Making Sense of Women's Lives presents a wide range of writings about women's lives in the United States. Michele Plott and Lauri Umansky have drawn on their experiences as both students and professors to assemble the collection. Seeking to provide as full a sampling from a diverse and intellectually vibrant field as one volume permits, the editors have also chosen writing that makes an enjoyable read. A few of the selections here represent the undisputed 'classics' of the field. More of them constitute simply the works, drawn from academic and nonacademic sources alike, that could make a difference in understanding what it means to be female in America. Making Sense of Women's Lives is intended as the primary text in Women's Studies courses. With that usage in mind, Plott and Umansky have provided brief introductions to each article to help students understand the author's perspectives. Thought and discussion questions follow each selection. The book contains, as well, numerous "Flash Exercises" suggestions for class exercises and activities. The editors have used these activities in their courses over the past decade, in conjunction with readings in this volume, and have found that the full complement of materials coalesces into an intellectually powerful introduction to Women's Studies. A Collegiate Press book

Today's generation is the first to really speak openly about menopause—yet the medical community and popular culture fixate on the negative aspects. Now a renowned women's health expert offers a powerful guide to experiencing perimenopause and menopause as a nautral gateway into the next exciting and meaningful phase of our lives.

Making Sense of Women's Health is a comprehensive guide for women of all ages. It offers information on complementary therapies such as lifestyle and diet, vitamin supplementation, and herbs to help women make informed choices about their specific health concerns.

Step into the world of Alison Armstrong, where love, care, and attention from men are normal and relied upon-and a way of life available for every women. Do you have to sell our soul? Not even close. This book can be your guide, an unexpected friend, even a prophecy for your future. Funny information-packed text, illustrative charts and enlightening side-bars will deliver priceless insights into men their motivations and their inspirations. Making Sense of Men will teach you:"Why men pursue some women for sex and others for heart-felt relationships"How to tell when a man is emotionally involved"How to inspire generosity and attentiveness in all men"How you can be strong and successful-without discouraging men

Rich lessons from single women who are trying to poise their hearts between what is and what God has yet to send their way are presented in a reminder to claim God's purpose not someday, but today.

In a recent study, ninety percent of women stated that they 'expect to transition' within the next five years. Rather than be frustrated, Rosetti argues that with thought and some elbow grease, transition is not only healthy but rewarding. Women and Transition is a step-by-step how-to guide that every woman can learn from.

Aptheker 'weaves together the voices of women survivors of the Holocaust and of the U.S. concentration camps for Japanese Americans, Chicana cannery workers and southern cotton-mill girls, older lesbians and elderly Jews, Afro-American women in slavery and contemporary Afro-American writers, and others, in order to explore women's ways of seeing. Her analyses of oral histories, novels, legends, poetry, and art show how we can use these records of women's and men's lives.' -- Sandra Harding, Women's Review of Books

On feminist cultural theory

Maneuvers takes readers on a global tour of the sprawling process called "militarization." With her incisive verve and moxie, eminent feminist Cynthia Enloe shows that the people who become militarized are not just the obvious ones—executives and factory floor workers who make fighter planes, land mines, and intercontinental missiles. They are also the employees of food companies, toy companies, clothing companies, film studios, stock brokerages, and advertising agencies. Militarization is never gender-neutral, Enloe claims: It is a personal and political transformation that relies on ideas about femininity and masculinity. Films that equate action with war, condoms that are designed with a camouflage pattern, fashions that celebrate brass buttons and epaulettes, tomato soup that contains pasta shaped like Star Wars weapons—all of these contribute to militaristic values that mold our culture in both war and peace. Presenting new and groundbreaking material that builds on Enloe's acclaimed work in Does Khaki Become You? and Bananas, Beaches, and Bases, Maneuvers takes an international look at the politics of masculinity, nationalism, and globalization. Enloe ranges widely from Japan to Korea, Serbia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Britain, Israel, the United States, and many points in between. She covers a broad variety of subjects: gays in the military, the history of "camp followers," the politics of women who have sexually serviced male soldiers, married life in the military, military nurses, and the recruitment of women into the military. One chapter titled "When Soldiers Rape" explores the many facets of the issue in countries such as Chile, the Philippines, Okinawa, Rwanda, and the United States. Enloe outlines the dilemmas feminists around the globe face in trying to craft theories and strategies that support militarized women, locally and internationally, without unwittingly being militarized themselves. She explores the complicated militarized experiences of women as prostitutes, as rape victims, as mothers, as wives, as nurses, and as feminist activists, and she uncovers the "maneuvers" that military officials and their civilian supporters have made in order to ensure that each of these groups of women feel special and separate.

In this brand new radical analysis of globalization, Cynthia Enloe examines recent events—Bangladeshi garment factory deaths, domestic workers in the Persian Gulf, Chinese global tourists, and the UN gender politics of guns—to reveal the crucial role of women in international politics today. With all new and updated chapters, Enloe describes how many women's seemingly personal strategies—in their marriages, in their housework, in their coping with ideals of beauty—are, in reality, the stuff of global politics. Enloe offers a feminist gender analysis of the global politics of both masculinities and femininities, dismantles an apparently overwhelming world system, and reveals that system to be much more fragile and open to change than we think.