Word: englisher
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Ehrenreich and English had to cover a lot of ground to get from the domestic and industrious woman of the pre-industrial era in England and America to the Cosmopolitan woman of the 1970s. Although they have a flair for interesting detail, they don't offer enough rigorous evidence to qualify as scholarly literature. Tending to linger over obvious cases of misguided science like the gory methods doctors used in the 19th century to 'cure' their patients or the moral weaknesses of contemporary pop psychology, the authors gloss over some of the more complex issues...
...general, well supported. But by arguing that the medical profession saw women as inherently ill in the 19th century or as psychologically pathological in the 20th, they seem to cavalierly attribute malicious motives to doctors, suggesting they are the vanguard of a sexist society. These doctors, Ehrenreich and English contend, seek out rebelliousness among women and squelch it by spiriting away the sick patient before she can express her protest. The doctors "betrayed the trust" innocent women placed in them. By focusing on the theories and treatments the doctors invented to keep women in their place, the authors evade...
...rationalist theory, put forth by early suffragists as well as modern feminists such as Betty Friedan, claims that rationality dictates even the life of the family, and will eventually produce a world in which women would have the same opportunities and responsibilities as men. Ehrenreich and English contend that both of these theories fail to provide a viable role for women. This failure resulted in a cult of professionalism; women became dependent on experts who could explain why they felt unfulfilled...
...theoretical framework of the first chapter is simplistic, it's nothing compared to the radical vision in the last. Dismissing the rationalist/romanticist alternatives as idealistically and practically bankrupt, Ehrenreich and English think women are floundering without a satisfying social role. They predictably look back to the period they romanticized--pre-industrial society, a time when the authors say women had productive and meaningful lives. Making an unconvincing connection, the authors try to tie together the pre-industrial unity of "caring with craft," the "promise of a collective strength and knowledge" which they suddenly find in industrialized society, and "the impulses...
...beginning and at the end of the book. By and large, For Her Own Good is easy and entertaining to read right down to the footnotes. Crusading women are eminently quotable. Obsolete medical practices with an "inherent drift toward homicide" make for interesting, if lurid reading. Ehrenreich and English even render the home economics movement bearable...