Task Force on Gender and Cultural Change - Archive
Additional works from previous bibliographies: "Exploring
the Roots of Violence Against Women and Nonhuman Animals"
The Creation of Patriarchy/Gerda Lerner (Oxford University Press), 1986.
An examination of early androcentric social systems and the commodification
of women through male control of female sexual and reproductive capacity;
see, especially, chapters on The Woman Slave, The Wife and the Concubine,
and Veiling the Woman.
Gender Violence: A Development and Human Rights Issue/Charlotte Bunch
and Roxanna Carrillo (Center for Women's Global Leadership, New Brunswick,
NJ), 1991. "No government determines its policies toward other countries
on the basis of their treatment of women...When the abuse of women is recognized,
it is called inevitable or so pervasive that consideration of it is futile."
The War Against Women/Marilyn French (Ballantine Books), 1992. An
overview of systemic and institutional forms of discrimination, cultural
debasement, threats and crimes against women still existing throughout much
of the world.
Women and Sacrifice: Male Narcissism and the Psychology of Religion/William
Beers (Wayne State University Press), 1992. Male violence expressed in religious
blood sacrifice rituals (symbolic and actual) and their use in exclusion
and control of women. Examples drawn from Melanesia and the American Episcopal
Church (see Chapters 12-14).
Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women/Alice
Walker and Pratibha Parmar (Harcourt Brace & Co.), 1993. Mutilation
and terrorization of women; account of a film documentary on atrocities
affecting one hundred million women.
Overcoming Violence Against Women and Girls: The International Campaign
to Eradicate a Worldwide Problem/Michael L. Penn and Rahel Nardos (Rowman
& Littlefield), 2003 (Chapters 2-4 cover a range of practices used for
male domination and control of women, including culturally sanctioned gender
violence).
Animal Liberation/Peter Singer (Harper Collins), 2002. A classic
(first published 1975) in animal ethics, including "Down on the Factory
Farm" dealing with confinement, mutilation, and other aspects of human
exploitation of nonhuman animals.
Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture/Jeremy Rifkin
(Plume), 1993 (especially, Part 5-Cattle and the Global Environmental Crisis).
Briefing for a Descent into Hell/Doris Lessing (Vintage Books), 1981.
Distinguished British writer's allegory of human society where slaughter
of the first of the "shining milk-white" cattle grazing on the
plain inaugurates a bloody feast. "I saw that they were roasting hunks
of meat on the fire, and singing and shrieking and laughing as they did
so... And I fell on the meat with the rest."
A Mother's Tale by James Agee, originally published 1952, in The
Collected Short Prose of James Agee (Houghton Mifflin, 1968) and available
on the Internet. A great writer's unforgettable animal story told by a mother-cow.
"So long as Man holds dominion over us," she said..."Bear
no young."
Also, of interest: The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory
of the Practice of Fresh-Eating/Howard Williams (University of Illinois
Press), 2003 (reprint of 1883 edition with later additions). Contrasts those
of "sound health" (a vegetarian diet of legumes and other plant
foods) with those "full of a thousand disorders" and other topics
of humane and healthful living.
Additional works from the bibliography "Gender and Cultural Change.".
Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World/Ronald
Inglehart and Pippa Norris (Cambridge University Press), 2003. Contribution
in the field of gender sociology, concluding: "Moving further toward
achieving equality for women - in the home and family, in the workplace,
and in positions of political power - remains one of the most important
challenges facing governments in the twenty-first century."
Sisterhood is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium/Robin
Morgan, ed. (Washington Square Press), 2003. [Also, Sisterhood is Global:
The International Women's Movement Anthology/Robin Morgan, ed. (Anchor Books),
1984]. Important reference works on issues affecting women throughout the
world.
Islam: Opposing Viewpoints/Jennifer A. Hurley, Ed. (Greenhaven Press),
2001. Articles by Mahjabeen Islam-Husain and Ibn Warraq address the question
whether Islam is "profoundly anti-woman" or if it is a matter
of "incorrect information transmitted by mullahs who have reduced women
to pathetic receptacles of procreation."
Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction/Kim Knott (Oxford University
Press), 1998. Chapter "Challenges to Hinduism: Women and Dalits"
discusses caste and gender issues, and traditional religious views as "The
birth of a girl, grant it elsewhere. Here grant a son."
