In the Name of Reading

Books! So many books! If I was offered a job which consisted solely of reading and reviewing books - fiction or nonfiction - I'd take it in a heartbeat. In fact, while I was on holiday I found the latest BBC list of the 100 greatest British Novels, as selected by 82 book critics from around the world. Inspired by this list, I have decided it would be a worthy long-term goal to attempt to read all 100 novels/series over the course of the next 3-4 years (after my thesis is finished of course!). I even created a special Goodreads list for this exact purpose! I could even blog about it - it would be a sort of creative nonfiction exercise...

But that is all beside the point at the moment (and a tad distracting), so without further ado here are my latest readings & ratings:

1. The Dovekeepers (2011) by Alice Hoffman

Applicability Rating: 8/10

Relevant Themes: Interplay of masculine/feminine traits – ‘doing’ gender, challenging gender roles, leadership in crisis, relationships between women, divine feminine (celebration of the feminine)

Key Thoughts: Love, love, love this book! Although, since I read it over Christmas, it almost ruined my tenuous grasp on the ‘spirit of Christmas joy.’ The story was incredibly sad and, as it is based on true events, disturbingly tragic (I shed more than a few tears near the end).

Set in 70 AD just after the fall of Jerusalem, The Dovekeepers retells the tragic story of Masada, a small Jewish stronghold on a mountain outside the Judean desert. Nine hundred Jews held out for several months against the Romans, but by the end of the siege, only two women and five children had survived. The tale is told from the perspective of four extraordinary women whose lives become inextricably intertwined when they become dovekeepers at Masada – Yael, the unwanted daughter of an assassin, Revka, a baker’s wife who has witnessed unspeakable brutality, Aziza, the daughter of a warrior, and Shirah, a wise and powerful woman who some suspect is a witch.

Not only is the story compelling, but the novel also explores the leader-follower relationship from the position of the female follower. Yael is particularly observant of the charismatic appeal found in the ‘leader’ figure: “No one wanted to think about Masada without a leader, a body without a spirit” (p. 98), yet she is also somewhat critical of the godlike and masculine appeal of Ben Ya’ir, a man who “shone because others followed, because they adored him and deferred to him and trusted him…there was a light inside him,” and why they followed him “to this remote and dangerous place” (p. 99). 

In Aziza’s section, Hoffman investigates the tensions between traditional gender binaries and what happens/doesn't happen when they are transgressed. Aziza has lived an unconventional life; although born female, to help her survive in the harsh desert as part of a mountain Moabite tribe, her mother brings her up as a boy. But before she arrives at Masada she reverts back to her female ‘identity.’ However, as the Romans begin their siege, Aziza once again transforms herself into a ‘man.’ Compared to her sister Nahara who joins the Essene people and lives “as if she was nothing more than a passive and beautiful ewe” (p. 284), Aziza is a force to be reckoned with. The gender interplay alone provides plenty of material for discussion about the ‘nature’ of masculine and feminine traits, and the ways in which masculinity and femininity are perceived and the expectations they create.

I loved the sense of 'humanity' in this novel and the way it celebrated the feminine. By allowing some characters to move beyond gender boundaries and enact and play with both the masculine and the feminine, the agentic and the communal, Hoffman has created a story which transcends time boundaries.

2. Flow Down Like Silver: Hypatia of Alexandria, a novel (2009) by Ki Longfellow

Applicability Rating: 7/10

Relevant Themes: Female leadership in male-dominated societies, women’s achievements, perceptions & expectations

Key Thoughts: “Hypatia? Who is she?” I felt I should know, so by the end of the first chapter I was desperately wracking my brain searching for a reference point, some long ago cataloged fact. “Nothing…wait, a movie…Yes! Got it, Agora.”

It’s rather disappointing when all you can remember about such a remarkable woman is that she was killed by a Christian mob sometime in 400 AD, and this from a rather poorly executed movie (as my hubby would claim – the best form of historical (mis)information). Longfellow no doubt thought it was disappointing too, which is why she wrote Flow Down Like Silver, a novel which celebrates Hypatia’s sublime genius in a time period when it was almost completely and exclusively a ‘man’s world.’ Not only was Hypatia of Alexandria a leading Greek mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher in the 5th century, she was also head of the Neoplatonic school at Alexandria where she taught philosophy and astronomy to men – ‘pagans,’ Christians, and Jews alike – during a time of political and cultural upheaval.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and the depth with which Longfellow explores Hypatia’s philosophical inclinations (she even has Hypatia debating with Augustine) and bravery in the face of stringent opposition from the leading religious powers. There is no doubt Hypatia deserved to work in the public sphere and male-dominated education system. 
However, I feel there could be problems with workability. The narrative switches haphazardly between protagonists. Personally I would have preferred if the story had followed only Hypatia, or at least Hypatia and Minkah. There is a LOT of philosophy/abstract reasoning sprinkled throughout the text, I love that kind of thing, but it could be a bit tiresome for those wanting a quick, easy read (one of the keys I think is having a story or novel which someone could read in one weekend – books like The Lifeboat and The Dovekeepers are much harder to put down due to the compelling nature of their plots. Saying that, Badaracco still includes more challenging reads like Antigone by Sophocles in his selection).

