Boundaries of Her Body: A Troubling History of Women's Rights in America [Hardcover]

Debran Rowland (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this masterful treatise, legal journalist Rowland analyzes how women's rights have, and have not, evolved since the signing of the Mayflower Compact in 1620 (though the bulk of the book covers just the 20th century). From time immemorial, women were perceived as having the singular mission of bearing and raising children, says Rowland, who documents the consequences of this view: until the late 19th century, women's rights derived from husbands, fathers and sons. It was believed that their biology made women incapable of thinking rationally—hence they could not own property, vote or work as many hours or for as much pay as men. Nor could they have sex not aimed at procreation without social and legal opprobrium. Rowland documents how a legal "zone of privacy" granted men as far back as the 1620s didn't accrue to women until 1965, when the Supreme Court legalized contraception. Drawing on legal and historical sources as well as the Bible, the journals of Meriwether Lewis and Lolita, Rowland covers every imaginable aspect of women's legal lives, up to the present day. This massive and remarkable history is well written in smart yet accessible language and is thus the perfect book for the classroom as well as the family room.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Indispensable source book for courses in women's studies, especially valuable for its coverage of a multitude of court cases. " -- Kirkus Review, July 15, 2004

Product Details

• Hardcover: 788 pages
• Publisher: Sphinx Publishing (August 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572483687
• ISBN-13: 978-1572483682
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,015,457 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #81 in Books > Law > English Law > Social Security & Welfare

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Man's Perspective, October 13, 2004

By 

Dion Wheeler "Wheels" (Plainfield, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Boundaries of Her Body: A Troubling History of Women's Rights in America (Hardcover)

A remarkably well researched book. Women's Rights can now be studied chronologically, as separate issues within the text and anecdotal studies illuminating both issues and the general concept of women's rights. I found particularly startling the section describing the victimization of(very)young females in an international, commercial sex trade. The chapter endnotes, while initially appearing quite daunting, do a good job of providing references for further study of the many concepts, facts and history that receive(understandably)truncated treatment in a chapter.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars superb legal reference for everybody, May 18, 2005

By 

K. B. Lowry "kblowry" (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Boundaries of Her Body: A Troubling History of Women's Rights in America (Hardcover)

I picked up Rowland's new book because of it's topic on the history of women's rights, but I bought the book for it's extensive footnotes and excellent documentation. As many other readers have noted, Rowland writes in a language we all can understand and with such enthuasiasm that we all can share for the topic. What few writers talk about is that women's history is NOT and should NOT BE studied as a line of progress until we are all "liberated" by the 21st century. There's still a long way to go and the history of any demographical group has NEVER been more complex than that of women in global cultures. What Rowland writes in this book is not a cozy bed time read, but an empowering, disturbing, amazing, narrative of the twists and turns of the legal battles that have created the status of women in America as we know it today.

What bothers me is that readers have dismissed Rowland's book simply because she is pro choice and does not write with a bias against abortion or contraception. It's silly to turn down such an important book as Rowland simply on politics, but unfortunately many people expect that history isn't accurate without it. If you want to read something white washed, conservative, elitist, and politically biased, read "American Heroines" by Senator Kay Balley Hutchinson. If you want to read something that's intellectally challenging, accurate, and well writen read Rowland.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Overview of Women's Rights in the U.S., October 6, 2004

By 

Impressed - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boundaries of Her Body: A Troubling History of Women's Rights in America (Hardcover)

This is an amazing and comprehensive book that describes the evolution and current status of women's legal rights in the U.S. It is a legal history, describing the major legal decisions that have generated and defined women's rights. The book describes these legal decisions in easy to understand language that does not oversimplify or condescend to the reader. It also puts these decisions in a social context, by discussing many of the societal events in which these legal decisions were made.

Another reviewer complained about the use of statistics in this book, but I found no such problems. There are many statistics in the book and I generally found them to be illuminating.

Overall, this is an important book that is worth the time of anybody who cares about what rights American women have and how they got them.