Feminism Is Not the Story of My Life

Emory professor Fox-Genovese (Feminism Without Illusions) here voices her concern that the feminist movement is failing to address the most pressing needs of contemporary American women. A majority of women today, she asserts, consequently do not see feminism as relevant to their lives. Feminism has two primary shortcomings, as Fox-Genovese sees it: the movement's platform tends to advance the interests of economically privileged women, ignoring the poor; and it seeks to devalue maternal bonds that many women continue to see as central to their identities. The author argues that feminist indifference to the unique concerns of women as mothers has made motherhood an increasingly difficult role for women to assume. But by her own admission, changing economic circumstances and conservative philosophies about ``family values'' are equally to blame for the tensions women feel about their roles today. Fox-Genovese never examines feminist social agendas in any detail; instead, she mounts her attack on feminism by citing sound bite-length statements issued along the movement's more radical fringes and then dismissing them as absurd. This rambling, loosely focused meditation is often unclear and, as a treatise on the failings of feminism, remains unconvincing. (Jan.)