3.  In the Name of Friendship (2005) by Marilyn French

Applicability Rating: 7/10

Relevant Themes: Third-wave Feminism (in constrast to second-wave), friendship, middleclass women’s careers, changing expectations

Key Thoughts: Written in 2005 and published by The Feminist Press, In the Name of Friendship is a sort of pseudo-sequel to The Women’s Room (originally published in 1977). French obviously realised the need to re-visit the status of the ‘gentler sex’ and relook at the opportunities for (predominantly) white women in the West, and I’m glad she did! I found this novel to be much more relatable (no surprises there!) and in line with the experiences of my own and my mother’s generation.

Set in a small Berkshire town in Massachusetts, the novel opens with the formidable, yet kind-hearted seventy-six year old Maddy Gold stating matter-of-factly: “Things are entirely different for women today.” It is on this premise which French bases her updated exploration into the ‘truth’ behind women’s lives (and to a lesser extent, men’s lives) at the turn of the century. The story brings together four unlikely friends of differing ages and with completely different life experiences, and it seems that what French is really wanting to celebrate is the beauty and necessity of multigenerational female friendships.

Although there is not much in the way of plot or action (it reads quite similarly to other French novels – a type of thoughtful, but disjointed narrative filled with gems of insight and wisdom; ‘real-life’ in all its mundane, everyday glory), as Stephanie Genty notes in her afterword: for readers who are searching for a feminist messages in novels, In the Name of Friendship offers a clear one: “at the beginning of the twenty-first century, more than forty years after the start of the women’s movement, at least privileged women can choose to experience ‘more life’” (p. 389). So it, of course, focused on “female experience in the widest and deepest sense: woman in relation to significant others, in relation to her body and sexuality, in relation to work and creative experience, and in relation to society as a whole” (p. 391).

Does it examine or say anything interesting about women’s leadership? Not overtly. However, it does explore the double-bind women face when it comes to work and family, along with discussing subtle misogyny and sexism in the workplace (there’s an excellent scene where Alicia’s husband, with Alicia’s gentle prompting, comes to the realisation that he has biased perceptions of his female colleagues). As a preliminary text (and by preliminary I mean the type of novel you’d use to kick off the whole discussion of gender and work, an ‘awareness raising’ type of text) it could be useful. 

4. The Gracekeepers (2015) by Kirsty Logan

Applicability Rating: 5/10

Relevant Themes: Gender play, feminist science fiction

Key Thoughts: I didn’t like this book as much as I thought I would. I now feel I have a love-hate relationship with the (feminist) science fiction genre. But since this is only Logan’s first novel, maybe I can find it in me to get over my disappointment (or maybe as the fallible reader it was I who failed to pick up on the subtly of Logan’s brilliance??). But opinions count for something, so in my opinion, while The Gracekeepers was poignantly elegant, ethereal and magical in some places, overall it lacked the complexity, depth and artistic genius of Le Guin.

 

The story is supposed to follow the lives of two unusual girls, North and Callanish. They live in a familiar yet mysterious world where the sea has flooded the earth and living on land is a privilege for only the lucky few. North, the circus bear girl, and Callanish, the unwanted gracekeeper, both have secrets which could destroy their lives, and it is because of these secrets that they are drawn to one another. There is a lot of gender play in this book, particularly in terms of androgyny, as well as in a critique of organised religion which is interesting but…there was too much of everything in this short book, too many themes explored, too many characters trying to find a place in the narrative, too many random plot details, etc…And since the book is only 280 pages long (the font is larger than normal and the margins are wide), the ending seemed rushed and forced.  

5.  Remarkable Creatures (2009) by Tracy Chevalier

Applicability Rating: 7.5/10

Relevant Themes: The ‘space between’ leaders & followers (moments between Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot), psychology of prejudice, female friendship

Key Thoughts: Remarkable Creatures retells the true and fascinating story of Mary Anning, a young working class girl in 19^th century Britain with a talent for finding fossils (or ‘curies’ as the locals call them) along the English coastline. To say the least, I learnt a lot about fossils – ammonites in particular, but also Mary’s biggest discovery, a huge ancient marine reptile called an ichthyosaurus. This discovery, and more like it, shook the scientific community, but Mary was barely acknowledged for her significant and difficult work (not only finding and dislodging the delicate fossils from the rock, but also cleaning and piecing the creatures together).

Mary’s story intersects with that of another fossil hunter, Miss Elizabeth Philpot, a prickly middle-aged London spinster who has been effectively banished to the small town of Lyme Regis with her two unmarried sisters. Elizabeth and Mary form an unlikely friendship which crosses class boundaries, sharing a unique passion (and at times, rivalry) for finding fossils. Between them they share many ‘moments’ of leadership as they struggle for recognition in the male-dominated scientific community. It's a charming novel, but underpinned with a kind of haunting sadness or disappointment over the unfair way Mary is treated - if only she had been given the same opportunities as men, what more she could have been and done. As Elizabeth observes, as the 'outcasts' of society (female, working class, spinsters) they are only allowed one or two small adventures in an otherwise unadventurous life.

