Customer Reviews

100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century

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This book was good for learning a little about each person, however, I felt as though quite a few women were left out. I suppose that it is only 100 women, and they did have to include some from each area, but many in here didn't seem to have a significant impact. Many women who I feel had a significant impact weren't listed. I didn't feel as though each woman got equal coverage.

Usually I don't bother reviewing so-so books, but I have to ask: How could they include such women as Lady Di (oh, please), Jiang Qing, Eva Peron, Sonja Henie (Sonja who?), and what appaled me the most, Phyllis Schlafly, in the list? When I saw the book I though it would be about women who had helped to elevate our status and create better conditions for us all, but Schlafly appears here, and I quote "as the woman who helped shot down the Equals Right Amendment(....)" I was mad. Where are the truly deserving women, the ones that did try their best to leave the world a little better that when they found it? Where is Eileen Collins, Gabriela Mistral, Karen Horney, and why not, Audrey Hepburn (isn't she a way more reasonable choice than Jane Fonda?) I'll grant that they compiled a more or less good list of important women, but I'm glad I borrowed this book instead of buying it. I have better plans for my money.

After receiving this book as a birthday gift, I was initially delighted. The best thing about this book is certainly its "magazine-like" appeal. Its pages are glossy, the print is sharp, the layout is pleasantly modern, and best of all, the short, concise biographies of a widely diversified group of women are fascinating and effortlessly attention-grabbing. Indeed, this book is a godsend for people who ordinarily wouldn't want long, detailed historical books and biographies; "100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century" gives this type of person a glimpse of important history without boring them. And of course, needless to say, hardcore history buffs wouldn't want to be without this book...

However, upon closer examination and further reading, a fundamental flaw present in this volume becomes obivious. Put simply, somehow it seems that some women in this book are simply not worthy of being named "most important." Before I go any further, I think it necessary to say that I understand that it's impossible to satisfy everyone when creating a book like this, but I still feel that selections could have been better. For example, why is Mary Quant included? I know that the mini skirt created quite a stir in the fashion world, but fashion is only so important. Sonja Heine? Revolutionizing the sport of figure skating is can hardly be considered a fundamental accomplishment of the century, at least by my book. Dorothy Parker? Maybe I'm missing something here, but when reading this book, it appeared that she basically drank, smoked, and told witty jokes. Madonna? I won't even go there. I suppose when I think of criteria for inclusion in a book like this, I would only consider truly intelligent women who changed society in a serious, unselfish way and affected large numbers of people. To be fair, I must say that many extremely deserving women also made it into this book-Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosalind Franklin, Rachel Carson, Carrie Chapman Catt, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Mary McLeod Bethune are all women I look up to. The final word? This is an attractive book and an enlightening read, yet a book whose "admittance criteria" seems sketchy and sometimes ineffective. However, if you can refrain from becoming indignant as you are reading if you find that you disagree with the author/editors' choices, you will find yourself enjoying the unique perspectives and opinions found in this book.

The authors of this book had some interesting choices of women for their most important. That's fine, "most important" is a pretty subjective term anyways. What bothered me was the short shrift this book seemed to give many of these women. If you read the brief blurb on Eleanor Roosevelt, you'll come away thinking she was nice to black people. This book doesn't give you enough details to explain why these women are so extraordinary.
Still, the book introduces many women of the 20th century that readers would probably not have heard of before.

One must suppose that Barbara Walters is correct by stating in the forward on page 8, "Every woman alive today owes an immeasurable debt to the women in this book." Although after having read the book, there are some of the women to whom one, such as I, can not relate.

Some are these women one has read about; while others one has studied about in school. I think one is drawn to those women who have lived during one's lifetime or not too long before. Those who are not among my favorites are Gloria Steinem, Mary Quant, Martha Stewart, Jane Fonda, Madonna, and Helen Gurley Brown. Among those whom I admire the most are Mother Teresa; Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis; Diana, Princess of Wales; Eleanor Roosevelt; Betty Ford; Hillary Rodham Clinton; and Marilyn Monroe.

Hillary Clinton states on page 22, "Our global future depends on the willingness of every nation to invest in its people, especially women and children." Mother Teresa said, "Each of us is merely a small instrument; all of us, after accomplishing our mission, will disappear." -page 53. Eleanor Roosevelt is credited with the statement, "It is better to light a candle that to curse the darkness." - page 46

I highly recommend this book for everyone regardless of gender. Since I have subscribed to LADIES' HOME JOURNAL for many years, I have read about the more recent ladies. As a teenager, I can recall this magazine was always in my parents' home.

To include Jane Fonda in this list of 100 Women is a crime. In addition to the fact that she is a TRAITOR she couldn't even manage to stay married to one of her many husbands! She does not deserve to be included in this list!

