A provocatively progressive declaration.
The director of communications for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign offers a manifesto for American women seeking empowerment outside patriarchy.
When Clinton lost the election, her setback mirrored the situation for all American women seeking to shatter professional glass ceilings. As Palmieri observes, “the professional world belongs to men, and women are only visitors.” In this follow-up to Dear Madam President (2018), the author creates a modern declaration of independence in 13 sections that draw on feminist history, current events, and her own experiences as a working woman. Each chapter begins with a “proclamation” that rejects "truths" about women created by patriarchy: for example, that only "a limited number of women…can succeed in the world and that the professional advancement of women is a zero-sum game,” or that females must silence themselves in order to be accepted. Palmieri suggests that events and trends like the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, the #MeToo movement, and the unprecedented numbers of women attaining political office in the last two years reveal an increased, vocal desire to “even out the power dynamic between men and women.” Furthermore, the rise to prominence of older, more experienced women disparaged by patriarchy (and also represented by Clinton) can only benefit society. Indeed, Palmieri asserts that midlife has been nothing but productive and “exhilarating” for her. But because American society is governed by the rules of men, women’s continued efforts to better their status have still not achieved the social parity for which such feminist foremothers as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul fought. Inclusivity is at the heart of Palmieri’s "declaration," which she asserts is an attack against patriarchal systems rather than individual men. Inspiring and invigorating, this brief, sharp call to action cries out for continued feminist action in order to create an American society based on “equality for all.”
A provocatively progressive declaration.Pub Date: June 23, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5387-5065-0
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
