Customer Reviews

Not One of the Boys: Living Life as a Feminist

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Brenda Feigen's Not One of the Boys does what few memoirs do. It shows that all journeys must come full circle. Starting with her own education at Harvard Law School and the discrimination she bore there, she ends her pages by inviting the daughters of the future to join her in the on-going stuggle for feminist rights. Writing in prose that is never preachy or pretentious, Feigen, who helped establish Ms magazine, did bidding for the ACLU, assured the passage of the ERA, and gave Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Gloria Steinem the privilege of working with her, asks the reader to retrace her steps, which broke ground for all women every time she put her foot down. This book is a terrific read and a wonderful gift to those who still believe differences can be made by people who have the courage to make them. Brenda Feigen shows readers she has the stuff.

Brenda Feigen gives us an inside look at how it really was ... and she's not afraid to tell the truth about her treatment in Hollywood - horrifying and fascinating at the same time ... and at William Morris. The picture of Ruth Bader Ginsberg gave hope to this reader that the struggle is continuing in high places. I loved all the inside information about the startup of Ms Magazine and the complete legal picture of the progress of women in the last quarter of the 20th century. Read it for the gossip alone.

I loved this brave book. It is wonderful to read a chronicle of the times we grew up in. It read like a history of my life as a feminist, except that I was involved from the sidelines and Brenda Feigen was actually there, not only moving it along but making it up as she went along. Her observations on the future of feminism are worth the price of the whole book. We were, and I trust are, fortunate to have her fighting for us.

Not One of the Boys is satisfying on so many levels, as a biography, as a snapshot of the Women's Movement from its inception through the 1990s and as a discussion of how laws affect women. Brenda Feigen writes honestly, clearly and beautifully about her own experiences, what she sees as the failures of current feminism, theoretical differences between feminists and much, much more. I was completely enthralled by this book. Ms. Feigen very clearly conveys the excitement of the 1970s, the legal victories, the setbacks and her own emotions when facing a level of sexism that seems almost unimaginable today, although it took place less than 40 years ago. But this book is very personal, too, as she speaks about her marriage and other experiences that have shaped her perceptions and illustrate quite clearly the old saying 'the personal is political.' I could go on and on about how terrific this book is, how smart, how inspiring and how touching. Yet the real point is that I think that there's something in it for everyone, and I very highly recommend it. There's a great deal to be learned from this book and I hope that many, many other women and men explore it.

An anonymous American leader finally steps forward and reveals everything. Every female law student should read this. Brenda Feigen's story quickly reminded me of one thing: There is nothing so real as the impossible.

If you have been more or less aware of the evolution of the women's movement since the late 1960s, this book is an engrossing and powerful reminder of how much things have changed and of how much courage it took for people like Brenda Feigen to step up, get to work, and move some mountains. If that evolution is not familiar to you, this book is a lively and inspiring history lesson.

It also is simply a fascinating story of one person's remarkably multi-faceted personal path and career in the Midwest, East Coast, and West Coast. Feigen writes with clarity and passion, while offering consistently sensible insights about what needed to be done to advance gender equality in America over the past few decades, and about what still remains to be done.