Chosen by Glamour magazine as a Woman of the Year in 2008, Nujood of Yemen has become an international hero for her astonishingly brave resistance to child marriage. Sold off by her impoverished family at the age of 10, continually raped by her husband before she even reached puberty, Nujood found the courage to run away, and with the help of an activist lawyer, sympathetic judges, and the international press, she divorced her husband and returned home. Her clear, first-person narrative, translated from the French and written with Minoui, is spellbinding: the horror of her parents’ betrayal and her mother-in-law’s connivance, the “grown-ups” who send the child from classroom and toys to nightmare abuse. She never denies the poverty that drives her parents and oppresses her brothers, even as she reveals their cruelty. Unlike her passive mother, she is an activist, thrilled to return to school, determined to save others, including her little sister. True to the child’s viewpoint, the “grown-up” cruelty is devastating. Readers will find it incredible that such unbelievable abuse and such courageous resistance are happening now

http://www.amazon.com/Am-Nujood-Age-10-Divorced/dp/0307589676/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1279961465&sr=1-1

Readers with an eye on European politics will recognize Ali as the Somali-born member of the Dutch parliament who faced death threats after collaborating on a film about domestic violence against Muslim women with controversial director Theo van Gogh (who was himself assassinated). Even before then, her attacks on Islamic culture as "brutal, bigoted, [and] fixated on controlling women" had generated much controversy. In this suspenseful account of her life and her internal struggle with her Muslim faith, she discusses how these views were shaped by her experiences amid the political chaos of Somalia and other African nations, where she was subjected to genital mutilation and later forced into an unwanted marriage. While in transit to her husband in Canada, she decided to seek asylum in the Netherlands, where she marveled at the polite policemen and government bureaucrats. Ali is up-front about having lied about her background in order to obtain her citizenship, which led to further controversy in early 2006, when an immigration official sought to deport her and triggered the collapse of the Dutch coalition government. Apart from feelings of guilt over van Gogh's death, her voice is forceful and unbowed—like Irshad Manji, she delivers a powerful feminist critique of Islam informed by a genuine understanding of the religion.

http://www.amazon.com/Infidel-Ayaan-Hirsi-Ali/dp/0743289692/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270760590&sr=8-1

Sociologist Joffe elaborates on the violence, stigmatization and legal actions perpetrated against those providing, receiving or even tangentially involved with abortion, despite the protections due under Roe v. Wade. Joffe elucidates the human component of this contentious issue through exploring the hardships of medical professionals and health-care administrators, yet the author's near apotheosis of abortion providers weakens the credibility of her arguments. Furthermore, while criticisms of flamboyantly reactionary rhetoric might be warranted, at times Joffe's own language, such as references to women's health clinics as ground zero in the abortion wars, can seem similarly overwrought. Joffe is at her best taking a more nuanced approach to the issue, as when she discusses her interviews with one nurse who considers herself prochoice but refuses to take part in the medical procedure. While the book provides ample confirmation of damaging actions taken by the movement against abortion providers and receivers, it fails to critically examine prolife ideology or substantiate claims that antiabortion activists have distract[ed] from fully identifying an appropriate sexual and reproductive agenda

http://www.amazon.com/Dispatches-Abortion-Wars-Fanaticism-Patients/dp/0807035025/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270760177&sr=1-2

Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation documents a monumental change in Jewish life as eighteen lesbian rabbis reflect on their experiences as trailblazers in Judaism's journey into an increasingly multicultural world. In frank and revealing essays, the contributors discuss their decisions to become rabbis and describe their experiences both at seminaries and in their rabbinical positions. They also reflect on the dilemma whether to conceal or reveal their sexual identities to their congregants and superiors, or to serve specifically gay and lesbian congregations. The contributors consider the tensions between lesbian identity and Jewish identity, and inquire whether there are particularly "lesbian" readings of traditional texts. These essays also ask how the languge of Jewish tradition touches the lives of lesbians and how lesbianism challenges traditional notions of the Jewish family.

http://www.amazon.com/Lesbian-Rabbis-Generation-Rebecca-Alpert/dp/0813529166/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270759763&sr=1-1

Renowned trailblazing Anglican priest Joy Carroll Wallis, inspiration for the BBC series Vicar of Dibley, recounts her spiritual and professional path and the setbacks and triumphs she encountered. She discusses with humor and compassion what it is like to be a leader in women's rights and the rights of the poor, as well as her work with her husband, prominent religious leader and Sojourners figure Jim Wallis.

http://www.amazon.com/Woman-Behind-Collar-Pioneering-Episcopal/dp/0824522656/ref=tag_dpp_lp_edpp_ttl_in

Starred Review. New York Times columnist Kristof and his wife, WuDunn, a former Times reporter, make a brilliantly argued case for investing in the health and autonomy of women worldwide. More girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century, they write, detailing the rampant gendercide in the developing world, particularly in India and Pakistan. Far from merely making moral appeals, the authors posit that it is impossible for countries to climb out of poverty if only a fraction of women (9% in Pakistan, for example) participate in the labor force. China's meteoric rise was due to women's economic empowerment: 80% of the factory workers in the Guangdong province are female; six of the 10 richest self-made women in the world are Chinese. The authors reveal local women to be the most effective change agents: The best role for Americans... isn't holding the microphone at the front of the rally but writing the checks, an assertion they contradict in their unnecessary profiles of American volunteers finding compensations for the lack of shopping malls and Netflix movies in making a difference abroad.

