Jewish women of all ages and backgrounds come together in Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women to explore and rejoice in what they have in common--their heritage. They reveal in striking personal stories how their Jewishness has shaped their identities and informed their experiences in innumerable, meaningful ways. Survivors, witnesses, defenders, innovators, and healers, these women question, celebrate, and transmit Jewish and feminist values in hopes that they might bridge the differences among Jewish women. They invite both Jewish and non-Jewish readers to share in their discussions and stories that convey and celebrate the multiplicity of Jewish backgrounds, attitudes, and issues.In Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women, you will read about cultural, religious, and gender choices, conversion to Judaism, family patterns, Jewish immigrant experiences, the complexities of Jewish secular identities, antisemitism, sexism, and domestic violence in the Jewish community. As the pages unfold in this wonderful book of personal odysseys, the colorful patterns of Jewish women’s lives are laid before you. You will find much cause for rejoicing, as the authors weave together their compelling and unique stories about: midlife Bat mitzvah preparations the transmission of Jewish values by Sephardi and Ashkenazi grandmothers traditional Sephardi customs the sorrow and healing involved in coping with the Holocaust a lesbian’s fascination with Kafka the external and internal obstacles Jewish women encounter in their efforts to study Jewish topics and participate in Jewish ritual becoming a Reconstructionist rabbi the difficulties and benefits of being the teenaged daughter of a rabbiA harmonious chorus of individual voices, Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women will delight and inspire Jewish and non-Jewish readers alike. It reminds each of us how diverse and distinctive Jewish women’s lives are, as well as how united they can be under the wonderful fold of Judaism. This book will be of great interest to all women, as well as to rabbis, Jewish community leaders and professionals, mental health workers, and those in Jewish studies, women’s studies, and multicultural studies.

Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women: Patterns in a Feminist Sampler

Cole, Ellen

Rothblum, Esther D

Siegel, Rachel J

Reference

Routledge

Fat - A Fate Worse Than Death?: Women, Weight, and Appearance (Haworth Innovations in Feminist Studies)

Despite the gains of the women’s movement, women are still judged by what they look like--and men, by what they do. Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? offers hardy resistance to the narrow, random, and irrational appearance standards set for American women through an approach that is personal, eclectic, courageous, and funny. If you are interested in giving up your diet, throwing out your scales, and concentrating on who you are on a deeper level, this book will show you how to accept, appreciate, and even love your body!Using statistics, research, anecdotes, and personal experiences, Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? explores how appearance standards have built a prison for women. With the book’s helpful advice, reading suggestions, and list of more than 100 ways to fight looksism, sexism, ageism, and racism, you will learn to express your rights and needs, regardless of your shape or size, and tear down those prison walls. Designed to transcend the boundaries between the personal and the political, Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? discusses: 
<ul>
<li>examples of how weight and size constitute the last socially accepted prejudice </li>
<li>the national “War on Fat” </li>
<li>counteracting societal influences that support weight preoccupation </li>
<li>connection between appearance standards for older women and large women </li>
<li>nurturing your body </li>
<li>resisting male-defined standards of beauty for women </li>
<li>the myth of diets and dieting </li>
<li>how the body resists weight loss </li>
<li>how women are disempowered by concentration on weight and appearance </li>
<li>how concentrating on appearance leaves real-life issues unaddressed </li>
<li>how feeling bad about yourself can turn you into a willing consumerFeminists, faculty and students of women’s studies programs, aging women, women of radical politics, and other concerned women and men will find that Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? states explicitly how women are kept powerless by subscribing to cultural and social edicts on physical appearance. Don’t live silently in a society that degrades and discounts women because of their physical stature and don‘t let obsession with thinness keep you passive, docile, and unable to give your energy to things that really need your passion and intelligence. Read this book and learn to not only value yourself for who you are, but also to counteract American culture’s equality-denying prejudices and practices.</li>
</ul>

Thone, Ruth R

While most women’s studies texts function “topically” as “readings” for courses and general use, Women’s Work: A Survey of Scholarship By and About Women takes a broad spectrum of women’s disciplines--psychological, artistic, religious, and philosophical--and gives you a diverse, interdisciplinary view of this important and ever-expanding field of study in one accessible volume. You’ll see that women are leading the world into the twenty-first century in such areas as education, business, health, and science. You’ll also find your appreciation for the current developments in women’s studies increase as you see how far-reaching and multifaceted this crucial discipline really is.Women’s Work avoids the compilations of topical readings that tend to bog down typical women’s studies courses and explores the different disciplines that continue to make this field central to the development of the academic world community. You’ll find your perspective on women’s studies expand and take on new meaning as you delve into these and other areas: feminist approaches to research the lack of women in science and feminist critiques of science women and health psychology and discussions on sex differences, sex similarities, and gender roles communication differences between men and women women in literature, art history, and metaphysics Judeo-Christian religions and goddess religionsThis comprehensive compendium has something for everyone interested in the massive contribution that women have made--and will continue to make--in all areas of human development. All readers, especially women’s studies scholars, professors, students, and informed members of the general public looking for an excellent, up-to-date resource concerning the general direction of feminist disciplines today, will definitely want a copy of Women’s Work.