HONORING A TRAITOR This is for all the kids born in the 70's that do not remember this, and didn't have to bear the burden, that our fathers, mothers, and older brothers and sisters had to bear. Jane Fonda is being honored as one of the "100 Women of the Century." Unfortunately, many have forgotten and still countless others have never known how Ms. Fonda betrayed not only the idea of our country but specific men who served and sacrificed during Vietnam. The first part of this is from an F-4E pilot. The pilot's name is Jerry Driscoll, a River Rat. In 1978, the former Commandant of the USAF Survival School was a POW in Ho Lo Prison-the "Hanoi Hilton." Dragged from a stinking cesspit of a cell, cleaned, fed, and dressed in clean PJs, he was ordered to describe for a visiting American "Peace Activist" the "lenient and humane treatment" he'd received. He spat at Ms. Fonda, was clubbed, and dragged away. During the subsequent beating, he fell forward upon the camp Commandant's feet, which sent that officer berserk. In '78, the AF Col. still suffered from double vision (which permanently ended his flying days) from the Vietnamese Col.'s frenzied application of a wooden baton. From 1963-65, Col. Larry Carrigan was in the 47FW/DO (F-4Es). He spent 6-years in the "Hilton"- the first three of which he was "missing in action." His wife lived on faith that he was still alive. His group, too, got the cleaned/fed/clothed routine in preparation for a "peace delegation" visit. They, however, had time and devised a plan to get word to the world that they still survived. Each man secreted a tiny piece of paper, with his SSN on it, in the palm of his hand. When paraded before Ms. Fonda and a cameraman, she walked the line, shaking each man's hand and asking little encouraging snippets like: "Aren't you sorry you bombed babies?" and "Are you grateful for the humane treatment from your benevolent captors?" Believing this HAD to be an act, they each palmed her their sliver of paper. She took them all without missing a beat. At the end of the line and once the camera stopped rolling, to the shocked disbelief of the POWs, she turned to the officer in charge and handed him the little pile of papers. Three men died from the subsequent beatings. Col. Carrigan was almost number four but he survived, which is the only reason we know about, her actions that day. I was a civilian economic development advisor in Vietnam, and was captured by the North Vietnamese communists in South Vietnam in 1968, and held for over 5 years. I spent 27 months in solitary confinement, one year in a cage in Cambodia, and one year in a "black box" in Hanoi. My North Vietnamese captors deliberately poisoned and murdered a female missionary, a nurse in a leprosarium in Ban me Thuot, South Vietnam, whom I buried in the jungle near the Cambodian border. At one time, I was weighing approximately 90 lbs. (My normal weight is 170 lbs.) We were Jane Fonda's "war criminals." When Jane Fonda was in Hanoi, I was asked by the camp communist political officer if I would be willing to meet with Jane Fonda. I said yes, for I would like to tell her about the real treatment we POWs received different from the treatment purported by the North Vietnamese, and parroted by Jane Fonda, as "humane and lenient." Because of this, I spent three days on a rocky floor on my knees with outstretched arms with a large amount of steel placed on my hands, and beaten with a bamboo cane till my arms dipped. I had the opportunity to meet with Jane Fonda for a couple of hours after I was released. I asked her if she would be willing to debate me on TV. She did not answer me. This does not exemplify someone who should be honored as part of "100 Years of Great Women." Lest we forget..."100 years of great women" should never include a traitor whose hands are covered with the blood of so many patriots. There are few things I have strong visceral reactions to, but Hanoi Jane's participation in blatant treason, is one of them. Yes I fought for the rights granted by the constitution for everyone to speak freely just as I have. I do not condone treasonous behaviour on anyone's part during an armed conflict.

I cannot believe that any true American could possibly consider Jane Fonda as an Important Woman of the 20th Century. Anyone who lived through the Viet Nam War Era know what a traitor that woman is. She cause great harm to American POW's with her anti-war rhetoric. Jane Fonda should have been on trial in an American Court and judged the traitor she is. My husband is a VietNam Veteran he loathes Fonda, she is also behind much of the animosity that Veterans recieved when they came home. That woman should be thankful for every day that she is free, she should thank every Veteran's sacrifice for her freedom.
Ms. Walters, at one time, was high on my list of person's I've admired but she has repeatedly shown herself for the fraud she truely is. She is another bottom feeder like Fonda.

No longer silent in the last century, nor passive or confined to kitchens & bedrooms, women today can be in any profession they choose, thanks in great part to these most important women. With a Foreword by Barbara Walters, who needs no introduction & is herself an important woman of the latter part of the century & an Introduction by Myrna Blyth, Editor-in-Chief of the Ladies' Home Journal, this big book is packed with the lives & times of a marvelous host of movers & shakers of the female gender. Whatever you might think of the choices of notable & celebrated women, all make for fascinating reading & had me looking up biographies of many included in this easy-to-read, magazine-formatted book. Makes a great gift! .........................

not a bad synopsis of important women, i don't know if i'ld agree with every entry, though. for a real education on important women, there is a book called 1,000 years, 1,000 people that ranks the 1,000 most important people of the millennium and there are women from history in there i didn't know existed. for what it's worth, though, this book isn't bad.