http://www.amazon.com/Half-Sky-Oppression-Opportunity-Worldwide/dp/0307267148/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270758258&sr=8-1-catcorr

Across much of the world today, Muslim women of all ages are increasingly turning to wearing the veil. Is this trend a sign of rising piety or a way of asserting Muslim pride? And does the veil really provide women freedom from sexual harassment? Written in the form of letters addressing all those interested in this issue, Questioning the Veil examines the inconsistent and inadequate reasons given for the veil, and points to the dangers and limitations of this highly questionable cultural practice. Marnia Lazreg, a preeminent authority in Middle East women's studies, combines her own experiences growing up in a Muslim family in Algeria with interviews and the real-life stories of other Muslim women to produce this nuanced argument for doing away with the veil.

Lazreg stresses that the veil is not included in the five pillars of Islam, asks whether piety sufficiently justifies veiling, explores the adverse psychological effects of the practice on the wearer and those around her, and pays special attention to the negative impact of veiling for young girls. Lazreg's provocative findings indicate that far from being spontaneous, the trend toward wearing the veil has been driven by an organized and growing campaign that includes literature, DVDs, YouTube videos, and courses designed by some Muslim men to teach women about their presumed rights under the veil.

An incisive mix of the personal and political, supported by meticulous research, Questioning the Veil will compel all readers to reconsider their views of this controversial and sensitive topic.

http://www.amazon.com/Questioning-Veil-Letters-Muslim-Women/dp/0691138184/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253814380&sr=1-1

A DIFFERENT SHADE OF BLUE: HOW WOMEN CHANGED THE FACE OF POLICE WORK by Adam Eisenberg: court commissioner in Seattle Municipal Court and former contributor to The Los Angeles Times chronicles the history of the Seattle police force starting in 1912 along with comments from fifty policewoman; among the subjects are affirmative action, physical training, and survival strategies; such as Marilyn McLaughlin's: A lot of it is attitude...how you walk into the room. --Foreword Magazine, July 2009

As a long-time female police officer who was ultimately one of two female pioneers ever hired, Eisenberg's A Different Shade of Blue definitely struck a chord. I had to keep checking the cover to ensure this book wasn't written by a female officer herself! His in-depth, gritty, and thorough look into the lives of female police officers, coupled with his own background in law enforcement, brings the reader along to shatter the glass ceiling. As a crime writer myself who is currently working on a memoir about my own life as a female police officer, I finished the last page of A Different Shade of Blue feeling somewhat defeated--Eisenberg essentially wrote my memoir for me. Quite simply, he nailed it! A fascinating read! --Stacy Dittrich, former detective, author of Murder Behind the Badge: True Stories of Cops Who Kill and numerous other books, and law enforcement media consultant as seen on CNN, Fox, and E! True Hollywood

Product Description
Seattle is the perfect backdrop to see the full history of women in uniform since it was one of the first cities to hire women in 1912, the first to promote a female to captain in 1946, and one of the first to put women on the street as equal beat cops in 1975. Told through the voices of 50 women on the Seattle Police Department and covers the challenges of sexism, size differences, harassment, crooks embarrassed to be caught by a woman, going undercover to capture an illegal abortionist in the days before Roe v. Wade, moving up the chain of command, why affirmative action isn t such a good idea, how there wasn't a feeling of camaraderie among the women hired.

Women have always been healers, and medicine has always been an arena of struggle between female practitioners and male professionals. This pamphlet explores two important phases in the male takeover of health care: the suppression of witches in medieval Europe and the rise of the male medical profession in the United States. The authors conclude that despite efforts to exclude them, the resurgence of women as healers should be a long-range goal of the women's movement.

This dandy little booklet quickly and concisely explains why it is that 93% of the doctors in this country are men even though women make up 70% of all healthcare workers. If you assumed that men are the doctors because they were the pioneers of the healing arts, then this booklet will open your eyes. Barbara Ehrenrich and Deirdre English show how, for reasons of class politics, women's suppression and naked greed, wealthy men discredited, persecuted and outright killed the wisewomen healers, leaving themselves to be the sole practitioners of their "scientific" medicine. The information presented here gives a whole new perspective to medical history and points to some of the causes underlying our current healthcare mess.

The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics

Accomplished feminist social theorist and activist Eisler follows up her 1987 international bestseller The Chalice and the Blade with an inquiry into the nature and causes of "the real wealth of nations" in a contrarian work of grand economic theory. She begins with her original thesis: that we inherit and inhabit a personal and social world that masculinity has built by consistently devaluing and subordinating the feminine. Pointing out the socially and ecologically destructive flaws inherent in both capitalist and socialist economies, she then asserts that our emerging global society needs a new story of what human nature and economics are and can be. For Eisler, economies are social inventions imbedded in larger social systems. She offers a clearly written and compelling account of how the masculine "dominator" mentality brought us to our present juncture, and how a feminine "partnership" mentality can help us redefine key concepts such as "value" and "needs." Citing the most recent economic data and offering numerous relevant examples of places where efforts to practice a caring economics have succeeded both in preindustrial and modern societies, such as the Nordic nations, the book is ambitious in breadth, depth and scope. Eisler delivers another impressive work that's remarkably well referenced, well argued, insightful and hopeful.