peroration: “What I have in mind is the ability to be effective, to make a difference in the world, and the right to be taken seriously... It is power in that sense that many women feel they don’t have – and that they want. Why the popular resonance of ‘mansplaining’ (despite the intense dislike of the term felt by many men)? It hits home for us because it points straight to what it feels like not to be taken seriously...” She deals among many topics with the way that some women, famously Margaret Thatcher, have lowered their voices. This had me wondering – is the increasingly common habit of “vocal fry” (see Wikipedia article) among women on the radio, particularly American women, a bid for “masculine” authority? Are they damaging their vocal chords (and paining my ear) in order to be taken seriously? I (a woman) find it so hard to listen, I press the off button.

I didn't really like the book. But It's good to read when you are chilling in your reading spot while drinking coffee. It' not that good, But you can read it and see if you like it or not.

After running my business for decades with the invaluable help of women, who helped make it such a success for so long, and without their opinions i NEVER made big decisions. All these controlling, arrogant and selfish blokes this book has been published by your previous attitude to ladies. How much richer our society, our lives, and humanity would be without the unnecessary wars MEN decided must be fought, all the brilliant mathematicians, scientists and teachers killed to appease their selfish blood lust, and for what ? I argue had our smarter than us men had , had a say things like Cancer, strokes heart disease would not be as prevalent today. We always think men no best, yet take a look at the world today, and the millions who bravely fought now in cemeteries around the globe on the instructions of us so called wise men ? Fellas, like me PLEASE see the harm and damage we have done that a wise lady has to write such a book in our times? .....".NEVER forgive them for they know" EXACTLY" what they do".........???????????

An excellent read that reminded me I have no vision or concept of what ‘women’s power’ actually looks like. It only seems achievable in the context of the existing systems of power. Sharing tips on breaking glass ceilings, or having another 100 years of patience while women slowly chip away at ‘the system’ just isn’t going to cut it. Mary doesn’t have the answers but knows what questions to ask.