6. Almost Famous Women (2015) by Megan Mayhew Bergman

Applicability Rating: 4/10

Relevant Themes: Women’s lives, real women, missed opportunities

Key Thoughts: I had really high hopes for this book of short stories, and while it is very well-written and demonstrates the enviable versatility of Megan Mayhew Bergman’s writing style, I felt like something (an ‘essence’? depth?) was missing. The purpose of the collection is to give ‘life’ and attention to a set of unlikely heroines who were born in proximity to the spotlight but, for a variety of reasons, struggled to distinguish themselves or were unjustly relegated to the footnotes of history. Most of the stories are very sad – about unfulfilled potential, reckless decisions and, subsequently, loneliness and bitterness. And while Mayhew Bergman is superb at characterisation, the women she describes are more atypical anomalies than relatable or inspiring examples. 

 

Lists & Classifications

This table is a basic ‘representation’ of women’s literature that I have begun ‘grouping’ into themes/categories (it looks a bit messy because it had to fit the dimensions of this humble blog!). 

The criteria for selection emerged as follows:

• At least one female protagonist/heroine who guides or is subject to the majority of action in the story
• Written after 1970 by a female author
• Well-reviewed and/or award-winning literature (I've tried to stay away from 'chick lit' as much as possible)
• Interesting/provocative story line
• Universal appeal (suitable for a ‘general’ audience)
• Possible 'leadership' themes

Undoubtedly I've missed some suitable books in my search, so this list will hopefully increase to about 50 odd books by the end of February. At the moment I think it stands at 39 novels/plays/short story collections by 32 authors.

Historical Literature / Historical Drama: [Pre-1900]: ·         The Red Tent by Anita Diamant ·         Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks ·         Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin ·         Flow Down Like Silver: Hypatia of Alexandra by Ki Longfellow ·         Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier ·         Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross ·         The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman [Slavery/American History]: ·         The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd ·         The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier ·         Property by Valerie Martin ·         The House Girl by Tara Conklin* [Pre-1980]: ·         The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver ·         In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez ·         The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan ·         The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant ·         Day After Night by Anita Diamant (WW2) ·         The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (WW2) ·         Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart (crime fiction) ·         The Help by Kathryn Stockett	Modern/Contemporary Fiction (1980 – 2015): ·         The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd ·         How to be Both by Ali Smith ·         Outline by Rachel Cusk ·         A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley ·         White Oleander by Janet Fitch ·         The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer ·         We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler ·         Calling Invisible Women by Jeanne Ray (chick lit?) ·         In the Name of Friendship by Marilyn French ·         The House Girl by Tara Conklin* ·         Unless by Carol Shields	Feminist Fiction: ·         The Women’s Room by Marilyn French ·         In the Name of Friendship by Marilyn French ·         The Group by Mary McCarthy ·         Top Girls (play) by Caryl Churchill ·         The Shadow of the Sun by A. S. Byatt (?) ·         The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer ·         Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman ·         The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark	Prize-winning Literature: ·         The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver ·         The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd ·         The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin ·         How to be Both by Ali Smith ·         Outline by Rachel Cusk ·         The Red Tent by Anita Diamant ·         Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout ·         The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd ·         Possession by A. S. Byatt ·         A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley ·         Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin ·         We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler ·         The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah ·         Property by Valerie Martin ·         Unless by Carol Shields
	Short Story Collections: ·         The Unreal and the Real: Outer Space and Inner Lands by Ursula Le Guin: -          “The Matter of Seggri” -          “Sur” ·         The Unreal and the Real: Where on Earth by Ursula Le Guin: -          “Hand, Cup, Shell” ·         Oliver Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout ·         Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman	Dystopian + Science Fiction: ·         The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin ·         The Unreal and the Real: Where on Earth by Ursula Le Guin ·         The Unreal and the Real: Outer Space and Inner Lands by Ursula Le Guin: ·         The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan ·         The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
	Plays: ·         Top Girls (play) by Caryl Churchill ·         Welcome to Thebes by Moira Buffini

The next round of selection will be concerned with identifying what ‘types’ of women’s stories are appropriate for the study of and deconstruction of women’s leadership. I imagine in this section I will investigate three key criteria for long listing suitable literature. These include, Badaracco’s test of ‘careful reading,’ the ‘Bechdel Test,’ and the presence of identifiable ‘moments’ of leadership within the narrative. Suitable women’s literature should move beyond the actions of a single, heroic leader figure, to encompass complex relationships between followers, purpose and context in the narrative.

