Accidental Feminists
by
3.88 · Rating details · 367 ratings · 47 reviews
How one generation became feminists—by accident.
Women over fifty-five are of the generation that changed everything. We didn't expect to. Or intend to. We weren't brought up much differently from the women who came before us, and we rarely identified as feminists, although almost all of us do now. Accidental Feminists is our story. It explores how the world we lived in-with the pill and a regular pay cheque-transformed us and how, almost in spite of ourselves, we revolutionised the world. It is a celebration of grit, adaptability, energy and persistence. It is also a plea for future generations to keep agitating for a better, fairer world. (less)
Women over fifty-five are of the generation that changed everything. We didn't expect to. Or intend to. We weren't brought up much differently from the women who came before us, and we rarely identified as feminists, although almost all of us do now. Accidental Feminists is our story. It explores how the world we lived in-with the pill and a regular pay cheque-transformed us and how, almost in spite of ourselves, we revolutionised the world. It is a celebration of grit, adaptability, energy and persistence. It is also a plea for future generations to keep agitating for a better, fairer world. (less)
Paperback, 277 pages
Published February 5th 2019 by Melbourne University Publishing
ISBN
0522872832 (ISBN13: 9780522872835)
Edition Language
English
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This book made me so angry. Justifiably angry, because the half of humanity whose gender I share, and whom Jane writes about so eloquently, have for so long been put in our place not only by cultural norms but also by legal and social policies. Policies devised by people of another gender who raise themselves up by pulling us down. These policies continue to use and financially abuse the woman who love them until there is nothing left, and package it all under the lies of 'choice'. Case in point: lack of superannuation for older women who spent their lives caring for others, tied with a below the poverty line pensioner package. The men in my life would say it's the fault of society who at some point stopped valuing carers of the young and old, and that's got to be women's fault really for trying to grasp with both hands the opportunities afforded to men and wanting to be treated as equals. We are now equally free to be homeless and dependent in our retirement. I am not ok with this. I am furious. But this is where they got us good, I'm too damn exhausted being a full-time working, part-time masters studying mother of three to do much of anything about it.
Born in the '80s, I have unwittingly been the recipient of many of the changes women of Jane's generation and those before her worked so hard to achieve. And yet, you can't be what you can't see. Like Jane and her friends, some 30 odd years later as I was leaving school I could only imagine myself as a future wife and mother, with a career as a school teacher because that was the only 'real' career I saw available to the adult women I knew. First, we took care of our families. Then, we worked. The part I missed seeing as a girl was then we came home from work and we kept working after our families went to bed. I had internalised those 'lesser than' messages about my capability to choose a professional career in a way I had no idea was so detrimental until I actually grew up and had a family of my own. I don't pretend I can do it all, I'm the master of outsourcing. I am a vessel through which money flows to other women, paying lots of wonderful social benefiting taxes every time it changes hands....but I can not do what a man can: grasp and hold on to my money to create an empire for my heirs. Yet.
But this story is not about me, it's about my mother, my grandmother and all the other 'accidental feminists' who found themselves in a particular time and space where they had a voice and a choice, where their mothers and grandmothers had been silenced.
Learning to use your voice takes generational change. A master of her medium, Jane breaks it down, and tells the story of her generation trying to figure out how to do it all. Her daughters, and I, we were we watching our mothers and learning the whole time, and like Jane watching her own mother, learning plenty about what not to do. But like all women before us, I do know what power I accidentally internalised...how to work damn hard, how to dance backwards in high heels like Ginger and get so damn good at it I make it look effortless.
So to Jane, and my mother who is of a similar age, thank you for doing the best you could to try and shake off thousands of years of patriarchal domination in a single generation. You made the way easier for me, and in turn, I hope to be setting a fierce example for my daughters and their friends about what a woman and mother can do and be. I look forward to seeing what freedom my granddaughters take for granted and expect as their birthright.
