Advice to Women by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English - Book Report/Review Example

?For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts’ Advice to Women By Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English The book For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts Advice to Women is written by two of the most eminent feminists of our time Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English. The book narrates the 200 years of legacy that the woman genome has gone through and reached the present era of interaction of social factors and curative tips. Born in 1941, Ehrenreich is a veteran writer and an American feminist. She has authored more than 20 books and written many articles and essays, mostly related with issues surrounding women (Mayfield, 2009, p. 180). Ehrenreich completed her doctorate in cellular biology in 1968 from Rockfeller University and was an influential figure in the democratic socialist movement during the 1980s and early 1990s (Weir, 2007). Not surprisingly, the book has many prescriptions to offer for a woman to prepare her defense from the masculine (in author’s words) culture (Ehrenreich & English, 2005, p. 37). Deirdre English has previously worked as an editor of Mother Jones and also written several editorials and television documentaries (Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, 2010). It is to be noted that the first edition of this book was released in 1978. The book has been, therefore, in the public domain for a long time. With the 2005 rewriting, authors have enhanced their previous findings. Authors illustrate how the grandmothers and mothers played their roles as women, in an interesting and interactive style. While explaining special biological events in women’s life and cures that are prevalent, authors have avoided using complicated scientific jargons, which only trained experts could understand. Terse and practical writing style is one notable feature of this book. Blaming the Brain by Elliot Valenstein is one another popular book of this genre that investigates influence of corporate world and medical professionals on the lives of women. Dream Babies: Childcare Advice from John Locke to Gina Ford by Christina Hardyment includes three centuries of counsel on child caring. The remarkable thing about For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts Advice to Women is its discussion on women’s issues keeping political, social, and economic perspectives in mind. Menstruation, pregnancy, child birth are few of the issues that require scientific approach and today’s women frequently turn to so-called “physicians,” “psychologists,” “domestic scientists,” “child-raising experts” for advice (Ehrenreich & English, 2005, p. xi). Such woman-related events today are closely tied with the state of modern healthcare business and specialized medical experts like gynecologists. The book tries to investigate whom today’s woman goes to consult their lifestyle issues. It is felt that such health experts, often designated in the words of authors “Dr. Phil” have time and again betrayed their clients or patients (Ehrenreich & English, 2005, p. xi). The concerned book narrates how women’s are allured in the name of tags such as “beautiful soft-skinned,” “sexually vital” and so on and that ultimately leads to misdiagnosis. (Ehrenreich & English, 2005, p. 349) Unrealistic expectations from women and unscientific view that at middle age women become “unattractive”, or “unnatural” and “diseased” also led to this very sorry state of affair (Ehrenreich & English, 2005, p. xiii). Many promises for magical cures mostly concerning weight loss are too unpractical and unrealistic. The book explores how under Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), women were provided remedies not only for menopausal signs like hot flashes but also unverified claims like heart disease, Alzheimer, and other types of dementia! This was something which Food and Drug Administration (FDA) never endorsed! (Ehrenreich & English, 2005, p. 349) Business interest of pharmaceutical industry together with shortsightedness of qualified doctors played their roles in the process (Ehrenreich & English, 2005, p. xiii). Thus it does not surprise authors that rate of depression and anxiety is two times higher among women than men (Ehrenreich & English, 2005, p. 354). The authors believe that without approaching women’s health problems from a systemic perspective, little justice can be done to their wellbeing. For instance, it is argued that women doctors today must not only know medicine but also something of inglorious history of misogyny in a field that tried to keep them out of it for so long, as well as the stories of the women activists who fought for their inclusion (Ehrenreich & English, 2005, p. 362). This is interesting because the book seeks to address the problems of women by relating it to a host of external factors which many would find unrelated or irrelevant. One of the chief strength of this book, after all, is its systemic approach and not just fabricated readymade solutions! Earlier, folk medicine that took into account anatomy, palpating lymph nodes, patient’s food preferences, and stool appearance was practiced effectively by few gentlemen. Once the medical field was monopolized to only qualified doctors from universities, such folk healing that was very much like today’s evidence-based healing led to forceful quit. Ironically doctors could seldom understand where to look for: nutrition, psychology, or environment. Part of the women’s mistreatment can be attributed to such monopolizing of healthcare field (Ehrenreich & English, 2005). While tracking historically the society that influences today’s western woman, authors have touched traditional myths like witches and customs like midwives and nurses (Ehrenreich & English, 2005, pp. 37-41). Inclusion of many wise quotes by other philosophers in the book while making their case makes the book even more illuminating and credible. For instance, the citation of one picture of child treatment is enlightening: “There is a sensible way of treating children. Treat them as though they were young adults. Dress them, bathe them with care and circumspection. Let your behavior always be objective and kindly firm. Never hug and kiss them, never let them sit on your lap. If you must, kiss them once on the forehead when they say good night. Shake hands with them in the morning." (Ehrenreich & English, 2005, p. 204) Overall, the book presents a balanced approach. While advocating for equal women’s right, the two women authors seem to understand individualities that are tied with a woman. However, writing about sensitive women affairs such as menstruation and abortion may be misunderstood by laymen readers. This may be considered as one of the big weakness of this book. It may be that without properly coordinating with rigorous scientific examinations, some claims by authors may still be open to scrutiny. Medical science under the domain of casual readers, after all, is always risky. This might be seen as one crucial weakness of this book. Keeping that aside, effort by authors is laudable and the book is an important addition in the library of those who are willing to explore women related issues in a scientific manner. References 1. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. (2010). Magazine Faculty and Lecturers. Retrieved on June 12, 2011 . 2. Ehrenreich, B. and D. English (2005) For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts Advice to Women. Anchor Books. 3. Hardyment, C. (2008). Babies: Childcare Advice from John Locke to Gina Ford. New York: Pan Macmillan) 4. Mayfield, M. (2009). Thinking for Yourself. New York: Cengage Learning, 2009. 5. Valenstein, E. S. (1998) Blaming the Brain: The Truth About Drugs and Mental Health. New York: Free Press. 6. Weir, R.E. (2007). Class in America: A-G. New Jersey: ABC-CLIO. Read More