Catfight: Women and Competition - Hardcover

Tanenbaum, Leora

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 158322520X ISBN 13: 9781583225202

Publisher: Seven Stories Press,U.S., 2002

Synopsis

Catfight: Women and Competition is Leora Tanenbaum's dissection of the gender war waged among women. Tanenbaum meticulously analyzes the roots of destructive competitiveness among women, asserting that "catfights" thrive because, despite women's many gains, American women are conditioned to regard each other as adversaries rather than allies. She investigates the arenas-from diets to dating, from the boardroom to the delivery room- in which American women are apt to compare their lives with the lives of others in a tacit contest over who is the "better" woman, a contest in which no one wins.
Throughout Catfight, Leora Tanenbaum puts her own life experiences under the lens of scrutiny. As a writer, a friend, a mother, a wife, and a daughter, she analyzes her own insecurities and background and how these influence her relations with other women. With the sociologist's perspective of a Barbara Ehrenreich and the feminist outrage of a Gloria Steinem, Tanenbaum demythologizes the age-old "catfight."

About this title

Review:

"An eye-opening book." -- Redbook Magazine

An eye-opening book. --Redbook Magazine

"An eye-opening book."--Redbook Magazine

"Tanenbaum [has made a] bold step into the literary world to start a bold discussion."--New York Newsday

"Catfight is an incisive exploration of a long-taboo subject-how and why women sabotage one another."--Gail Sheehy, author of New Passages and Hillary's Choice

Tanenbaum [has made a] bold step into the literary world to start a bold discussion. --New York Newsday"

An eye-opening book. --Redbook Magazine"

Catfight is an incisive exploration of a long-taboo subject-how and why women sabotage one another. --Gail Sheehy, author of New Passages and Hillary's Choice"

Synopsis:

Why Are Women More Bitchier Than Men? From the critically acclaimed and highly influential author of Slut! comes this meticulously researched investigation into the roots of the age-old catfight. From the classroom to the boardroom to the delivery room, Tanenbaum finds an unforgiving, destructive competitiveness among women that doesn't exist among men in our male-dominated culture. Here, she systematically demythologises this controversial subject by showing this behaviour to be an outgrowth of several different forms of historical sexism, including outdated ideals of femininity and gender/power imbalances of the workplace. In contrast, she also finds two major examples from history where women have successfully worked together for social and legal change: suffrage and sports. Touched with the personal perspective of her own role in life as a mother, writer, wife and daughter, the sociologist's perspective of Barbara Ehrenreich and the feminist's outrage of Gloria Steinem, this is a succinct and long-overdue critique of the social values that still plague women to this day.

About this edition

• Publisher: Seven Stories Press,U.S.
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 158322520X
• ISBN 13: 9781583225202
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288