When you're angry and frustrated at how far we still have to go, reading Accidental Feminists is a great opportunity to take a breath, stop and look back, and see how far we have truly come in such a short time. Oh, the places we will go! (less)
Born in the '80s, I have unwittingly been the recipient of many of the changes women of Jane's generation and those before her worked so hard to achieve. And yet, you can't be what you can't see. Like Jane and her friends, some 30 odd years later as I was leaving school I could only imagine myself as a future wife and mother, with a career as a school teacher because that was the only 'real' career I saw available to the adult women I knew. First, we took care of our families. Then, we worked. The part I missed seeing as a girl was then we came home from work and we kept working after our families went to bed. I had internalised those 'lesser than' messages about my capability to choose a professional career in a way I had no idea was so detrimental until I actually grew up and had a family of my own. I don't pretend I can do it all, I'm the master of outsourcing. I am a vessel through which money flows to other women, paying lots of wonderful social benefiting taxes every time it changes hands....but I can not do what a man can: grasp and hold on to my money to create an empire for my heirs. Yet.
But this story is not about me, it's about my mother, my grandmother and all the other 'accidental feminists' who found themselves in a particular time and space where they had a voice and a choice, where their mothers and grandmothers had been silenced.
Learning to use your voice takes generational change. A master of her medium, Jane breaks it down, and tells the story of her generation trying to figure out how to do it all. Her daughters, and I, we were we watching our mothers and learning the whole time, and like Jane watching her own mother, learning plenty about what not to do. But like all women before us, I do know what power I accidentally internalised...how to work damn hard, how to dance backwards in high heels like Ginger and get so damn good at it I make it look effortless.
So to Jane, and my mother who is of a similar age, thank you for doing the best you could to try and shake off thousands of years of patriarchal domination in a single generation. You made the way easier for me, and in turn, I hope to be setting a fierce example for my daughters and their friends about what a woman and mother can do and be. I look forward to seeing what freedom my granddaughters take for granted and expect as their birthright.
When you're angry and frustrated at how far we still have to go, reading Accidental Feminists is a great opportunity to take a breath, stop and look back, and see how far we have truly come in such a short time. Oh, the places we will go! (less)
‘Caro offers a generational bridge for readers who identify across all three waves of feminism: a way to understand what came before, to better see where to go from here.’—Melissa Cranenburgh, Books+Publishing Magazine
‘Caro helps us see the astonishing achievement of these revolutionaries dwelling amongst us and reveals why the world has never known anything like them.’—Ellen Fanning
‘A humane and important book about contemporary women’s lives, including the perilous economic predicament of many older women, written in a way that is warm, funny and accessible.’—Anne Manne
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‘Caro helps us see the astonishing achievement of these revolutionaries dwelling amongst us and reveals why the world has never known anything like them.’—Ellen Fanning
‘A humane and important book about contemporary women’s lives, including the perilous economic predicament of many older women, written in a way that is warm, funny and accessible.’—Anne Manne
(less)
I love Jane Caro. Her wit, intelligence and not so gentle mockery of trolls on Twitter keep me laughing most days.
But I didn’t love this book as much as I wanted to.
Like Clem Ford’s Boys Will Be Boys, this is Feminism 101 and I realise I am not the target market for this book. I am well versed in feminism, it’s history and the impact of legal changes on both mine and my mothers generation. I understand what the sweeping policy change of the Whitlam government did for Australian women.
Jane, I really wanted to love this. But while reading I wanted more information and suggestion solutions for the women this book was written for. The baby boomer women walking that fine line between relative comfort and abject poverty. I wanted more intersectionality. I wanted more about the impact of the current political environment on those same women, and I wanted you to make at least one mention of how much worse Aboriginal women have it compared to white women. You recognise your privilege, but you seem too removed from those of your generation who are struggling.
Solid 3 stars. (less)
But I didn’t love this book as much as I wanted to.
Like Clem Ford’s Boys Will Be Boys, this is Feminism 101 and I realise I am not the target market for this book. I am well versed in feminism, it’s history and the impact of legal changes on both mine and my mothers generation. I understand what the sweeping policy change of the Whitlam government did for Australian women.
