Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women [Hardcover]

Christina Hoff-Sommers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1994

Arguing that a small but powerful group has used misinformation campaigns to promote the idea of women as victims of the "patriarchy," an expose of these ideologues maintains that extremists damage the cause of equality.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite its author's claims to the contrary, this book reads like a right-wing, antifeminist call to arms. The feminist movement, announces Sommers, who teaches philosophy at Clark University, has been "stolen" by radical extremists, whom she dubs "gender feminists," whose ranks include Susan Faludi, Catharine MacKinnon, Naomi Wolf and Gloria Steinem. As Sommers would have it, gender feminists hate men, believe women are systematically oppressed by American culture and have waged a highly successful campaign to effect harmful changes in society, from weakening university curricula to censoring dissent to their agenda. She distinguishes them from "equity feminists"--like Sommers herself--who care about women's issues but refuse to acknowledge ideological oppression of women. One of the greatest flaws in her polemic is the simplistic assertion that feminists can be slotted neatly into two camps. Nowhere does she seriously consider why gender feminists are so angry, nor does she offer an agenda of her own except in the vaguest terms. Sommers convincingly accuses some feminist scholars of shoddy research and distorted reporting of statistical data, but she too slings statistics around in an equally suspicious manner, and her prose is so sensationalized that sophisticated readers will take much of it with a grain of salt. First serial to Allure magazine; BOMC and QPB alternates; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this jeremiad, Sommers (philosophy, Clark Univ.) takes out after antimale "gender feminists" who willfully, she contends, distort information on women's status to keep their lock on government and foundation money. Their dark agenda includes silencing sensible "equity feminists," who celebrate women's achievements and who seek, in partnership with men, to make the few minor adjustments needed for perfect equity. Her chief disagreement with "gender feminists" concerns their belief that gender bias is so ingrained that we are frequently unaware of its influence. Unfortunately, Sommers's scornful tone makes her reporting suspect; she mocks the arguments she opposes rather than engaging and refuting them. She is strongest when she criticizes the methodology of some well-known feminist research, but she undermines her credibility when she fails to apply her own standards to studies that suit her position. This book will have as an audience readers who share her politics. [BOMC alternate.]-Cynthia Harrison, Federal Judicial Ctr., Washington, D.C.
--Cynthia Harrison, Federal Judicial Ctr., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671794248
• ISBN-13: 978-0671794248
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #349,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

161 of 182 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Reasoned, June 23, 2000

By 

Jon B. Thomas - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women (Hardcover)

A well written and researched book. The author identifies two basic types of feminists: equity and gender. She seems to believe that the great majority of historical feminist figures prior to the 1960's based their arguments upon equality of economic opportunity, full political liberty, fair and equal treatment under the law, etc. It's difficult for most reasonable people to not support such admirable goals.

However, she sees gender feminists as being of a more radical variety that seem to equate maleness with innate evil. She is very effective at pointing out outright lies, misrepresentations, and simply incredibly sloppy research on the part of some gender feminist writers. She additionally argues that any school of thought based upon demonizing an entire group of people because of a certain physical characteristic must be held to be highly suspect. The holders of these views too often find themselves in close company with racists, xenophobes, etc. Understandably, true believers of this sort do not enjoy their errors pointed out to them--witness the malicious ad hominen attacks of some of the prior reviewers.

Ms. Sommers wrote a very good, thoughtful book. I think society needs feminism, but not of an insanely ideological sexist kind.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, well-reasoned book from an enlightened woman, July 9, 2007

By 

Michael "Michael" (Hamburg, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women (Paperback)

For proof of Mrs Hoff-Sommers assertions in this informative and very readable book one need look no further than the authors of all the previous 1 star reviews. They are the perfect reason why we ought to listen closely to people like Mrs Hoff-Sommers, if only in the hope of saving future generations from being similarly affected. It is clear that few of them have turned a page of this book. True, Equity Feminism is an oxymoron in the class of Marxist Capitalism. But her demonstration that its aims were noble, and vastly different from later Gender Feminism are convincing, as are her reasons why a once noble but long since misguided movement has resulted in our society producing the kind of people it is. Buy and read this interesting book, and don't be put off by the so-called reviewers below who condemn without reading.

63 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Truth is no enemy to compassion and falsehood is no friend", November 23, 1999

By 

Scott Berwitz (Marlboro, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women (Hardcover)

Besides using facts, and debunking the high status of gender feminists like Faludi, Mackinnon, and Wolf with their own words, Sommers shows us how the lies used to disseminate their brand of feminism hurts our society. How can a problem be sufficiently answered if gender feminists, or any group for that matter, muddles the truth with exaggerations. The March of Dimes study that falsely attributes the majority of birth defects to battery is symbolic of the problem. The true problem is that not enough pregnant women are screened for battery. Like Sommers said, the false but sensational claim that battery is the number one cause of birth defects works great for gender feminists. But the true problem--that not enough women are screened for defects--will be unanswered because the truth often does not make headlines. In the few but vicious poor reviews of this book, I have yet to see one that found any errors that undercut Sommers' larger argument--that gender feminists are liars, and use the stigma of the label of "anti-feminist" for political gain and ultimately hurt a mainstream feminism that "never recognized their leadership" Instead of saying that Sommers' book is poor, I would like to have one person show that it is so, rather than just making the assertion. Until then, this reader will continue to regard Sommers as the genius she appears to be.