Notes from an Incomplete Revolution: Real Life Since Feminism - Softcover

Meredith Maran is a bisexual feminist, a veteran of the antiwar protests of the 1960s, a former Marxist, and currently an adviser to green businesses. So when she challenges some of the most sacred tenets of feminist theory, people sit up and take note. Notes from an Incomplete Revolution asks some tough questions about the way women live, as opposed to the way feminism tells them they should live. Is there a biological underpinning to the different ways women and men think and behave, she wonders, or is it purely the result of social conditioning, as some feminists claims? Why, even in an age of unprecedented opportunity for women, do so many opt for jobs and lifestyles that allow motherhood to be their top priority?

Maran asks these and other questions, but she doesn't always answer them. Leaving the problem of biology vs. conditioning as the determinant in our lives, she focuses her attention on the real issue of interest to her: the gap between feminism and real life. As in any political or social movement, feminism has its orthodox faction, and perhaps it is this sect to whom Maran directs her reminder, "The point of feminism was to give women choices, not to dictate what those choices should be."

Advance Praise for Notes from an Incomplete Revolution

"Amid the clatter of debate about what feminism is and isn't, Meredith Maran's funny, poignant stories reveal, in real-life terms, the battles we've won and those we're still fighting."
--Marie C. Wilson, President, Ms. Foundation for Women, and co-author of Mother Daughter Revolution

"As guys, we're just glad we had this chance to consider all the heart-opening, provocative questions Meredith raises about women--and men--today."
--Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, co-founders, Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc.

"This honest and necessary accounting from the front lines of how we live now should be read by anyone who cares about women and the future of the family."
--Marita Golden, author of Saving Our Sons: Raising Black Children in a Turbulent World

Critical acclaim for Maran's previous work, What It's Like to Live Now

"Unexpectedly compelling...fascinating, and heartening."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Meredith Maran captures all the heartbreak and glory of coping in difficult times."
--Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City

"A delight...a West Coast, distaff Woody Allen, with a good dollop more compassion."
--Los Angeles Times