Jane, I really wanted to love this. But while reading I wanted more information and suggestion solutions for the women this book was written for. The baby boomer women walking that fine line between relative comfort and abject poverty. I wanted more intersectionality. I wanted more about the impact of the current political environment on those same women, and I wanted you to make at least one mention of how much worse Aboriginal women have it compared to white women. You recognise your privilege, but you seem too removed from those of your generation who are struggling.
Solid 3 stars. (less)
Aug 25, 2020Lauren Marchant rated it it was amazing
As a millennial Australian woman, I found this such an essential and empowering read, Caro looks at feminism, how far we have come, the issues that still oppress particularly older women today, whilst giving hope that equality for women can change and has changed in a short period of time.
Feb 15, 2019Tracey rated it it was amazing
Shelves: reference, non-fiction, australian, politics, 2019
In ‘The Accidental Feminist’ Jane Caro dissects how women currently in the 55-year plus range became both liberated and shackled through the contraceptive pill, the tampon and the pay check.
For those who are not aware Jane Caro is a social commentator, author, columnist and business woman who utilises a diverse range of media platforms to highlight a broad range of issues. I have always enjoyed watching Jane appear on shows like The Drum’ and enjoy her no nonsense, straight up, slap you in the face opinions. I was rather chuffed, to be offered the opportunity to read Jane’s latest book for an honest review.
Caro expertly peels back at how currently women in 55 plus bracket have been able to forge ahead. They are the first generation to receive a pay check, they are the first generation to access the pill, and they are the first generation to have access to the tampon. For those younger readers these may seem like simple achievements but I want you to imagine a world where you do not have the convenience of a tampon and continue to lead your current lifestyle.
The joys of earning your own wage have been tainted by the inability to plan for retirement. It is this group of women that Caro turns the torch onto. Having raised their children, worked hard, they find themselves in serious financial hardship with many facing homelessness. This is a growing problem and there is little focus by policy makers to address the issue. With housing prices high, rents high, it will take some clever thinking to find a solution. It these sections of the book that will make many women feel uncomfortable. That as a woman no matter what your age, the ongoing fragility of your financial predicament is going to remain a constant. That having a safe place to live, the ability to be independent could be taken away in a heartbeat through the loss of income, a relationship break up or ill health. It will have you really thinking about your financial future and looking for trustworthy advisor.
Caro explores other issues throughout the book as to how women have been categorised. From being hags, gold-diggers, slags, bossy bitch and dutiful housewives all these terms have been heaped onto women as they move through life. The power of the terminology, how it shapes, defines and continues to be place women into boxes. The continual battle women face that going out at night, having a couple of drinks and dressing in a seemingly provocative way is not an invitation for rape.
There is so much to unpack in this book. I found the chapter ‘Vessels of Repulsion’ extremely thought provoking as Caro explores the ownership of a woman’s body. From how women are told to dress and how to behave when expecting. It certainly highlights the conundrum women find themselves in.
Towards the last couple of chapters you wonder is there an upside as even Caro admits “If you are female, and try to get ahead there will be bigger, wider, deeper and deeper obstacles in your way.” Yet, things are changing; the extraordinarily brave women who have raised their voice through #metoo are having an impact. There is progress talk of quotas in politics, company boards are being discussed. I would say that even the ready acceptance of women’s sport on prime television has been important as has the success of the book Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls’ has provided access to role models for women. The last two chapters bring hope, rebellion and policy to the forefront.
Caro’s writing style is chatty and keeps you engaged. It is extremely well researched and not preachy. Caro lays out the facts, the issues in no nonsense way. Yes, there are parts of this book that are uncomfortable but you need that. There are women out there struggling who have become invisible and Caro rightly brings these issues into the spotlight.
The Accidental Feminist is a celebration of women how much they have achieved and a damning indictment on how much is still to be done. (less)
For those who are not aware Jane Caro is a social commentator, author, columnist and business woman who utilises a diverse range of media platforms to highlight a broad range of issues. I have always enjoyed watching Jane appear on shows like The Drum’ and enjoy her no nonsense, straight up, slap you in the face opinions. I was rather chuffed, to be offered the opportunity to read Jane’s latest book for an honest review.