From there I should easily be able to long-list 8-10 suitable titles, followed by a shortlist of 3-4 pieces of women's literature which work together to create a unified study on the issues facing female leaders. At the moment, the four interlinked themes I would like to work with include:

1. The impact of gender on leadership (an exploration into social constructionism, gender & leadership)
2. Reinterpreting the hierarchy - destabilising grand narratives
3. Deconstructing popular stereotypes and expectations
4. Leadership as process (women & post-heroic models of leadership)

I will leave it at that for now. The plan is to finish up the women & leadership section by mid-February, go on holiday for a week, come back and write-up the women's literature classification & selection by the beginning of March. #goals

Calling All Bookworms

I was in the middle of writing a post on feminism, difference and women's leadership, but suddenly it all felt just a tad too deep and controversial for a rainy Friday afternoon! Plus, I've had rehearsals for the dance show I'm organising, and it's my second to last week at my current job and I'm tying up a million loose ends, so I feel I have a legitimate excuse not to be quite so 'academic' today...or tomorrow.

However, I didn't want to stop writing, so instead I have compiled mini reviews of my latest reading endeavours. Somehow I still managed 2000 words!

So without further ado...

1. Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague (2001) by Geraldine Brooks

Applicability Rating: 7.5/10

Relevant Themes: Self-actualisation, gender roles, religion, courage in crisis

Key Thoughts: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks is a gripping storyteller, and even if I didn’t think Year of Wonders was applicable to my project, I would wholeheartedly recommend this novel. Her non-fiction book (which I read for a post-colonial literature), Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women (1995), is equally fascinating, so add that to your reading list.

This particular novel is told through the eyes of Anna, a brave young women living in a plague village in 17^th century England. During the fateful year of 1666, she and her fellow villagers face the spread of this deadly disease and the burgeoning rise of superstition and witch hunts. Brooks doesn’t shy away from recounting every gory detail as she vividly explores Anna’s progression from a cautious, unremarkable wife and mother, to a strong, independent female character. As Anna struggles to survive, and one could even say ‘find herself and her place in the world,’ a year of tragedy becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders."

Anna is not only engaging and likeable, but she also learns how to take action and, ultimately, determines her own fate, standing up for what is ‘right’ and making decisions despite the expectations and beliefs of those around her. She isn’t defined solely in relation to men and isn’t limited by them (whereas Le Guin’s Lavinia is largely complicit in her fate and, subsequently, never emerges as or becomes a person in her own right). In fact, a comparison/contrast between Anna and Lavinia could bring up some very interesting questions about gender roles, female leadership and self-actualisation. For example: As women in positions of marginal ‘power’ (Anna as a healer, Lavinia as a sage), what expectations are placed on Anna & Lavinia? What similarities exist? What differences, if any? What dangers do they face due to their ‘power’? (i.e. Anna fears being accused as a witch, Lavinia is afraid her son will be forcibly taken away from her). 

 

2. Day After Night (2009) by Anita Diamant

Applicability Rating: 6/10

Relevant Themes: Friendship & solidarity, crisis situation, women's experiences

Key Thoughts: I really wish Diamant would write another novel with the same level of depth, scope and imaginative appeal as The Red Tent. I’ve now read two more of her most recent books, Day After Night and The Boston Girl, which, although well written and interesting, neither have the same complexity or narrative insight as Diamant’s dramatic re-telling of Dinah’s story.

As I’ve noted previously, while the focus is on motherhood and the bonds between women as opposed to women's leadership, The Red Tent's ‘universal’ themes and linear narrative lends itself to discussion on the 'power of women' and the importance of female bonds. How do women interact with one another when there are clear power boundaries? How does age affect leadership among women? Dinah's grandmother Rebekah is an example of a strong, perhaps almost masculine leader (see pages 147 - 166) who has to make difficult decisions which are often criticised.

Day After Night, on the other hand, is specifically concerned with Jewish women’s trauma and displacement immediately following WWII. Held in Atlit, a camp for over 270 ‘illegal’ immigrants to Israel in 1945, four young women struggle to start-over in a new country without friends, family, or, seemingly, a future. Diamant is a compassionate storyteller, and manages to thoughtfully portray the psychological struggles the women face as they are gathered in this ‘waiting’ place. While not specifically concerned with leadership, one character, Shayndel, a Polish Zionist who fought the Germans with a band of partisans, does take up the ‘leader’ mantel during an escape from Atlit. I suppose the ‘escape’ could be analysed in terms of it being a leadership moment (clear context, purpose, leader, followers) but it would require reading the entire book to make any sense of it, and there just isn’t enough in terms of 'women’s leadership' for it to be very compelling or particularly relevant. 

3. The Ten-Year Nap (2008) by Meg Wolitzer

Applicability Rating: 5/10

Relevant Themes: Working mothers vs. stay-at-home mothers, female ambition, disillusionment, money, motherhood

Key Thoughts: I was hoping that Wolitzer would be the contemporary version of Marilyn French or Mary McCarthy, especially since her bestselling novels are predominantly concerned with third-wave feminist issues. But unfortunately she lacks the finesse, insight and literary acumen to be considered their successor. (I’m still waiting to find a modern female equivalent who writes like French or even, Byatt).

