The RIGHT WOMEN: A Journey Through the Heart of Conservative America [Hardcover]

Elinor Burkett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1998

From a fearless and forthright journalist comes this lively, often surprising, always even-handed exploration of the growing "anti-feminism" movement--based on more than 100 interviews with conservative women Author publicity. Radio phone interviews. Online publicity. .

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sharpen your pencils, please, and check off all that apply: conservative American women (a) favor school prayer; (b) are anti-abortion; (c) teach their children the pledge of allegiance; (d) work only in the home; (e) spurn the political and cultural advances made by feminists. If you checked any of these, The Right Women should blow your assurance out of the water.

After crisscrossing America to research this often surprising, intriguing book, avowed feminist Elinor Burkett found it impossible to pigeonhole conservative women. In Washington, young Republican "cigar and martini bimbos" help gut welfare and affirmative action; in Montana, a militia supporter home schools her kids; around the country, "Kitchen Militia" anarchists use fax and phone to expose government corruption and women entrepreneurs plot ways to deep-six onerous regulations. The only thing uniting these women is a determination to radically curb or dismantle present-day American government. Ironically, many of these conservatives wield power because of the feminist movement they disdain, but use it to crush liberal stepping stones that favor government support for women's rights. Although Burkett skims over complexities--suggesting, for example, that women have pretty much achieved parity with men--her book paves the way for true dialogue. --Francesca Coltrera

From Library Journal

A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, praised for her AIDS study, The Gravest Show on Earth (LJ 9/1/95), Burkett examines the antifeminist movement among conservative women from college campuses to Capitol Hill.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (March 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684833085
• ISBN-13: 978-0684833088
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,651,618 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must read, April 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Right Women: A Journey Through the Heart of Conservative America (Paperback)

As I opened this book, I was prepared to read a few hundred pages worth of insults geared towards conservative, religious, or otherwise "non feminist" women. I was pleasantly surprised with the fairness and respect that Burkett afforded her subjects.

My only complaint is that the section on religious women in America focused too heavily on "fundamentalist" Christians. An expanded chapter on American Muslims, as well as a chapter on Orthodox Jewish women would have been much more interesting and representative.

It may be asking too much, but it would be nice to see this book, or sections of it, included in women's studies classes. The voice of the conservative woman is too often dismissed, and Burkett's book is a much needed forum.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars always RIGHT, May 23, 2002

By 

"janelw" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Right Women: A Journey Through the Heart of Conservative America (Paperback)

Elinor Burkett makes a good attempt to potray conservative women objectively, and while she doesn't always succeed, she's fairly honest about her own biases. Burkett, a liberal feminist, is fairly accepting of the political differences between the conservatives and herself, although at times she can be condescending, as if it's some great revelation that they aren't mindless robots brainwashed by the patriarchy. Also, Burkett seems to think many of the women she interviews are hypocritical since they criticize feminism but also have benefitted from it, when most of their criticism is for the modern radical feminism that has alienated them. Still, this book fills a glaring void, since most books in the women's studies section are about the importance of feminism to women rather than about those women who have no use for it. In addition, it's a fun read I'd recommend to liberals and conservatives alike.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Decent, Needs an Update, November 5, 2006

By 

Michele J. Samuelson (Austin, TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Right Women: A Journey Through the Heart of Conservative America (Paperback)

I'm a conservative woman from Texas, and while I didn't find women like me in the pages of Burkett's book (conservative women activists who break a lot of assumptions about conservatives in general aren't really fodder for this sort of book), I think it was a fair examination of conservative women. It's a good read if you're looking to find something that doesn't just refer to conservative women as "the enemy," which is what radical Third Wave feminists would have you believe we are. In reality, conservative women are the heartbeat of middle America - and we vote.

I recommend this to most people who find the term "conservative women" to be an oxymoron, and to all people who find it repugnant.