Caro expertly peels back at how currently women in 55 plus bracket have been able to forge ahead. They are the first generation to receive a pay check, they are the first generation to access the pill, and they are the first generation to have access to the tampon. For those younger readers these may seem like simple achievements but I want you to imagine a world where you do not have the convenience of a tampon and continue to lead your current lifestyle.
The joys of earning your own wage have been tainted by the inability to plan for retirement. It is this group of women that Caro turns the torch onto. Having raised their children, worked hard, they find themselves in serious financial hardship with many facing homelessness. This is a growing problem and there is little focus by policy makers to address the issue. With housing prices high, rents high, it will take some clever thinking to find a solution. It these sections of the book that will make many women feel uncomfortable. That as a woman no matter what your age, the ongoing fragility of your financial predicament is going to remain a constant. That having a safe place to live, the ability to be independent could be taken away in a heartbeat through the loss of income, a relationship break up or ill health. It will have you really thinking about your financial future and looking for trustworthy advisor.
Caro explores other issues throughout the book as to how women have been categorised. From being hags, gold-diggers, slags, bossy bitch and dutiful housewives all these terms have been heaped onto women as they move through life. The power of the terminology, how it shapes, defines and continues to be place women into boxes. The continual battle women face that going out at night, having a couple of drinks and dressing in a seemingly provocative way is not an invitation for rape.
There is so much to unpack in this book. I found the chapter ‘Vessels of Repulsion’ extremely thought provoking as Caro explores the ownership of a woman’s body. From how women are told to dress and how to behave when expecting. It certainly highlights the conundrum women find themselves in.
Towards the last couple of chapters you wonder is there an upside as even Caro admits “If you are female, and try to get ahead there will be bigger, wider, deeper and deeper obstacles in your way.” Yet, things are changing; the extraordinarily brave women who have raised their voice through #metoo are having an impact. There is progress talk of quotas in politics, company boards are being discussed. I would say that even the ready acceptance of women’s sport on prime television has been important as has the success of the book Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls’ has provided access to role models for women. The last two chapters bring hope, rebellion and policy to the forefront.
Caro’s writing style is chatty and keeps you engaged. It is extremely well researched and not preachy. Caro lays out the facts, the issues in no nonsense way. Yes, there are parts of this book that are uncomfortable but you need that. There are women out there struggling who have become invisible and Caro rightly brings these issues into the spotlight.
The Accidental Feminist is a celebration of women how much they have achieved and a damning indictment on how much is still to be done. (less)
To afficionados of the ABC current affairs program The Drum, Jane Caro’s Accidental Feminists is exactly what you might expect of the author: forthright, amusing, full of pithy anecdotes to illustrate a point, and witheringly authentic.
While (of course) not everyone accessed higher education, Caro acknowledges that the Whitlam government’s abolition of university fees was pivotal:
However…
Caro attributes this to ‘flexibility’ — because (again backed up by her statistics) most women still do the ‘second shift’ i.e. the housework, the cooking, the childcare. Again there are also structural reasons like expensive child-care and high effective marginal tax-rates when moving from three to four days a week to full-time work due to the loss of family and child benefits. (p.75)
The take-home message of Accidental Feminists is this: there is a cohort of older women in dire financial straits because of structural and social impediments to financial independence that have affected their entire lives.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/02/18/a... (less)
What was revolutionary about our generation was that the generation born in the 1950s and 1960s is the first in history where most of the women worked for wages for most of their lives. And because money is power, this has changed everything.