The Ten-Year Nap follows a group of highly educated mothers who have left the workforce for one reason or another (not entirely convincingly) to raise their children (or child) in modern-day New York City. There is so much potential within this broad topic – the double bind of careers and motherhood – but Wolitzer conducts only a superficial analysis of the 'un-triumphant female.' And while some characters are reasonably engaging, others are simply boring stereotypes. The ‘grand narratives’ of women’s work, motherhood, and stay-at-home-mums could have been deconstructed and resituated (and then celebrated) but, alas, this was not to be. All I was left with was a feeling of superficiality and an unresolved dilemma – what is Wolitzer’s point/message? What is she even trying to say about this topic? I'd hazard a guess that even she doesn't quite know.

Furthermore, her characters are too tidy – or too much of a type, and the narrative veers incongruously between differing perspectives and irrelevant ‘moments’ from the lives of women throughout history. Perhaps as a book of short stories, linked by location or theme, this might have worked, but in novel form it is just so ‘meh,’ for lack of a better word! As Jill observes near the end of the novel: “This is the ending. It’s just not satisfying, that’s all.” How apt. 

4. The Shadow of the Sun (1964) by A. S. Byatt

Applicability Rating: 5.5/10

Key Thoughts: Byatt is a marvellous writer! I can’t believe I’ve never read anything of hers in full before (summer reading list = Possession). It was a bit of a lucky dip selecting one of her books to read for this endeavour, but somehow I ended up with her very first novel, The Shadow of the Sun. Unconventional, beautifully composed, yet incredibly frustrating, are how I would describe this book in which Byatt tells the story of a troubled, (overly) sensitive seventeen-year-old. Anna Severell is the daughter of a renowned novelist, and it is her struggle to discover and develop her own personality and to be/come someone while under the shadow of her father (the metaphorical ‘sun’) which drives most of the action (or more accurately, it is Anna’s continued refusal to act which causes things happen).

With regards to ‘women’s leadership,’ the topic is not explored in any great depth or detail. However, Anna does make a few succinct observations on what it means to be a man or a woman searching for his/her ‘place in the sun’ in a world of binary opposites and socially constructed expectations and ideas. For example, in a confrontation between Anna and her Father, Byatt writes:

Anna studied him with a gentleness that was not his, but Caroline’s. A sceptical female gentleness. She saw that he had been carried away by a picture of her, having inherited his power, advancing further along his path, and she was touched by a faith in her which she had never hoped to see. But she had thought more about it than he had, and was more aware than he was of the difference there was between his power, and whatever she had inherited from him. She feared that she lacked his bodily strength, that she was not his size, that she could not be prodigal of power as he was, but must husband her resources or be easily exhausted, even when she had found out how to use them. This was partly because she was a woman; also because she was a woman she was constantly tempted as he would never have been, to give up, to rest on someone else’s endeavour, to expend her energy ‘usefully’ at the kitchen sink. And this, she thought, made it harder to go on looking for ways to go forward, when one had to fight against the temptation – socially approved – to stay where one was. She thought, he doesn’t really know, with a certain scorn (p. 200).

5. Top Girls (1982) by Caryl Churchill

Applicability Rating: 8/10

Relevant Themes: Women at work, masculinities, agentic leadership, capitalism

Key Thoughts: For reasons which make no sense to me now, I actually hated this play when I first read it. But after watching a screen version and re-reading the text, I've developed a new appreciation for Churchill’s witty, yet ultimately tragic insights into the modern (70s/80s) workplace.

The most striking feature of the play is that all the characters in it are women and no men appear on stage for its entire duration. Act I opens with Marlene, the newly appointed Managing Director of ‘Top Girls’ Employment Agency, formally celebrating her promotion with a group of 'friends.' But these aren’t just any friends, they are a curious mix of women from the past, both fictional and real. Marlene opens the evening cheerfully, saying: “We’ve all come a long way. To our courage and the way we changed our lives and our extraordinary achievements.” (They laugh and drink a toast). (p. 14). The interplay between all these diverse characters and personalities is both clever and entertaining, as each are given a chance (albeit while constantly being interrupted) to share their [his]story with the group.

However, their individual ‘successes’ are not necessarily worth celebrating. In describing the premise for the play, Churchill writes: “I wanted to set off, with all those historical women celebrating Marlene’s achievement, to look as if it were going to be celebration of women achieving things, and then to put other perspectives on it, it show that just to achieve the same things that men had achieved in capitalist society wouldn’t be a good object.” Churchill explores this contradiction as she moves into Act II set in the office of ‘Top Girls’ Employment Agency.

In his commentary on the play, Bill Naismith observes that “the office women have achieved relative success and independence within a system created essentially by men” (p. xxxv). Within this capitalist economy and blatantly hierarchical company, it is only the fittest who survive (seemingly irrespective of their gender). Marlene and her colleagues are largely dismissive of men (‘Men are awful bullshitters’ they contend), and they are certainly clever and capable, but they fail to challenge patriarchal authority and have themselves become agentic 'Queen Bees' (determined and ruthless) in order to succeed in a ‘man’s world.’ This is no more obvious than when Angie, Marlene’s ‘niece,’ shows up at her office and Marlene takes a recognizably 'masculine' (cold, distant) stance as she is unwilling to undermine her image or professionalism by giving Angie what she desperately needs - recognition, care, and a helping hand. However, Churchill is still sensitive to the intense difficulties and criticism women like Marlene face in entering top jobs in the workforce.

