New York: During the 2008 elections, women were major contenders for the highest offices in the country on both sides of the political aisle. Maria Shriver’s recent report declared “the poll results reveal a truce in the battle of the sexes” in regard to work and family issues. And this September, we learned that despite this recession, only 7% of women are unemployed compared to 9.6% of men.
Yet these headlines paint a portrait of false progress when women make up 45.5% of the labor force and hold 60% of masters’ degrees, but collect 38% of the pay. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women in full-time work saw their annual earnings fall at twice the pace of men in the early stages of the recession. Furthermore, the difference between men’s and women’s salaries has widened after improving during the last 25 years. In 2005 women earned 81% as much as men on average, but by the end of 2008, it was back to 79.9 %.
In Barbara J. Berg, Ph.D.’s new book, the long time women’s studies historian and author explains society’s current widespread acceptance of sexism in some of its most traditional yet insidious forms. Sexism in America: Alive, Well, and Ruining our Future is a rapid-fire tour through the last two women’s movements in the United States, onto an analysis of popular culture’s perpetuation of sexism in the 21st century. Berg’s examination of the backsliding that has taken place over the last 15 years is all the more appalling for the long struggles of social activists who came before.
Sexism in America reveals both the cultural and structural sexism that prevails despite previous victories, taking readers through a comprehensive exposé of the battles women still face in order to achieve true equity. Talk with Barbara Berg about:
• The incredible disparities in cost of women’s health insurance versus men’s, the revamped war on reproductive freedom, and why the US is considered 31st in world gender equity
• The rise of infant mortality rates, teen pregnancy, heart disease and diabetes in women, as well as sexually transmitted infections among adolescent girls
• The rampant workplace discrimination that women, especially mothers face, and the wage gap between men & women that begins immediately after college and grows over time
• The pervasive sexism in popular culture beginning with male characters dominating 85% of speaking parts in G-rated children’s movies to increasingly violent and accessible internet pornography
# # #
Barbara J. Berg is the author of The Crisis of the Working Mother, Nothing to Cry About, and The Remembered Gate: Origins of American Feminism. She has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Yale Medical School, Columbia University’s Physicians & Surgeons, and has written for the Baltimore Sun, Ladies’ Home Journal, Ms., the New York Times Magazine, Parents, the Washington Post, and Working Woman. She is a nationwide lecturer who has appeared on the CBS Morning Show, CNN and Oprah. She lives in New York City with her husband.
For a review copy or PDF of Sexism in America, or to schedule an interview with the author, email yana@representinc.com
Women’s Studies/Social Science
$24.95
ISBN: 978-1-55652.776-0
384 pages, 6 x 9
September 2009
Lawrence Hill Books/Chicago Review Press
Yet these headlines paint a portrait of false progress when women make up 45.5% of the labor force and hold 60% of masters’ degrees, but collect 38% of the pay. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women in full-time work saw their annual earnings fall at twice the pace of men in the early stages of the recession. Furthermore, the difference between men’s and women’s salaries has widened after improving during the last 25 years. In 2005 women earned 81% as much as men on average, but by the end of 2008, it was back to 79.9 %.
In Barbara J. Berg, Ph.D.’s new book, the long time women’s studies historian and author explains society’s current widespread acceptance of sexism in some of its most traditional yet insidious forms. Sexism in America: Alive, Well, and Ruining our Future is a rapid-fire tour through the last two women’s movements in the United States, onto an analysis of popular culture’s perpetuation of sexism in the 21st century. Berg’s examination of the backsliding that has taken place over the last 15 years is all the more appalling for the long struggles of social activists who came before.
Sexism in America reveals both the cultural and structural sexism that prevails despite previous victories, taking readers through a comprehensive exposé of the battles women still face in order to achieve true equity. Talk with Barbara Berg about:
• The incredible disparities in cost of women’s health insurance versus men’s, the revamped war on reproductive freedom, and why the US is considered 31st in world gender equity
• The rise of infant mortality rates, teen pregnancy, heart disease and diabetes in women, as well as sexually transmitted infections among adolescent girls
• The rampant workplace discrimination that women, especially mothers face, and the wage gap between men & women that begins immediately after college and grows over time
• The pervasive sexism in popular culture beginning with male characters dominating 85% of speaking parts in G-rated children’s movies to increasingly violent and accessible internet pornography
# # #
Barbara J. Berg is the author of The Crisis of the Working Mother, Nothing to Cry About, and The Remembered Gate: Origins of American Feminism. She has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Yale Medical School, Columbia University’s Physicians & Surgeons, and has written for the Baltimore Sun, Ladies’ Home Journal, Ms., the New York Times Magazine, Parents, the Washington Post, and Working Woman. She is a nationwide lecturer who has appeared on the CBS Morning Show, CNN and Oprah. She lives in New York City with her husband.
For a review copy or PDF of Sexism in America, or to schedule an interview with the author, email yana@representinc.com
Women’s Studies/Social Science
$24.95
ISBN: 978-1-55652.776-0
384 pages, 6 x 9
September 2009
Lawrence Hill Books/Chicago Review Press