While (of course) not everyone accessed higher education, Caro acknowledges that the Whitlam government’s abolition of university fees was pivotal:
If tertiary education was free, it was harder to rationalise preventing girls from accompanying their brothers, especially as so many of us had higher marks. More than that, however, our mothers also began to grasp the chance that was offered to them. It was female mature-age students who radically swelled the ranks at universities during that tiny window of opportunity…(p.71)
However…
[women] tend to be concentrated in lower-status industries and at the lower end of the pay scale. Even more depressing is the fact that previously high-status, well-paid occupations tend to fall in both status and pay when they become female dominated. General medical practice, marketing and human resources (the latter of which once meant a board position) spring to mind. (p.72)
Caro attributes this to ‘flexibility’ — because (again backed up by her statistics) most women still do the ‘second shift’ i.e. the housework, the cooking, the childcare. Again there are also structural reasons like expensive child-care and high effective marginal tax-rates when moving from three to four days a week to full-time work due to the loss of family and child benefits. (p.75)
The take-home message of Accidental Feminists is this: there is a cohort of older women in dire financial straits because of structural and social impediments to financial independence that have affected their entire lives.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/02/18/a... (less)
Aug 25, 2019Molly rated it really liked it
I enjoyed this book. It gave me an insight into baby boomers and the way they where bought up. So many things I take for granted they didn’t have - like finishing Year 12 despite not being from a privileged family. Whilst I didn’t agree with everything - I don’t believe women on boards is a feminist priority - I was able to respect the arguments made.
I did find this book was from a very privileged perspective. Working class women have always had to work outside of the home, and the idea that boomers are the first women working for most of their lives is not entirely accurate. To be fair she did also discuss homelessness and Newstart as issues and the gender segregation of our workplaces. She also did her best to be intersectional and inclusive.
The only real criticism I have is that it became quite repetitive at points, and I noticed the same points being made and examples being used.
Overall this book was a good read. I genuinely admire and respect the author. I would definitely recommend it to other millennial feminists looking to greater understand our history and the perspective of another generation. (less)
I did find this book was from a very privileged perspective. Working class women have always had to work outside of the home, and the idea that boomers are the first women working for most of their lives is not entirely accurate. To be fair she did also discuss homelessness and Newstart as issues and the gender segregation of our workplaces. She also did her best to be intersectional and inclusive.
The only real criticism I have is that it became quite repetitive at points, and I noticed the same points being made and examples being used.
Overall this book was a good read. I genuinely admire and respect the author. I would definitely recommend it to other millennial feminists looking to greater understand our history and the perspective of another generation. (less)
Mar 28, 2019Cass Moriarty rated it it was amazing
You know that any book by social commentator Jane Caro will be chock full of fascinating facts and statistics that she somehow manages to condense into a highly readable, engaging, poignant or frequently funny book. In her latest work Accidental Feminists (Melbourne University Publishing 2019), Caro focuses on the generation of women aged 55 years and over who unintentionally heralded the third wave of feminism (after the push for the vote – the first wave, and the second wave of progress during the 70’s), aided by technological advances and societal changes that revolutionised their personal lives and their expectations both of what they were expected to give as well as what they could hope to achieve. This group of women – building on the foundations already constructed by their women forebears – in some ways inhabit lives much richer than ever before in history, but paradoxically also simultaneously succumb to frightening social problems such as poverty and homelessness in ever greater numbers.
In chapters titled ‘Hags, Crones, Witches and Mothers-in-Law’, ‘Gold-diggers, Beggars and Thieves’, ‘Slags, Sluts, Gossips and Staceys’ and ‘Invalids, Liars, Hysterics and Madwomen’, Caro explores how women are viewed and treated by men, by society and by other women. She dismantles structures such as superannuation, child-care and tax policy to determine how and why they are so often going wrong for women, and she celebrates the determination and empowerment of women who are struggling to achieve equality (in work, in pay, in domestic duties, in child care, in sex and in perceptions).
Over 50 percent of us are women, and 100 percent of us are aging. But it is how we agitate for change, how we demand equality and what we seek as our fair share that will determine how future generations are treated and cared for. Those women aged 55 and over were raised to care for others, to stay at home and run the house, to mind the children and keep the home fires burning, with the hope – or really, the expectation – that in turn, they would be cared for as they aged. But their years of patchy employment records (interrupted by child-rearing, the necessity for part-time work, the lack of equal opportunities for promotion) have contributed to a rather dire predicament for many, who now find themselves struggling to make ends meet, homeless, invisible to society, unwanted by the workforce or unneeded by family.