Coming into Being: Artifacts and Texts in the Evolution of Consciousness/
William Irwin Thompson (St. Martin's Press), 1996. An imaginative look at
human cultural history leading up to the current "dying patriarchy"
and its religion ("an evolutionary backwater of violence and sullen
dissolution") with the author's arguments in favor of a "new planetary
culture."
Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality and the Catholic
Church/Uta Ranke-Heinemann translated by Peter Heinegg (Doubleday),
1990. Catholic scholar discusses the ways the hierarchical male church has
degraded women and promoted celibacy or indiscriminate breeding in place
of egalitarian marriage and responsible parenthood.
Eve: The History of an Idea/John A. Phillips (Harper & Row),
1984. Discussion of the Eve myth in Judaism, Christianity and Islam; its
connection to misogyny and use as a justification for scapegoating of women.
The Arab Mind/Raphael Patai (Charles Scribner's Sons), rev. ed.,
1983. Processes of enculturation in the Arab world, including highly gendered
child rearing and shame associated with female births, that perpetuate systems
of male hierarchy and female subordination.
Additional works from the bibliographies of 2001 and 2002:
Barbara Jordan: American Hero/Mary Beth Rogers (Bantam Books, New York),
1998. Biography of an extraordinary leader who faced both sexism and racism.
When Violence Begins at Home: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding
and Ending Domestic Abuse/ K. J. Wilson, Ed.D. (Hunter House,
Alameda, CA), 1997. Compassion and practical information; 50 pages of resources.
Understanding Violence Against Women/Nancy A. Crowell and Ann W.
Burgess, eds. (National Academy Press, Washington, D. C.), 1996. Report
of the Panel on Research on Violence Against Women, established by the National
Research Council in 1995.
Women, Abuse, and the Bible: How Scripture Can Be Used to Hurt or to
Heal/Catherine Clark Kroeger and James R. Beck, eds. (Baker Books),
1996. Controls on women's lives in Christian culture, effect of "received
knowledge" supplied by "all-knowing external authorities,"
sexual and marriage hierarchies and violence against women, and other topics.
Demanding Accountability: The Global Campaign and Vienna Tribunal for
Women's Human Rights/Charlotte Bunch and Niamh Reilly (Center for Women's
Global Leadership with UNIFEM, New York), 1994.
With Liberty and Justice for All: Women's Human Rights in the United
States /Mallika Dutt (Center for Women's Global Leadership, New Brunswick,
NJ), 1994.
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years/Sarah and A.
Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth (Kodansha International, New York),
1993. At ages 103 and 101, the irrepressible Delanys give their insights
on being "on the bottom" of American society.
May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of
India/Elisabeth Bumiller (Random House, New York), 1990. A sympathetic
look at the complex and tragic lives of the 400 million (now 500 million)
women and girls of India.
Letters from a War Zone: Writings 1976-1989/Andrea Dworkin (E. P.
Dutton, New York), 1988. Includes "Biological Superiority: The World's
Most Dangerous and Deadly Idea" and other writings, dealing particularly
with pornography.
The Hindu World: An Encyclopedic Survey of Hinduism/Benjamin Walker
(Frederick A. Praeger, Publishers), 2 vol., 1968. Authoritative source of
information on ancient and modern religious culture adversely affecting
women. Important entries include: Women, Androgeny, Bindu (re: semen), Child
Marriage, Marriage, Dowry, Divorce, Sutti (widow immolation).
Quotations from exhibitions:
Women's rights are not commonly classified as human rights.
Few governments exhibit more than token commitment to women's equality as
a basic human right in domestic or foreign policy.
No government determines its policies toward other countries on the basis
of their treatment of women.
When the abuse of women is recognized, it is called inevitable or so pervasive
that consideration of it is futile.
[From: Charlotte Bunch, "Women's Rights as Human Rights: Toward a Re-Vision
of Human Rights" In: Gender Violence: A Development and Human Rights
Issue (Center for Women's Global Leadership), 1991].
Women continue to be discriminated against all over the world as regards
the recognition, enjoyment and exercise of their individual rights.
Crimes against women, including rape, sexual slavery and trafficking, and
domestic violence are rampant.
Selective traditions and customs are used by States to perpetuate discrimination
against women and to condone it in the private sphere.
Patriarchy, which operates through gender, class, caste, and ethnicity,
is integral to the problems facing women. [It] is a form of slavery.
[From: Demanding Accountability: The Global Campaign and Vienna Tribunal
for Women's Human Rights (Center for Women's Global Leadership), 1994].
Task Force
on Gender and Cultural Change