So yes, while we can celebrate instances the success and achievement of individual women in the workplace, Churchill asks, at what cost? If one still has to mould oneself to fit a patriarchal/masculine model to succeed, then we still desperately need to reform the system. 

6. Calling Invisible Women (2012) by Jeanne Ray

Applicability Rating: 6.5/10

Relevant Themes: Collective action, middle-aged women, perceptions

Key Thoughts: This is a light-hearted, clever little book, easily read in one sitting. The premise is simple, but enduringly(?) relevant. Women who, after a certain age, are no longer valued for their beauty or intelligence, and have little real ‘power’ left beyond the private sphere, inevitably start to feel invisible. But what happens, Ray asks, when they actually become invisible?

While there are moments of 'leadership', such as when the protagonist, Clover, starts a collective movement to help invisible women become recognised, appreciated and, ultimately, cured of their invisibility, I would shy away from using this book as, at times, it does come across as a bit silly. The metaphor itself is powerful, but I would have preferred to see it used as the premise for a short story. Especially since in some of the chapters it felt like Ray was struggling to make up her word count and many of the characters were frustratingly one-dimensional (such as Clover’s daughter). 

New on the Reading List:

Flow Down Like Silver	Ki Longfellow	2009	Historical Fiction
White Oleander	Janet Fitch	1999	Novel
Little Black Book of Stories	A S Byatt	2005	Short Stories
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves	Karen Joy Fowler	2013	Novel
The Last Runaway	Tracy Chevalier	2013	Historical Fiction
Remarkable Creatures	Tracy Chevalier	2009	Novel
Wrong Place, Wrong Time	Tilia Klebenov	2013	Thriller

I feel that I finally have an adequate representation of novels, plays & short story collections, enough to provide a meaningful commentary on what could possibly work and what definitely won't. Almost large enough to begin ‘grouping’ into genres/themes/patterns. For example:

• Historical Literature – slavery, pre-1850, pre-1980
• Modern/Contemporary Fiction
• Feminist Fiction
• Short Stories
• Prize-winning Literature
• Dystopian + Science Fiction

I imagine that by the end of the Christmas break I'll have read (or skimmed in some cases) 40+ books (narrowed down from 100+ ). I do have some ideas on how I will utilise the myriad options in my thesis, but that's another post entirely! 

Thoughts from an Enthusiastic Reader (#goals)

Storytelling as the ‘Other’ (Part 2) is coming soon I promise! But I haven’t quite finished sorting through all the data yet to compose what I really want to say/explain/impart. So instead I thought I would give an update on my latest reading endeavours.

First and foremost on my mind has been a book called Modern Misogyny: Anti-Feminism in a Post-Feminist Era. This is a recent study on feminism (published Nov 2014) by Kristin J. Anderson, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Houston-Downtown in the US. I read this book over a cup or two of coffee in a single afternoon (it was honestly that good!). If you’re looking for a concise, well-researched, but easy-to-read summary of the state of Western feminism (or post-feminism) today, then this is a must-read.

While Anderson doesn’t discuss women’s leadership in any great detail, feminism is one of the key informing concepts I’ll be using in my research to justify the use of women’s literature and the value of women’s perspectives. Rather than being gender-neutral as many people would like to believe, leadership discourses are still informed, however implicitly, by hegemonic masculinity and “impregnated with concepts of the hero” (Ford, Harding & Learmonth, 2008, p. 116)

Anderson begins her analysis by discussing post-feminism, she writes that “…post-feminism is marked by the shift from feminism as a collective movement for women’s liberation to superficial empowerment of the individual and her choices” (p. 19). In this neoliberal, and increasingly narcissistic and self-focused culture, feminist goals, Anderson contends, have been depoliticised and collective action rendered largely irrelevant: “Post-feminism is about the individual woman – personal choice, individual expression, and individual career success – and no recognition of the need for a united and collective social movement to liberate all women and enact structural change” (p. 19).

Anderson then goes on to discuss a whole range of current feminist issues, including hyper sexualisation and pseudo ‘empowerment’ in Western culture, sexism as part of a wider system of inequality, the double bind faced by women in the workplace, popular understandings of the term ‘feminism’ (i.e. ‘man-hating’ feminism), and the ‘end of men’ and ‘boys crisis.’
The key point Anderson makes is that we still need feminism (and not post-feminism), and I think she does a fantastic job of explaining why.

I particularly like this salient quote: “Feminists tend to see women and men as not very different from each other, and this is threatening to the gender status quo. If, as feminism argues, women can do what previously only men were thought to be able to do, then you can see how some would perceive manhood as under assault and the perpetrator of the assault feminism. Manhood is exclusionary and, to the extent that men’s activities can be performed by women, it is no longer a special role, no longer male. If women can perform the men’s role, it must mean neither the qualities nor the role are so special after all” (p. 66).