Caro argues that it is innovations such as the contraceptive pill and the tampon that have impacted more on women of this age than even the labour-saving devices such as washing machines and dishwashers. She says that ‘many sectors of society have done their damnedest to hold back women every step of the way’ and through meticulous research, carefully documented case histories, and collected anecdotal evidence and stories, she interprets how and why this has happened, and what might be done to rectify the difficulties. ‘Women’, she says, ‘are not a job lot…[but]…what we share is the burden of assumptions that are made about what a woman should be like, what she should do, say, wear, think and express.’ In quoting social researcher Hugh Mackay, Caro repeats his finding that out of the top ten desires that need to be met to live a satisfying life, number one is ‘the desire to be taken seriously’. This was a light bulb moment for Caro, who ‘saw clearly that feminism is the struggle by half the human race to be taken seriously by the other half’.
Depicting women’s struggle to maintain a professional career and raise well-adjusted children – in addition to completing most of the unpaid work around the home – Caro states that while ‘intellectually, we knew we had a right to lives just as rich and varied as those of our brothers…emotionally, we still struggled against our own and others’ unconscious assumptions…guilt [and] disapproval’.
Amidst practical suggestions (make child care tax deductible! - legitimise it the same way we treat sick pay and superannuation; offer fathers monetary incentives to spend at least some time as the primary carer during their child’s infancy; recognise the billions of dollars saved by (mostly) women undertaking the care of the young, the disabled, the elderly and the vulnerable) and lots of personal anecdotes from her own life (she brilliantly describes the unpaid role of ‘producer’ that most women play in family life – managing the shopping and social engagements, the tradespeople and doctor visits – the ‘emotional labour’), Caro discusses the traditional, unpaid female roles that should be counted towards GDP despite not being a market commodity that can be bought and sold, such as volunteer work in a hospice, or the powerful example of breastfeeding (‘GDP unapologetically favours infant formula because it is a commercial product, so the more babies who are not breastfed (against all the recommendations by health experts) the better it is for GDP.’)
Caro also explores the generalised fear around women who are ‘out of control’, angry or that terrible but much used term ‘hysterical’, and examines the tendency to blame and shame women for acts perpetrated by men (which #MeToo is finally addressing), when all feminism really claims to do is to ‘give women the same rights as men to decide the shape of their own lives’. And she concludes by surmising that ‘… perhaps that was always patriarchy’s fatal flaw. No matter how much they held us back, no matter how many obstacles they put in our way, no matter how low our self-esteem or bitter our disappointments, they could not drain our brains out of our ears, or (totally) smash our spirit and our desire to participate in and contribute to the world. Many of us, throughout history, found a way.’ (less)
In chapters titled ‘Hags, Crones, Witches and Mothers-in-Law’, ‘Gold-diggers, Beggars and Thieves’, ‘Slags, Sluts, Gossips and Staceys’ and ‘Invalids, Liars, Hysterics and Madwomen’, Caro explores how women are viewed and treated by men, by society and by other women. She dismantles structures such as superannuation, child-care and tax policy to determine how and why they are so often going wrong for women, and she celebrates the determination and empowerment of women who are struggling to achieve equality (in work, in pay, in domestic duties, in child care, in sex and in perceptions).
Over 50 percent of us are women, and 100 percent of us are aging. But it is how we agitate for change, how we demand equality and what we seek as our fair share that will determine how future generations are treated and cared for. Those women aged 55 and over were raised to care for others, to stay at home and run the house, to mind the children and keep the home fires burning, with the hope – or really, the expectation – that in turn, they would be cared for as they aged. But their years of patchy employment records (interrupted by child-rearing, the necessity for part-time work, the lack of equal opportunities for promotion) have contributed to a rather dire predicament for many, who now find themselves struggling to make ends meet, homeless, invisible to society, unwanted by the workforce or unneeded by family.
Caro argues that it is innovations such as the contraceptive pill and the tampon that have impacted more on women of this age than even the labour-saving devices such as washing machines and dishwashers. She says that ‘many sectors of society have done their damnedest to hold back women every step of the way’ and through meticulous research, carefully documented case histories, and collected anecdotal evidence and stories, she interprets how and why this has happened, and what might be done to rectify the difficulties. ‘Women’, she says, ‘are not a job lot…[but]…what we share is the burden of assumptions that are made about what a woman should be like, what she should do, say, wear, think and express.’ In quoting social researcher Hugh Mackay, Caro repeats his finding that out of the top ten desires that need to be met to live a satisfying life, number one is ‘the desire to be taken seriously’. This was a light bulb moment for Caro, who ‘saw clearly that feminism is the struggle by half the human race to be taken seriously by the other half’.
