I’m pretty torn about this book. I definitely could see myself having used it as a source for a paper in college, and it’s easily digestible, but especially in the first half a lot of smaller things were bothering me.
I did like that we got such a broad overview of so many kinds of women from such a range of time periods. That being said I think I may have more negatives than positives.
I think it’s within the first couple pages that the author refers to ‘ancestresses’ and then (mostly) continues that through the book. I get that it’s about women’s history, but ancestor isn’t a gendered word so ancestress was giving me the same vibes as girl boss where in creating a distinction to focus attention where there’s been a lack of it the attention isn’t equal.
The organization also bothered me. Not just directly having the websites typed out, but also things like having the chapter on glove making between the food and dairy ones, and the health related ones so far apart. It felt very jumpy, and the lack of conclusion sadly didn’t help.