A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States in the Twentieth Century [Paperback]

Sheila Rowbotham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999

Far more than a historical subcategory, women have been driving forces behind world war politics, global migration, maternal welfare, sexual revolution, and modern labor movements. In A Century of Women, renowned historian Sheila Rowbotham charts, decade by decade, the changes in the lives of women and the ways they themselves have uniquely shaped history since 1900. From women who marched for the vote, stood on picket lines, or refused to be segregated, to politicians, poets, and film stars, their stories are told in rich detail.

Throughout the book are entertaining essays on body and image, popular fiction, lesbian culture, the automobile, Barbie dolls, and more; a final section gathers biographies of four hundred notable women. Thoroughly engrossing and unrivaled in scope, A Century of Women provides a wealth of information on the rich, complex, and tumultuous lives of the women who have left an indelible mark on our century.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As its title suggests, Sheila Rowbotham's A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States in the Twentieth Century is a monumental study--scholarly, readable, well illustrated, well indexed--of Western women's experiences in the 20th century. As a feminist historian, Rowbotham is aware of the scope of her task, beginning her survey with the problems that have been crucial to the study of women's history as such: "Who and what gets into the record of the past? How do you start to document the everyday, the experience which leaves no written, or visual, trace?" With the exception of two chapters devoted to the aftermath of the First and Second World Wars--periods that saw key changes in the patterns of women's work, for example--the study is divided decade by decade, with distinct sections on Britain and the United States. Allowing for an awareness of the differences, as well as the cultural exchange, between Britain and the U.S., Rowbotham gives a fresh sense of the diverse history of contemporary feminism and (some of) the women--writers, critics, Hollywood icons, politicians, amongst others--who have contributed to it. Concluding with brief biographies of the key players and with an extensive bibliography, the book is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to know more about women's recent history. --Vicky Lebeau, Amazon.co.uk

Review

“A courageous, thought-provoking and very political work … honest and frequently moving.” (Observer )

“Indispensible … A lively, readable, and balanced account of the gender wars of one messy century.” (Naomi Wolf - The Times )

“A fascinating map of progress and pitfalls over the past 100 years.” (Independent ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140232826
• ISBN-13: 978-0140232820
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,513,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Uncritical trot through other peoples' quotations, June 26, 2010

By 

Rerevisionist (Manchester, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States in the Twentieth Century (Paperback)

Disappointingly dim (and also English-language only] book. It describes life for women - and describes occasional protests - but of course has no suggestions how they could themselves improve matters. At the end of the book is a list of famous women with brief biogs - example Kate Adie [she read out censored material about Iraq wearing camouflaged clothing] and Diana [married a rich royal] and Margaret Mead [phoney academic] - generally women of no great character. The cover design perhaps sums up the book - a woman perched on metal eagle's head on a skyscraper, holding a large bellows camera - all the artefacts being designed by males.

She went to St Hilda's College, Oxford. One of her books says '.. my intense visionary moments didn't help.. read Gibbon and Macaulay or study the growth of the judiciary in the Middle Ages or the boundaries of the Austro-Hungarian empire. I found this kind of history boring at the best of times.' She seems to have been influenced far more by her experiences later, for example with supposed lefties influenced by what everyone still calls the 'Russian Revolution'.

The social material is entirely convention - Suffragettes, World War 1, then World War 2 with judgments about e.g. Jews, 'appeasement', strikes. Then 'the pill', civil rights, capitalist use of the labour of married women...

She has the usual inability to grasp the importance of science; and of course power structures aren't analysed. So weapons or cars or medical advances or whatever 'develop'. 'Poverty' is the 'cause' of hardship. 'Capitalism brought new relationships of property and domination. It brought into being a class which did not own the means of production, 'free' labourers who had to sell their labour on the market.' She doesn't face the fact that consumers could presumably have still bought hand loom stuff, but preferred the new machine stuff.

Rowbotham had two books published in 1973, Hidden from History - 300 years of Women's Oppression and the Fight Against It, which is a bit of a ragbag or conspectus, arranged by topics pre-selected by other writers. She has a footnote on the 'Churching of Women' perhaps taken from Dora Russell.

And another 1973 book, Woman's Consciousness, Man's Worlds. She was influenced by Betty Friedan, 'The Feminine Mystique' which Rowbotham dates 1968, and steals from: 'graphically describes a sense of isolation.. suburban coffee meeting in an American city.. dissatisfaction.. yearning.. 'Is this all?''. Rowbotham is, compared to these Americans who were funded deliberately to promote agenda, a very soft type.

I'd guess most of the material in this book is taken from other works, and they she has taught women's issues - in fact, I checked using Google and she seems to have been at Manchester.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book covering American and British Women's history, March 23, 2006

By 

Kevin W "pacers721" (Oak Park, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States in the Twentieth Century (Paperback)

Although I used this book primarily for American Women's history, it does a great job with British history too. The book is well organized, looking at american and british women's history separately by decades starting with 1900 and going through 1995. In most cases, each chapter is divided by politics, work, social life and sex.