Depicting women’s struggle to maintain a professional career and raise well-adjusted children – in addition to completing most of the unpaid work around the home – Caro states that while ‘intellectually, we knew we had a right to lives just as rich and varied as those of our brothers…emotionally, we still struggled against our own and others’ unconscious assumptions…guilt [and] disapproval’.
Amidst practical suggestions (make child care tax deductible! - legitimise it the same way we treat sick pay and superannuation; offer fathers monetary incentives to spend at least some time as the primary carer during their child’s infancy; recognise the billions of dollars saved by (mostly) women undertaking the care of the young, the disabled, the elderly and the vulnerable) and lots of personal anecdotes from her own life (she brilliantly describes the unpaid role of ‘producer’ that most women play in family life – managing the shopping and social engagements, the tradespeople and doctor visits – the ‘emotional labour’), Caro discusses the traditional, unpaid female roles that should be counted towards GDP despite not being a market commodity that can be bought and sold, such as volunteer work in a hospice, or the powerful example of breastfeeding (‘GDP unapologetically favours infant formula because it is a commercial product, so the more babies who are not breastfed (against all the recommendations by health experts) the better it is for GDP.’)
Caro also explores the generalised fear around women who are ‘out of control’, angry or that terrible but much used term ‘hysterical’, and examines the tendency to blame and shame women for acts perpetrated by men (which #MeToo is finally addressing), when all feminism really claims to do is to ‘give women the same rights as men to decide the shape of their own lives’. And she concludes by surmising that ‘… perhaps that was always patriarchy’s fatal flaw. No matter how much they held us back, no matter how many obstacles they put in our way, no matter how low our self-esteem or bitter our disappointments, they could not drain our brains out of our ears, or (totally) smash our spirit and our desire to participate in and contribute to the world. Many of us, throughout history, found a way.’ (less)
Jun 30, 2019Kathy rated it liked it
I was looking forward to reading this, but I have to admit I was quite disappointed. There was, as I anticipated, a great deal of truth, backed up by engaging anecdotes, a dry wit and lots of statistics. Caro spends a good deal of time on the frightening growth of older women living in poverty, a huge worry for those of us in the over 55 age group. This is an important discussion.
For all that, something was not right. For me, there were far too many sweeping generalisations, a feeling that Caro was trying to conflate all inequalities into a single discrimination called male oppression.
That male oppression exists I have no doubt, but Caro has failed to mention other inequalities. For example, I grew up in a situation where the biggest challenge for my parents was paying the rent and putting food on the table. I missed out on things, such as school excursions, not because of my gender, but because the family couldn’t afford it. My brothers missed out, too! And I’m sure there were – and are – many still in this situation.
Caro doesn’t mention the economic inequality that many of us fought, and are still fighting. There are other sorts of inequalities, too that she doesn’t mention. I got the feeling that she was trying to put all divides together (economic, religious, racial) and call it male oppression.
So, yes, it was an interesting read, but I felt there were too many generalisations and not enough in-depth analysis. Still, Accidental Feminists is a great book for book-club – our discussion was lively!
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May 03, 2019Brona's Books rated it really liked it
In 2019, Jane Caro has written a book about the women of her generation (the Baby Boomers) who didn't expect to change the world, but accidentally found that the world they had been brought up to live in, no longer existed. They were the first generation of women to have earned money working for most of their adult lives, and thanks to advances in medicine and technology, were able to take control of their own bodies, in a way that no previous generations could ever have imagined possible.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2019/... (less)
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2019/... (less)
Mar 26, 2019Rachael McDiarmid rated it really liked it
4.5 stars from me. I don’t normally read non fiction but by God this is a good read from Jane Caro. It’s our story. What women have gone through to get where we are now, what we are still going through, and where there are still gaps. She breaks down multiple subjects and puts them together rationally and intelligently. She debates her points well. It’s an excellent book and I think all women should read it to make sense of the world we live in.
