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The Boundaries of Her Body

This is a history of woman’s rights in America. The scope of this book – and it is a huge and heavy book – is wide and due to the subject matter highly interesting. We should always be concerned with what is slightly more than one half of the population. We should also be concerned that women continue, but to a lesser extent then 60 years ago, to be treated as second class citizens. Yes – second class – why for instance are there so few female politicians and business leaders? Why are woman’s roles in religion minimal – particularly in the Catholic Church and Islam?

The author explores the woman’s rights movement mostly from a legal perspective and for the most part in the U.S. There are times when the book does bog down in legal terms and there are a tremendous amount of footnotes. But overall there are many rewards.

The author highlights that many rights for women were established during the 1960’s – equal employment opportunities, equal rights and of course the legalization of abortion (Roe vs. Wade). I do feel, and the author mentions it - that the employment and educational opportunities offered to women during World War II, and the Roosevelt era in general, was beneficial for the advancement of women. There were many positive female role models during the Roosevelt period (Eleanor, Frances Perkins was Labour minister, Amelia Earhart, Margaret Bourke-White…)

Of course after the war there were many advances in birth control with women beginning to take reproductive control of their bodies. Sexuality became more and more removed from pregnancy. The openness in sexuality that evolved from 1950 onwards is hardly mentioned. Terms that are in common use today were taboo in 1950. Kinsey, Master and Johnson are hardly noted in this book. The focus is on legal rights.

Abortion is examined in great detail and ever since its’ ‘legalization’ there has been an ever increasing crusade (deliberate word) by anti-abortionists to diminish abortion rights. It should also be pointed out that there are many women involved in this anti-abortion crusade. They have whittled away – legally asking for 24 hour wait period for the abortion to proceed, abortion is not available under Medicaid, abortion for minors requires parental consent in some states. There are also (rabid) anti-abortion demonstrations in front of abortion clinics. Doctors and workers in abortion clinics can face daily harassment and some have been murdered. So even though abortion is legal – in many states women (and younger women especially) face a continuing onslaught of bureaucratic red tape and physical and psychological harassment.

The anti-abortion crusaders have upped the anti and become increasingly sophisticated in using science. They do not refer to the ‘fetus’ but to an ‘unborn child’.

Abortion and a woman’s right to control her body suffered even more under the conservative Bush administration of 2000-08. Various forms of contraceptive pills were vetoed.

Pregnancy laws are also examined. Pregnancy leave in the U.S. seems to be far less regulated than in other developed countries. Sexual harassment also lags behind. In Canada, where I live, our company passed strict sexual harassment guidelines in the early 1990’s. Harassment exists from the person receiving the harassment. In other words, if the victim perceives it as harassment, then it is such. The onus is placed on management to end it (not that it happens in all cases).

What is most frightening is rape. The statistics are only one aspect of this serious problem – think of the damage done to a woman and all her future relationships. Not all rapes are reported, which can only add to these horrendous figures.

During the Bush administration (once again) national legislation of ‘Violence Against Women’ was not passed. The Supreme Court could be regressing and putting ‘state’s rights’ above the national agenda.

Perhaps Europe has now surpassed the U.S. in the rights of women. This is an issue which was not examined in the book. For sure, women in Europe (and Canada for that matter) have far greater access to abortion and contraception than in many U.S. states. Liberalization and woman’s rights generally go hand-in-hand. Since the Reagan era there has been an increasingly anti-liberal agenda in the U.S.

This book has a broad spectrum of issues – such as adolescence and the conflicts this creates in young girl-woman. The wide and ever-increasing range of fertility prospects is also explored (it also prompted me to re-read Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’).