Imagining Ourselves: Global Voices from a New Generation of Women [Paperback]

Paula Goldman (Editor), Isabel Allende (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2006

Presenting the photography, paintings, poetry, fiction, songs, and essays of 105 young women from fifty-seven countries, Imagining Ourselves captures the energy of the first global generation of women. From Nasra Abubakar, a Somalian camel-farmer’s daughter who is the first in her family to go to college to Anita Khemka, who reflects on the generation gap between yesterday’s and today’s teenage women in urban India, the young women in this book will inspire and encourage you to take action to transform your own life and the world around you.

Enlightening, uplifting, challenging, and funny, Imagining Ourselves demonstrates the power of each individual life and the collective power of today’s generation of women as a whole.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This lovely and visually kinetic book is the perfect antidote to the constant barrage of bleak reports about the future. An activist and Harvard graduate student, Goldman asked women around the world between the ages of 20 and 40: "What defines your generation of women?" Of more than 3,000 responses, 105 are included in this inspiring anthology, published in association with San Francisco's International Museum of Women. There are some recognizable names among the artists, writers, musicians, community and political organizers, and academics included. Queen Rania of Jordan describes the need for a "peaceline" for regions in conflict (an idea she credits her father-in-law, the late King Hussein, with teaching her). Attorney and author Karenna Gore Schiff points out that the U.S. and Australia are the only two industrialized countries without paid maternity leave. Czech artist Katerina Otcenaskova-Richtr tells of her mother, a smalltown woman whose only choice was to be wife and mother, but supported her daughter's ambitions. "I am an artist. I am strange. Wait—am I strange? No, nowadays a daughter working as an artist is a normal thing." Otcenaskova-Richtr died last March of cancer at age 31, but her spirit is preserved here with those of many inspiring women. (Mar. 8)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–This sophisticated anthology is comprised of text and full-color reproductions of art submitted by an international group of women in their 20s and 30s in response to the question: What defines your generation of women? The respondents, each identified by a biographical sketch of only a few sentences, represent the diverse views of 105 artists, writers, political activists, and athletes from 57 countries. The result is an eclectic array of art, poetry, and prose, arranged in four broad categories: Inside, Outside, Between, and Towards. The content ranges from stories of personal relationships, spiritual pilgrimages, and physical abuse to political essays by Karenna Gore Schiff and Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan. Part of a project sponsored by the International Museum of Women, the volume is visually appealing with varied layouts, print in different colors, and different typefaces. High school students who pick up this book to browse through the photographs will find themselves compelled to read the essays, stories, and poetry. They will find women who are strong, independent, and empowered.–Jane S. Drabkin, Chinn Park Regional Library, Woodbridge, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: New World Library (January 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1577315243
• ISBN-13: 978-1577315247
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #768,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My friend, and all that..., March 7, 2006

By 

CulturalOutsider (Ithaca, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imagining Ourselves: Global Voices from a New Generation of Women (Paperback)

My friend, who dropped by my office to take me out for dinner, saw the Imagining Ourselves book on my desk. "What's this?" she asked. "I just got it from Amazon, take a look" I said. "I don't think I'm gonna like it", she said, "all these books about women empowerment and all, I never connect with all this."

My friend is a scientist. With her PhD in biology, working at an Ivy League university with the world's best researchers, she thought that "all that women empowerment stuff" was irrelevant for her. After all, she has "made it" in the world, never feeling that being a woman was much of an obstacle.

And this is why this book is so great. It didn't take my friend more than a few seconds holding this book in her hands to realize how much "all that women empowerment stuff" had become a part of her. So much so that she can live the life she does without that constant awareness, without that constant struggle. It had become a part of her to such an extent that she never thinks about it anymore. "All that women empowerment stuff" had been so successful in bringing change that to some women it had finally become irrelevant.

My friend picked up the book from my desk and read the back cover. Then she looked inside. Then she sat down, and I didn't hear from her for about an hour. She couldn't really put it down.

If you think that you are beyond "all that women empowerment stuff" then this is just the book for you. And if you don't, well, then definitely read it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Beautiful, March 7, 2006

By 

Rebecca Greenberg "RNGreenberg" (RNGreenberg) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Imagining Ourselves: Global Voices from a New Generation of Women (Paperback)

I love the fact that this book is a compliation of work from so many places around the world. I got it as a gift and have loved pouring over it. I didn't read it from cover to cover, but rather dipped in and out. I did find, however, that almost every entry made me feel either hopeful, strong, happy, inspired, impressed or awestruck. What a great voice from our generation! I'm passing it on to as many friends as possible!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a greater generation ..., May 26, 2006

By 

Mary Jo Magar (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Imagining Ourselves: Global Voices from a New Generation of Women (Paperback)

As a proud member of the International Museum of Women, I really recommend this book to women of all ages, of any cultural background, anywhere.

What makes this book so endearing - and so different from many other books concerning women's current socio-cultural/political issues - is that the stories are very personal, internationally diverse yet filled with a common essence that reaches out to every women regardless of generation, nationality, or social, economic, or educational level. Even "Eve" back in Eden could have benefited from this book, recognizing the archetype (or stereotype!) that she was setting for generations to come!

Furthermore, the stories, even when extraordinary (and many are), are simple and ordinary in the best sense in that the women who authored them address the issues of their times as everyday themes that are both timely and timeless - and certainly appreciable by men as well as women.

The book is also just a great picture book, almost like a travel book, but one that journeys through minds and souls as well as landscapes of achievement by truly beautiful and gifted women united by their place in history.

What really enhances the book and defines its time is the availability of its adjunct Imagining Ourselves/Museum of Women web site exhibit, which is multilingual. This interactive element expands the book's value from frozen print to a growing presentation of living, contributing women from across the globe.

Women in every time, in every field, in every culture have served as inspiring sources of education and guidance for other women, but unfortunately women of the past were not as informationally or cross-culturally advantaged as the women of today, hence, their reach was limited and thus their support from and of other women was limited.

What a great miracle the Internet is in overcoming such boundaries as time, culture, and geography!

And what a great miracle this book is, particularly for the women who are its subject - the most well-educated, well-traveled, professionally empowered, and internationally integrated generation of women to date.