Accidental Feminists review: Jane Caro on her generation's activism
By Jo Case
February 15, 2019 — 8.15am
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SOCIETY
Accidental Feminists
Jane Caro
MUP, $32.99
In her introduction to her 10th book, Jane Caro describes it as "an attempt to tell the life story of my generation of women". She assiduously declares that she means to represent anyone identifying as a woman, and that "women who live with a disability, poor women, migrant women, trans women and non-heterosexual women must navigate all the usual prejudices and barriers against their gender and then some".
Jane Caro.
Jane Caro.
Yet the first line of chapter one cheerfully notes that "we were all called Kerrie, Debbie, Jane, Lynne or Sue in those days" and the second paragraph reflects, from Caro's perspective as the daughter of a company director, that "back then, we didn't know what our friends' dads did and we didn't care" and "our mums generally didn't do paid work". It sets the tone for this examination of Baby Boomer feminism and its legacy as well-meaning, but firmly anchored in the perspective (and, in large part, the experience) of white upper-middle-class Australia.
Among the defining aspects of Caro's generation of women is that they were "the first ... in history who have mostly earned their own money". This has delivered the (imperfect) social progress that comes with (still unequal) economic power, from increased legal protection (in-theory equal pay, sexual discrimination laws, legal abortion) to cultural representation (including quotas, Destroy the Joint, #MeToo). This, along with the pill, which Caro believes birthed second-wave feminism by allowing women "to imagine and create a different future for themselves", contributed to greater independence and agency for women.
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Accidental Feminists by Jane Caro.
Accidental Feminists by Jane Caro.
The flipside Caro then explores is that our society expects Baby Boomer women to be financially self-supporting, without accounting for the remaining structural gender inequalities that make this difficult. For example, women now retire with half the super of men, and one in three retires with no super at all; this is not unrelated to women's enduring – inherently expensive – status as default primary carers, not just for children but for families in general.
"It is particularly galling if the major reason why they lack the wherewithal to support themselves is precisely because they spent so much time looking after the rest of us."
There are also new structural barriers to contend with, such as the contemporary need for two incomes to maintain a mortgage, and ever-shrinking government safety nets: Caro identifies Newstart as a particular, deserved, target for criticism.
The contrast between these two divergent middle-class Baby Boomer fates – wealthy and independent as never before, and destitute as never before (the fastest-growing group among Australia's homeless is women over 55) – reflects the growing wealth divide in Western societies. An ABC opinion piece Caro published on these divergent fates was, in fact, the impetus for publisher Louise Adler to ask her to write this book. The strongest aspect of Accidental Feminists is the latter (less often-explored) thread, which Caro tackles with empathy and insight.
It's a pity, though, that her quotes from other women's experiences (throughout the book) are mostly devoid of broader context about their lives and circumstances. "There is an increasing body of research that reveals that where you reside, how educated you are and how much you earn can have a real impact on how long you can expect to live," Caro shares. Yet, these indicators are missing from the lives she draws on to make this story broader than her own, diluting their resonance.
There's a lot that's interesting, from astute reflections on the invisibility experienced by Caro's generation as they lose the sexual currency they were bred to value above all else, to her insider account, as a former advertising executive, on how consumer culture has adapted (and has still to adapt) to women's increased agency over the decades.
But this fecundity of ideas, and the way Caro jumps between them and (as she admits) circles among them, can make Accidental Feminists a distracting read. She often seems to leave a subject before the thought is finished. In her chapter on poor women, she tells us that the risk of poverty is worse for Indigenous women, trans women, women with a disability and women of colour – but moves on without exploring how or why. And this book on world-first revolutionary historical change lacks meaningful context on what came before the historical anomaly that was the 1950s family, and 1960s feminism, even for the white middle-class women she focuses on.
Read Accidental Feminists for a window into the experience and perspective of Caro's demographic cohort. But to understand the broader significance of this generational change, you'll need to look elsewhere.
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