The Difference: Discovering the Hidden Ways We Silence Girls - Finding Alternatives That Can Give Them a Voice [Paperback]

Judy Mann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

In this provacative book that will appeal to readers of the bestselling Reviving Ophelia, an award-winning Washington Post columnist draws on groundbreaking research to expose how and why American girls are raised to feel inferior to boys.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Washington Post columnist Mann examines the ways in which society continues to undermine girls' feelings of self-worth.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

What is the difference between girls and boys? Washington Post columnist Mann pinpoints adolescence as the time during which girls absorb implicit and explicit messages of dependency designed to disempower them. Parents, schools, and organized religion are the agents of these messages, Mann finds, and "redesigning children" through better training is the key to change. Asserting that "genderized expectations" create an adversarial relationship between the sexes at an early age, Mann concludes that "we cannot make the world a better one for girls until we produce boys who are not hostile to women." Mann's personal investigation of private and public classrooms, her explorations of traditional patriarchal religious history, and her interviews with her own teenage daughter and her friends make this urgent message immediate, accessible, and recommended for most general interest collections and larger women's studies libraries.
Susan E. Parker, Harvard Law Sch. Lib.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446671185
• ISBN-13: 978-0446671187
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,879,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Feminist Bias is legitimate and important!, June 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Difference: Discovering the Hidden Ways We Silence Girls - Finding Alternatives That Can Give Them a Voice (Paperback)

One would be unable to find an author who does not reflect any bias in thier writing. It is important that this book is not disregarded as invalid because the author has convictions. Infact, her feminist bias and insightful critiques ought be acknowledged to be as legitimate as biases reflecting the status quo.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reading this book is a service to your children, boy or girl, June 9, 2005

By 

B. Herick (Olympia, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Difference: Growing Up Female in America (Hardcover)

Judy Mann does a great job of stringing child psychologist's opinions and numerous scientific studies to provoke thought in the reader. She makes it clear that she did not start research of this book with a bias one way or the other and it is quite obvious when she discusses her observance of her daughter being her reason for writing this book, contrary to what many other reviewers claim. It is not a common occurence to find a general audience book that is so backed by scientific evidence. She discusses controversial issues, such as the evidence that sex segregated could benefit young girls (and boys for that matter). The concept of sex segregrated schools died with the feminist movement of the 70s, as did anything sex segregrated. When considering this, the claims that she is spreading feminist propaganda is utterly ridiculous. She throws traditional feminist ideas out the window when they need to be, when the scientific data suggests otherwise. Additional topics include girl's lack of interest in science and math (something I find true, being one of few girls in my college with a physics major), methods we can infiltrate that would benefit girls and their learning styles, how blurring gender lines completely can be detrimental to a child's indentity, she gives an account of a day in the life of a Madeira School student, and scientific data that gives evidence that girls are overlooked in the classroom. Reading this book is a service to your children, for they will surely benefit from a parent that is aware of their childhood issues and their education system, and its downfalls. Mann does not beg the reader to agree with her, she puts forth the information; whether you agree or not is up to you.

PS. The reason I was compelled to write this review was due to the incorrect information that other reviewers have written, reviewers that wrote both positive and negative reviews. It seems that some people have jumped on reviewing this book without even reading it, probably because of much of it hits on controversial issues. If you haven't read the book, didn't feel that you understood the book, only flipped through the book, or assume the author's opinion on things not even discussed in the book, such as abortion, DON'T WRITE A REVIEW. You are influencing people that could actually learn something from it.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars worthwhile and thought provoking, December 23, 1999

By 

Michele Plott (Boston, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Difference: Discovering the Hidden Ways We Silence Girls - Finding Alternatives That Can Give Them a Voice (Paperback)

Judy Mann writes from a feminist perspective, but this book is not "propaganda"--and her views about raising girls in America build on the research of many other responsible scholars. I assigned it for a class & every student (including those who declared themselves emphatically "not a feminist") found it thought provoking and worth reading.