As a result, a whole tribe of anti-feminist authors (for example, Kate O’Briene, Harvey Mansfield, Roy Baumeister, C. H. Sommers, to name a few) have emerged who are not interested in equality but rather “in keeping boys and men at the centre. But not any men, white men in particular” (p. 163). I really like how Anderson alludes to this idea of an identifiable “centre,” a centre that has the potential to be deconstructed and re-imagined. While replacing patriarchy with matriarchy, or male with female, is not my intention, there is definitely room to destabilise systems of inequality by exploring and emphasizing women’s narratives that disturb the centre.

We desperately need more self-labelled feminists in business who can see beyond the individualist rhetoric of post-feminism and recognise the need for structural change. As Anderson argues, feminists need to remain focused on raising women’s awareness of continued gender inequity in order to motivate young women to understand that work still needs to be done (p. 12).

Not convinced? Before you disagree with me, I challenge you to read Modern Misogyny (it’s at the public library so you have no excuse!).

Novels, Stories, Narratives…

I spent several hours last week trawling through all the women’s reading lists I could find and it turned up a few new exciting possibilities (Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, Calling Invisible Women by Jeanne Ray, The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer)! At this point I feel I'm abandoning the idea of using short stories…I have found one really excellent short story (‘Sur’ by Ursula Le Guin) but that’s it so far (note to self: Summer reading list = short story collections).

Latest reads/possibilities:

1. The Women’s Room by Marilyn French

Applicability Rating: 6.5/10

Relevant Themes: Expectations & perceptions, women’s work, feminism

Key Thoughts: Published in 1977 at the end of the ‘sexual revolution,’ The Women’s Room sparked outrage for its controversial and forward-thinking ideas on women’s rights and desires (addressing the ‘what women want’ question). Set in 1950s America, The Women’s Room follows the life of Mira Ward, a conventional and submissive young woman in a traditional marriage, and her gradual feminist awakening. Now considered a ‘classic’ piece of women’s literature (although I doubt many women my age would have even heard of it), French suggests in her opening introduction (written in 2006) that it is just as relevant for today’s audiences (think white, middleclass women) as it was 38 years ago. She notes that “despite many easements on female life in the west, the world’s ethos has moved in the opposite direction – toward more hostility between the sexes” (p. xvi). I’m not quite sure this is the case and whether or not The Women’s Room transcends time boundaries in quite the manner French intends (there is a fair amount of material which is concerned solely with issues addressed by second-wave feminism), however I did find this novel much more engaging and interesting than Mary McCarthy’s The Group (1963) which follows a similar coming-of-age, 'awakening' premise.

One of the best things about this novel are the lively discussions French crafts between Mira and her female friends at Harvard. These scenes make you wish you were part of their dynamic group! Underpinning all their debates is, as Val succinctly observes, the issue of equality between the sexes: “The simple truth – that men are only equal – can undermine a culture more devastatingly than any bomb.”

However, I am still a bit hesitant to use this book as part of the literary research section. First of all, it is very long (a mere 526 pages!) and rather than read huge chunks all at once, it’s more a book you want to read in snippets (it took me about 5 days rather than my normal 24-48 hours). Secondly, there is almost an insuperable amount of ideas discussed and contained within the text, from politics, to feminism, to marriage, to racism, to sex, etc...It moves between topics and themes with dizzying speed, leaving nothing sacred. It left me feeling unsettled, but at the same time revitalised. But I can imagine some women absolutely hating it! Nonetheless, French is a witty and observant storyteller who is entertaining and engaging even if she does spend pages and pages discussing women’s domestic work and the trials and tribulations of the middleclass housewife.

Would I use The Women’s Room then? I think it definitely has a lot of potential as a text which can work to deconstruct patriarchal/male-dominated grand narratives, but I can’t imagine women sitting down to read the full novel in as short a timeframe as they would, say, The Lifeboat or The Invention of Wings. With this consideration in mind, I may use it as a reference text (there are some excellent discussions in there!) or as a suggestion for further reading.

2. Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin

Applicability Rating: 5/10 (or, perhaps 8/10)

Relevant Themes: Gender roles, maternal leadership, crisis situations

Key Thoughts: I love Le Guin so I was very excited when I found she’d recently (in 2008) written a historical novel featuring, and even named for, an ‘historical’ female character. The novel relates the life of Lavinia, princess of Laurentum, a very minor character from Virgil’s epic poem the Aeneid. Sounds like a great premise, right? Unfortunately, Lavinia never emerges as the strong, decisive female character you want her to. Instead I found her underdeveloped and rather wooden, as well as unlikeable. She vacillates, cries, makes odd decisions, and is, ultimately, painfully complicit in her 'fate' (in other words, the decisions of men).

