Women, race & class

That this book was written in the early 80s is extremely impressive, given how many of the ideas and concepts Davis puts forward have only recently become mainstream. Most of this book is an excellent combination of philosophy, history, and sociology, with Davis using case studies and more qualitative work to illustrate more macro trends, which she mostly backs up with more quantitative metrics. This isn't true across all chapters, however, and in some sections she makes broad based claims (e.g. "X is known") with no supporting evidence. Additionally, the chapter on housework is weird, given that she is essentially advocating for a hypercapitalist model of housework professionalization (which neoliberal economists love) and claims that they wouldn't like it - this is demonstrably false (see most economics books/papers published since the 40s). That aside, this is a singular, prescient work that remains important for our times. Highly recommend

As a cis-male, reading this book gave me a lot of insight to the lives women faced tracing back to slavery to modern day. It was important for me to read this because I want to be a better feminist. The people I read about I will never forget. Prudence Crandall and Ida B. Wells are some of them. They fought against the grain and that gives me inspiration to fight against the rising powers of fascism. I learned about the abolition movement and how women pioneered it. I learned about the suffrage movement and how it was once a force of nature and how it then became a racist movement. I learned about the beginnings of racism and sexism in the United States. This book gave me the basic knowledge I can then educate other cis-men who don't know about these movements. I want to thank Davis for making this a read I can understand. I also want to thank all the women who changed the world. I also want to thank the women I know in my personal life. I also want to thank my mom for giving me life.