The W Effect: Bush's War On Women [Paperback]

Laura Flanders (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004

In this unique and essential collection, Molly Ivins, Maureen Dowd, Maria Hinojosa, and a host of other frontline thinkers, journalists, and activists employ wit, outrage, and cold, hard facts to expose the “W Effect,”a comprehensive incursion into women’s rights. In recent years, women around the globe have come under attack—both literally, in the case of war and punitive repression, and more subtly, in the case of eroded rights and economic power. Yet this dangerous trend has not, to date, been comprehensively documented and deconstructed—in part because women are finding it harder to gain access to the mainstream media.

Both a harsh reality check and a hopeful starting point for new action, The W Effect brings together the premier feminist voices to provide cutting-edge reports; fresh, empowering analyses; and engaging, provocative ideas for the future—including a resource guide for information and activism. At this pivotal time, The W Effect is a necessary book for feminists of all ages and genders, for all progressive activists, for students, and for anyone interested in current politics and the future of women’s rights and women’s lives in America and around the world.

With reports on: affirmative action, the Patriot Act, welfare “reform,” sexual freedom, reproductive rights, the impact of the religious right, education funding and Title IX, public health policy, globalization, international HIV/AIDS policy, the International Court and the U.N., and more.

Journalist and broadcaster Laura Flanders was the founder of the Women’s Desk at FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting), where, for 10 years, she hosted the syndicated radio program CounterSpin. Flanders currently hosts “Working Assets Radio” and is a contributor to The Nation, The Progressive, Ms. and In These Times. She is the author of Real Majority, Media Minority, The Cost of Sidelining Women in Reporting and Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species (April 2003).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

President George W. Bush has said that "W is for women"; Bushwomen author Flanders has assembled a group of 60 or so issue-oriented essays by various authors who argue the contrary. The "Family Time Flexibility Act" can actually result in the loss of pay for professional women by reclassifying them as managers ineligible for overtime. Women in Afghanistan remain disenfranchized (to the point of being at risk of rape by armed factions and of forced marriage) despite their "liberation" from the Taliban. The administration's support for the gradual recriminalization of abortion, for the campaign against Title IX, for the imposition of global gags on discussing family planning and for the cutting of welfare and health care by converting to block-grant financing, together result, Flanders argues in her introduction, in the "W Effect"—i.e., "stealth misogyny." Though many of the pieces were previously published in places like the Nation or Ms. by the likes of Ehrenreich, Steinem, Pollitt and Sheehy, an account of the sharp rise of domestic violence against military wives and excerpts from "Baghdad Burning," a Baghdad woman's blog by "Riverbend" that reports firsthand on the occupation, are just two of the less familiar sources and stories. While there are a few diatribes that pompously overstate, the polemics always take off from verifiable facts on the ground.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Laura Flanders is the host of Working Assets Radio, a daily call-in program heard on public radio (KALW-FM) in San Francisco and on the Internet. She writes a column for Tompaine.com and appears regularly on MSNBC, Fox News Watch, PBS, and CBC. She's the former Director of the Women's Desk at FAIR.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: The Feminist Press at the City University of NY; First Edition first Printing edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558614710
• ISBN-13: 978-1558614710
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,377,661 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The W Effect, July 13, 2004

By 

Leeann (Birmingham, MI, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The W Effect: Bush's War On Women (Paperback)

This is a great book for anyone who needs references on exactly how Bush's policies have hurt people around the world. It's full of articles from a variety of websites, magazines, and other sources, so it gives a full and interesting view of how Bush politices have shaped (and destroyed) many people's lives. I feel like this is an important book right now, one you may want to at least look at regardless of your political affiliation.

My only problem with the book was the fact that it's subtitled "Bush's War on Women." From reading it, you get the idea that it might as easily have been called "Bush's War on Women, Men, Children, the Planet, the Constitution, Gays, Lesbians, Common Sense, Jobs, Trees, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." Although there is a focus on "women's issues," the book is really about how Bush's policies effect everyone, not just women. So, even if you aren't particularly interested in the plight of the female gender, there will be something in this book that will anger and inspire you.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE 2004 feminist conciousness raiser text, August 13, 2004

By 

Robin Orlowski "political activist" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The W Effect: Bush's War On Women (Paperback)

Laura Flanders again is a voice of reason in these very frightening times.

She explains that 'moderate' packaging by his handlers prevents most of the public (who ARE supportive of women's equality) from detecting Bush's unabashed misogyny. A combination of personal ignorance and Texan bravado has merged to formulate a being who cannot and will not think of women as his equals.

Long gone are the days when Republican president Gerald R. Ford openly supported women's equality through public policies such as equal pay and the ERA ratification campaign, etc...The only thing diverse about Bush is his appointment of other women to enact the retrograde policies to intentionally undo the last thirty years of progress they themselves have ironically benefited from.

Bush's chilling goal is for all of us to end up like his wife Laura, a robo-wife not allowed to have any public oppinions unless her husband thinks they will somehow support his goals. In this same world, our differing ideas (especially about reproductive issues) will be kept under wraps.

Some of this basic premise was previously covered in Tanya Melich's 'War Against Women' (1996) which took an insider's look at how/why the late 20th century Republican Party intentionally began attacking women's rights.

While she is an outsider who has never voted Republican, Flander's work benefits from the timeliness and 'pop' format unavailable in Melich's public confession. Serious topics (and alarming statistics) are condensed into the 'sound bite' read which our culture obviously thrives on.

Buy a copy for yourself, and then purchase copies for all the women in your life who believe there is no important difference between the major political parties during this election season. Failing to take the Bush administration's 'women' record seriously could eventually cost all of us our freedoms.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How women-friendly policies are often bad for women, June 22, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The W Effect: Bush's War On Women (Paperback)

In his year 2000 campaign, the current president joked that his middle initial stood for "Women," because he intended to work towards providing a better environment for the women he hoped would vote for him. Maybe he has, but other women in the US and elsewhere have seen policies that, even where they were advertised as "women-friendly", have had the actual effect of making this a harsher, meaner world for the feminine population.

The W Effect is a collection of over 60 articles from a wide variety of sources, which relate how US initiatives originating from, or supported by, the current White House have damaged women around the world. Some of them tell how hostility towards low-pay workers, gays and lesbians, and the poor have affected women and their young families. Others more directly address policies that particularly affect women, such as women's healthcare.

An Afghan woman tells how the US government has snubbed local and ex-patriot Afghan women's organizations, which could cost-effectively rebuild Afghanistan's infrastructure. Instead money has been poured into expensive American security firms. A self-styled Iraqi "computer geek" mourns her computer-related job, destroyed by the war. She used to enjoy equal pay and conditions with male colleagues, but now can't even leave her house without a male guard to protect her and dressed in confining clothing. She expresses her frustration at Americans who expect her to show gratitude for having "liberated" her.

What Laura Flanders provides is a good deal of detail for people who are already concerned at the way the nation is increasingly being run by "greedy, frightened, violent bullies." What it won't provide is a balanced, objective report for those who are open-minded, but not yet convinced. That's a pity.