There were, of course, a lot of interesting, well-researched details in the story and I can see what Le Guin was trying to achieve by 'completing' or fleshing out one of Virgil's female characters – giving her a 'voice' as Queen of Latium (filling Le Guin’s “immense white area”). But somehow the whole story fell flat, for me at least, due to the fatalistic tendencies of its heroine (although I’m not sure I can even call her a heroine – she didn’t really do anything). In terms of women’s leadership, Lavinia does exhibit a form of maternal leadership for her ‘people,’ but readily abandons her ‘power’ in favour of her son. Everything she does is vis-à-vis men, even though she has so much potential to break out of their confines and rules. Perhaps this is a good discussion point (e.g. why are women often so complicit in their own oppression?), however, I think Le Guin’s ‘Sur’ makes a better contender for my research project. Although perhaps there is room for simultaneously analysing multiple Le Guin stories? I have her non-fiction book, Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places (1989) so I will test the potential of this idea further as I read her critical essays.

I’ve just finished reading The Boston Girl (2014) by Anita Diamant (author of The Red Tent) and I’ve also skimmed Top Girls (1982) by Caryl Churchill for the third time. They are both possibilities as well but I’ll leave my reviews of them for the next entry.

Sometimes it seems that I am reading a lot of women’s literature which won’t be applicable or useful for my study. However, as Jane Smiley (the Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Thousand Acres) points out: “Sometimes the reader has to read novels that don’t work for her and think about why they don’t work – representative lists, unlike “my favourite” lists, have to include uncongenial works” (quote found in Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel, 2005, p. 271). I admire Smiley’s approach to literature – she read 100 ‘great’ novels over the course of 3 years and then proceeded to write about her experience and the effect/s the different books had on her as a reader (reflective thinking at its best!). 

What else I’ve read…which won’t work:    

              

• Property by Valerie Martin (2003)

This short novel won the Orange Prize for women’s fiction in 2003 and I can understand why! It’s a very gripping tale set in New Orleans in 1828 against the backdrop of civil unrest and slave uprisings. Property tells the story of Manon Gaudet, the unhappy wife of a plantation owner, and Sarah, Manon’s house slave whom she brought into the marriage. The drama is centred on the fact that Sarah is not only Manon’s slave, but also her husband’s unwilling mistress, causing resentment on both Manon and Sarah’s sides. There is no happy ending to this haunting tale, in fact it is quite grim and heart-breaking in the way it explores humanity's predilection for cruelty. However, it doesn’t say anything about the ‘women question’ or leadership in particularly. Its strength lie is in its historical analysis and narrative power rather than in topical relevancy.

• House Girl by Tara Conklin (2013)

Conklin’s debut novel is a reasonably well-written & mildly interesting story, but overall it lacked finesse and depth. The narrative switched between the late-1800s, where it followed the unhappy tale of a young slave woman, and the 2000s where it focuses on the story of a young, outgoing, annoyingly ‘perfect’ female lawyer who is trying to 'survive' in a male-dominated law firm. While Lina, the litigation lawyer, makes some pertinent (although rather cliché) remarks on male and female dynamics in the workplace, there is nothing in particular that makes this story stand out. It's more a journey of uninspiring self-discovery for the not very likeable lawyer and a tragically (though predictable) ending for the fictitious slave girl. Ultimately it fails to engage the reader and, I feel, trivialises the horrors of slavery in the way it flits between meaningless details about Lina’s contemporary existence and the slave girl's sad story. It's a piece I wouldn't be quick to recommend.

• How to Be Both by Ali Smith (2014)

Now, I was very excited about this book when I first got my hands on it. Shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2014, and the winner of the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, How to Be Both promised to explore gender boundaries and perceptions in a new and exciting way. Unfortunately I didn’t make it even half way through before I became extremely frustrated with Smith's disjointed, overly complicated narrative style. Yes, it is a clever post-modern ‘work of art’, but I just didn’t like it. [Note: I actually went back and reread this book several months later and garnered a lot more from it the second time round, in fact, I might dare to say I even enjoyed it!]

• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (1991)

On the other hand, I did love A Thousand Acres, the 1992 Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Jane Smiley. Following the basic plotline of Shakespeare’s King Lear, Smiley tells the story of an aging farmer (a patriarchal and misogynistic white man) who offers his prosperous Iowa farm to his three daughters. Tragic (although not quite as tragic as Shakespeare’s classic), dark and unpredictable (well, unless you’re familiar with King Lear), the novel explores family power relations and the transformation of Ginny (the oldest daughter and narrator) from a naive and weak pawn in her family’s power struggle, to an independent and strong woman. Why won’t it work for my analysis? Ultimately, I think the novel says a lot more about trauma and family relationships than leadership, so to reduce it to a ‘lesson’ on leadership would distort its more salient themes. But I highly recommend this book if you haven’t read it already!

I am more than halfway through reading and note-taking for my section on Women and Leadership. A couple more texts to go through and 8-10 journals. The plan is to finish the research by midweek and then work on a comprehensive outline. It may be a little bit ambitious to try and have the whole section written by the end of October, but I least want to have half of it done by then! #goals 

References:

Anderson, K. J. (2015). Modern misogyny: Anti-feminism in a post-feminist era. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Ford, J., Harding, N., & Learmonth, M. (2008). Leadership as identity: Constructions and deconstructions. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.