Women's Work: A Survey of Scholarship By and About Women (Haworth Innovations in Feminist Studies)

Ashcraft, Donna M.

Breasts

Breasts: The Women’s Perspective on an American Obsession describes and explores our national breast fetish, which is defined as a culturally constructed obsession that is deeply interwoven with beauty standards, breastfeeding practices, and sexuality. By tracing the complex history of this erotic fascination and discovering how it affects men’s and women’s sexuality and their relationships, this book will help women accept their breasts as they are and provide male readers with insight into how women think and feel about their bodies. This awareness will enable them to better understand and empathize with women’s experiences as objects of a cultural fetish.Focusing on adult joys and anxieties about breasts, sex, and breastfeeding, this text uses research and expert opinions from several different fields, including psychology, anthropology, sociology, mythology, and sexology. You will find several other issues in Breasts: The Women’s Perspective on an American Obsession that involve men’s and women’s struggles with this obsession, such as: breast implants human psychology and breasts beauty standards and breast sexuality how breasts are portrayed in mythology and art how ancient religions saw the breast as a sign of motherhood and giver of life ”breast men” debates on how and why the breast evolved adolescent girls and breasts breast activists, such as La Leche League, who are proponents of breastfeeding in publicThrough personal interviews with men and women, Breasts: The Women’s Perspective on an American Obsession also addresses women’s pride and shame about their breasts and their confusion about the attention their breasts receive. Ultimately, this exploration of breast obsession sheds light on our society’s general fear of and ambivalence toward women’s bodies. Breasts: The Women’s Perspective on an American Obsession shows you that breasts have a venerable history and urges you to see beyond the contemporary standards of visual perfection to give you an overall sense of the female body’s power and worth.

Breasts: The Women's Perspective on an American Obsession (Haworth Innovations in Feminist Studies)

Lesbian Step Families: An Ethnography of Love (Haworth Innovations in Feminist Studies)

Lesbian Step Families: An Ethnography of Love explores five lesbian step families’definitions of the step parent role and how they accomplish parenting tasks, cope with homophobia, and define and interpret their experiences. An intensive feminist qualitative study, the book offers guidelines for counselors and lesbian step families for creating healthy, functioning family structures and environments. It is the first book to concentrate exclusively on lesbian step families rather than on lesbian mothering in general.In Lesbian Step Families: An Ethnography of Love, you’ll explore in detail the different kinds of step relationships that are developed and what factors may lead to the different types of step mothering in lesbian step families. The book helps you understand these relationships and parent roles through in-depth discussions of: 
<ul>
<li>how a step mother and legal mother who live together negotiate and organize parenting and homemaking tasks </li>
<li>how members of lesbian step families define and create the step mother role </li>
<li>strategies family members use to define and cope with oppression </li>
<li>how sexism is transmitted within the family and how mothering may limit and/or contribute to female liberation </li>
<li>the opinions and viewpoints of the children of these families The findings in Lesbian Step Families: An Ethnography of Love challenge traditional views of mothering and fathering as gender and biologically based activities; they indicate that lesbian step families model gender flexibility and that the mothers and step mothers share parenting--both traditional mothering and fathering--tasks. This allows the biological mother some freedom from motherhood as well as support in it. With insight such as this, you will be prepared to help a client, a loved one, or yourself develop and maintain healthy family relationships.</li>
</ul>

Wright, Janet M

Winner of the Women in Psychology Jewish Caucus Award for 2000!Jewish Mothers Tell Their Stories: Acts of Love and Courage contains touching and personal essays written by contemporary Jewish mothers from different parts of the globe. Their stories reveal the choices that Jewish mothers make in our post-Holocaust, non-Jewish world--the many ways of being Jewish, the acts of loving, of preserving and celebrating Jewish traditions and spirituality, and of transmitting them to their children and families. The firsthand stories in this compelling book raises questions and provides you with insight into a variety of topics, including: The 'Jewish mother’stereotype and its impact on real Jewish mothers ethnic/historical connections between mothers and daughters moving acts of love, courage, and sacrifice in response to illness, war, or conflicting ideologies motherhood as a catalyst for personal evolutions of Jewish identity and values Orthodox to secular expressions of spirituality The impact of the 'Jewish motherhood imperative’ positive experiences of conversion and interfaith families conveying Jewish history and tradition in a Christian worldJewish Mothers Tell Their Stories will draw you into an appreciation of the cultural, ethnic, and spiritual aspects of mothering. This remarkable collection explores the different meanings of today's concept of “Jewish mother” and “Jewish family.”

