Comparing the affluent U.S. of today to the Titanic (which, as a luxury liner, nevertheless lacked lifeboats for steerage women and children), Sidel contends in this realistic appraisal that despite the women's movement, social and economic trends of the last 20 years, especially the divorce rate and mechanization of industry, have reduced to bare survival hundreds of thousands of already impoverished women and children. Many are older women, battered wives or female heads of families, asserts Sidel (who interviewed several of them), and they are often victims of sex and racial discrimination in the workplace or of government cutbacks in human services. Following Sweden's example, the U.S., she argues, should develop policies to strengthen family life through universal entitlements; should pay women better wages, provide family planning, maternity leaves and prenatal care, along with day and after-school care.

A sea voyage in the nineteenth century was not for the faint-hearted. The hazards were many and accidents commonplace. Of the ways a ship might meet its end, destruction by fire was perhaps the most feared. Wooden sailing vessels were particularly vulnerable and without breathing apparatus it was next to impossible to fight a fire below decks. The period saw a number of catastrophic shipboard fires, but that involving the New Zealand-bound emigrant ship Cospatrick was certainly the most destructive. When she burned and sank off the coast of Southern Africa in 1874, nearly 500 people lost their lives. There was a desperate battle to quench the fire, a huge death toll as the vessel was being abandoned, and acts of cannibalism in the one lifeboat that remained afloat. This book is based on research carried out in Britain, New Zealand and Australia. While it relates the story of the Cospatrick and the nightmare survival of only three people, it also looks at the larger picture of safety at sea.

"Ruth Sidel revisits the condition of America's poor women, with particular focus on the federal government's attempts to dismantle the welfare system. She shows how America, in its search for a post-Cold War enemy, has turned inward to target single mothers on welfare and how politicians have scapegoated and stigmatized female-headed families both as a method of social control and to divert attention from the several problems that Americans face. Most important, she reveals the real victims of poverty - the millions of children who suffer from societal neglect, inferior education, inadequate health care, hunger, and homelessness. Citing statistics that are both terrifying and disturbing, Sidel delivers a chilling indictment of the current trends and political maneuvering that threaten to keep America's poor women and children last."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

"It is 1912. Against all odds, the Titanic is sinking. As desperate hands emerge from the icy water, a few lucky row boats float in the darkness. On the boats are four survivors. Reg, a handsome young steward working in the first-class dining room; Annie, an Irishwoman travelling to America with her children; Juliet, a titled English lady who is pregnant and unmarried, and George, a troubled American millionaire. In the wake of the tragedy, each of these people must try to rebuild their lives. But how can life ever be the same again when you've heard over a thousand people dying in the water around you?"--Page [4] of cover.

Describes what happened to the Titanic survivors on that awful night and how the experience shaped their future lives.

A collection of feminist essays steeped in “Solnit’s unapologetically observant and truth-speaking voice on toxic, violent masculinity” (The Los Angeles Review). In a timely and incisive follow-up to her national bestseller Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit offers sharp commentary on women who refuse to be silenced, misogynistic violence, the fragile masculinity of the literary canon, the gender binary, the recent history of rape jokes, and much more. In characteristic style, “Solnit draw[s] anecdotes of female indignity or male aggression from history, social media, literature, popular culture, and the news . . . The main essay in the book is about the various ways that women are silenced, and Solnit focuses upon the power of storytelling—the way that who gets to speak, and about what, shapes how a society understands itself and what it expects from its members. The Mother of All Questions poses the thesis that telling women’s stories to the world will change the way that the world treats women, and it sets out to tell as many of those stories as possible” (The New Yorker). “There’s a new feminist revolution—open to people of all genders—brewing right now and Rebecca Solnit is one of its most powerful, not to mention beguiling, voices.”—Barbara Ehrenreich, New York Times–bestselling author of Natural Causes “Short, incisive essays that pack a powerful punch.” —Publishers Weekly “A keen and timely commentary on gender and feminism. Solnit’s voice is calm, clear, and unapologetic; each essay balances a warm wit with confident, thoughtful analysis, resulting in a collection that is as enjoyable and accessible as it is incisive.” —Booklist

This book, edited by Heather Marcovitch and Nancy Batty, offers multiple perspectives on the representation of women and children in the popular AMC series, Mad Men. These essays explore the rich historical and social context portrayed in the series and connect the concerns and tumult of the sixties to the contemporary moment.

This text explores the impact of recent welfare reform on motherhood, marriage, and work in women's lives. It also focuses on what welfare reform reveals about work and family life, and its impact on us all.

The astonishing untold history of the million and a half women who surrendered children for adoption due to enormous family and social pressure in the decades before Roe v. Wade. “It would take a heart of stone not to be moved by the oral histories of these women and by the courage and candor with which they express themselves.” —The Washington Post “A remarkably well-researched and accomplished book.” —The New York Times Book Review “A wrenching, riveting book.” —Chicago Tribune In this deeply moving and myth-shattering work, Ann Fessler brings out into the open for the first time the hidden social history of adoption before Roe v. Wade - and its lasting legacy. An adoptee who was herself surrendered during those years and recently made contact with her mother, Ann Fessler brilliantly brings to life the voices of more than a hundred women, as well as the spirit of those times, allowing the women to tell their stories in gripping and intimate detail.

Human trafficking is now the third-biggest activity of organized crime in Europe, surpassed only by the trafficking of drugs and arms. For Sale: Women and Children - Trafficking and Forced Prostitution in Southeast Europe, details how the women and children of Southeast Europe are entrapped by the web of human trafficking and then bought and sold like chattel for enormous profits from prostitution and pornography. It is estimated that the buying and selling of human beings worldwide generates as much as seven billion US dollars in income per year. Of approximately 700,000 women and children around the world who become victims of some kind of human trafficking each year, as many as 200,000 of them pass through the Balkans. Southeast Europe has thus become a major center for trafficking in women and children for prostitution. This book details the enormity of this phenomenon, how it happens, who is responsible, the role of organized crime, the plight of the victims, and what is being done and can be done to help the victims and prevent more women and children from ending up in the nightmare of trafficking. The book presents the victim's perspective with stories of how they were lured by traffickers, what they experienced on the streets and in brothels, and how they struggled to make their way out of sexual slavery only to find other difficulties as they returned to their home countries or tried to build new lives abroad. For Sale: Women and Children - Trafficking and Forced Prostitution in Southeast Europe provides an opportunity to learn about the roots of trafficking in human beings; its complexity, how it affects the individual and region, and what can be done to eliminate it. International, state, local, and individual actions can be taken to prevent trafficking, to protect victims, and to effectively prosecute those involved. This book shows why it will take a firm commitment by all to end this modern day slavery.