Jewish Mothers Tell Their Stories : Acts of Love and Courage

Siegel, Rachil Josefowitz

Steinberg-Oren, Susan

Winner of the Women in Psychology Jewish Caucus Award for 2000!Jewish Mothers Tell Their Stories: Acts of Love and Courage contains touching and personal essays written by contemporary Jewish mothers from different parts of the globe. Their stories reveal the choices that Jewish mothers make in our post-Holocaust, non-Jewish world--the many ways of being Jewish, the acts of loving, of preserving and celebrating Jewish traditions and spirituality, and of transmitting them to their children and families. The firsthand stories in this compelling book raises questions and provides you with insight into a variety of topics, including: 
<ul>
<li>The 'Jewish mother’stereotype and its impact on real Jewish mothers </li>
<li>ethnic/historical connections between mothers and daughters </li>
<li>moving acts of love, courage, and sacrifice in response to illness, war, or conflicting ideologies </li>
<li>motherhood as a catalyst for personal evolutions of Jewish identity and values </li>
<li>Orthodox to secular expressions of spirituality </li>
<li>The impact of the 'Jewish motherhood imperative’ </li>
<li>positive experiences of conversion and interfaith families </li>
<li>conveying Jewish history and tradition in a Christian worldJewish Mothers Tell Their Stories will draw you into an appreciation of the cultural, ethnic, and spiritual aspects of mothering. This remarkable collection explores the different meanings of today's concept of “Jewish mother” and “Jewish family.” </li>
</ul>

Jewish Mothers Tell Their Stories: Acts of Love and Courage

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Women and Aids (Haworth Innovations in Feminist Studies)

For many women, the advice “Use a condom!” is not enough to help protect them from HIV infection. As Women and AIDS reveals, “negotiating” safer sex practices is a very complex issue for women who are involved in relationships where they do not enjoy physical, social, or economic equality. The book’s authors maintain that the key to curbing the spread of HIV and to caring for those already infected--is communication. Women and AIDS is the first volume to address HIV/AIDS and women from a communication perspective.This helpful guidebook addresses how women might achieve safer sexual and drug injection practices with partners, but it also explores women’s negotiation of the health care system as patients, medical research subjects, and caregivers. It challenges traditional assumptions about the relationship between care providers and patients and the meaning of patient compliance and raises important questions about gender, race, and class that are exacerbated by the epidemic. Designed to ground interventions in the realities of women’s lives, Women and AIDS discusses what women can do to get around communication and health care obstacles. To this end, you will learn about: 
<ul>
<li>using the media for HIV-related social action and to promote women’s views of HIV and sexuality </li>
<li>prison health care for HIV-positive women </li>
<li>cultural constructions of sex and drug sharing in a variety of communities </li>
<li>long-term changes that will empower women </li>
<li>delivering an HIV-positive diagnosis to patients </li>
<li>gender roles and caregiving </li>
<li>the language we use to talk about “Third World” women and “Asian AIDS” </li>
<li>women AIDS filmmakers/videographers</li>
</ul>For the benefit of AIDS activists, health care providers, and counselors, Women and AIDS discusses women and their communication and awareness from virtually every angle. This book analyzes situations where communication breaks down--from the woman who can’t openly discuss safe sex with her partner, to the drunk college student who “hooks up,” to the doctor who gives an HIV-positive diagnosis without compassion--and offers communication solutions. This will help women avoid such risks, establish communication and safety in their lives, and construct meaningful roles in relationship to HIV/AIDS.

Women and AIDS: Negotiating Safer Practices, Care, and Representation (Haworth Innovations in Feminist Studies)

Roth, Nancy

Fuller, Linda K.

Diseases & Physical Ailments

Outstanding feminist scholars present seldom discussed women’s views of sexuality. In the past, there has been little feminist discussion among sexuality professionals and between feminist therapists and sex therapists. The valuable ideas expressed by the contributors to this book are aimed at increasing the possibilities for all therapists and counselors to discuss with their clients the nature of sexuality, and in particular, what women feel about sex. Professionals provide remarkable perspectives on issues that concern all women--orgasm, the double standard, new reproductive options, intimacy, bisexuality, and more.

Women and Sex Therapy: Closing the Circle of Sexual Knowledge

In this major contribution to the literature, counselors, psychologists, and therapists address the issues that are vital to the lesbian experience. Although ten percent of the female population may be lesbian, the majority of people in the U.S. consider homosexuality, lesbianism included, obscene, vulgar, and anti-American. Despite the prevalence of and proven positive adjustment of lesbians, mainstream mental health professionals have mirrored society's attitudes in their conceptualization of lesbianism as deviant and in their treatment of lesbians in therapy. The contributors to this compassionate volume examine the need for greater understanding of the issues important to lesbians in order to decrease homophobic stereotypes and to demonstrate how the lesbian experience can serve as an affirmative model of nontraditional lifestyles. They focus on lesbian issues rarely discussed in print--married lesbians, lesbians in rural settings, and lesbian nonmonogamy. The choices, ethical dilemmas, and concerns of lesbians as mothers, lovers, clients, and therapists are voiced in this honest and provocative book.

Loving Boldly: Issues Facing Lesbians (Women and Therapy Ser: Vol. 8, Nos. 1-2)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

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