Taking On the Big Boys: Or Why Feminism Is Good for Families, Business, and the Nation

Taking On the Big Boys: Or Why Feminism Is Good for Families, Business, and the Nation
by Ellen Bravo

Taking On the Big Boys: Or Why Feminism Is Good for Families, Business, and the Nation
List Price: $15.95
Our Price: $6.01
You Save: $9.94 (62%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.61 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Ellen Bravo
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-04-01
ISBN: 1558615458
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY

Book Reviews of Taking On the Big Boys: Or Why Feminism Is Good for Families, Business, and the Nation

Book Review: Taking on the Big Boys
Summary: 5 Stars

Taking on the Big Boys answers - finally! - the one question that students, staff people at my university, and audiences at feminist gatherings most frequently ask: "We know about the injustices working women face," they say, "but what can we do to change it?" Writing with wit, anger, compassion and joy, Ellen Bravo tells the stories of women who have banded together to wrest victories from the top guns who profit from their labor in business and government. Drawing from her own experiences and those of the many, many people she worked with during her years as a feminist labor organizer and long-time director of 9-to-5, National Association of Working Women, Bravo recounts their successful struggles for pay equity, child care, welfare rights, parental leave, health care, quality family time, and equality in the home. In Bravo's writing, all of these issues reclaim a fresh urgency as essential building blocks for a socially just society: "We have to do more than smash the glass ceiling - we have to redesign the building," she says. What makes this book such a page-turner is that it works on many levels at once. Every chapter is packed with factual information, as Bravo uses surprising statistics to shatter the myths the Big Boys and their mass-media buddies have concocted to justify gender discrimination. The narratives recount tragic injustices toward working women and inspiring victories. There are plenty of practical, creative, effective - and hilarious - strategies for taking on bosses, legislators, and government bureaucrats. All of this is wrapped in accessible and succinct progressive feminist theory that clarifies how a small class of "Big Boys" can profit from discriminating against women, and how we can change all that.

Summary of Taking On the Big Boys: Or Why Feminism Is Good for Families, Business, and the Nation

"Please, please, please. All working women must read this book! Ellen Bravo not only vividly exposes workplace inequities, she gives real-life solutions, picking up where my film 9 to 5 left off."-Jane Fonda

Enough about "breaking the glass ceiling." Here are blueprints for a redesign of the entire building, ground up, to benefit women and men-and even the bottom line.

The feisty humor of Molly Ivins and the journalistic flair of Barbara Ehrenreich meet when longtime labor activist Ellen Bravo relates stories from business and government and women's testimonies from offices, assembly lines, hospitals, and schools. Bravo unmasks the patronizing, trivializing, and minimizing tactics employed by "the big boys" and their surrogates: They portray feminism as women against men, and they dismiss as outrageous demands for pay equity, family leave, and flex time. Practical tips on everything from dealing with a sexual harasser to getting family members to share chores (and build equal relationships) enliven many chapters.

Bravo argues for feminism as a system of beliefs, laws, and practices that fully values women and work associated with women, while detailing activist strategies to achieve a society where everybody-women and men-reach their potential.

A former director of 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women, and a recipient of a Women of Vision Award from the Ms. Foundation, Ellen Bravo lectures nationwide and teaches women's studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She wrote The Job/Family Challenge: A 9to5 Guide (Not for Women Only) and is the co-authored The 9to5 Guide To Combating Sexual Harassment.

Women & Business Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Suggestions for Feminist Book Groups Part II
Of Woman Born: Motherhood As Experience and Institution ImageOf Woman Born: Motherhood As Experience and Institution
by Adrienne Cecile Rich
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1995-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.90
Price in other shops: $16.95
College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Co-Eds, Then and Now ImageCollege Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Co-Eds, Then and Now
by Lynn Peril
W. W. Norton; Published: 2006-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.13
Price in other shops: $16.95
Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law ImageClass Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law
by Clara Bingham, Laura Leedy Gansler
Anchor; Published: 2003-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.90
Price in other shops: $15.95
The Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America) ImageThe Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America)
by Dorothy Sue Cobble
Princeton University Press; Published: 2005-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.54
Price in other shops: $23.95
Choice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood, and Abortion ImageChoice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood, and Abortion
by Karen E. Bender and Nina de Gramont
MacAdam/Cage; Published: 2007-10-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.15
Price in other shops: $15.00
Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class (Live Girls) ImageWithout a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class (Live Girls)
Seal Press; Published: 2004-01-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.14
Price in other shops: $14.95
Narrative of Sojourner Truth (Dover Thrift Editions) ImageNarrative of Sojourner Truth (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Sojourner Truth
Dover Publications; Published: 1997-07-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.50
Price in other shops: $2.50
Mexican American Women Activists ImageMexican American Women Activists
by Mary Pardo
Temple University Press; Published: 1998-06-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.96
Price in other shops: $26.95
She's a Rebel: The Histroy of Women in Rock and Roll (Live Girls) ImageShe's a Rebel: The Histroy of Women in Rock and Roll (Live Girls)
by Gillian G. Gaar
Seal Press; Published: 2002-11-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.95
Price in other shops: $24.95
Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild ImageSisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild
by Deborah Siegel
Palgrave Macmillan; Published: 2007-06-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.47
Price in other shops: $14.95
Similar Books and other products
Women: Images & Realities, A Multicultural Anthology ImageWomen: Images & Realities, A Multicultural Anthology
by Amy Kesselman, Lily D McNair, Nancy Schniedewind
McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; Published: 2006-11-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $53.00
Talking from 9 to 5: Women and Men at Work ImageTalking from 9 to 5: Women and Men at Work
by Deborah Tannen
Harper Paperbacks; Published: 1995-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: $13.95
Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams ImageLimbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams
by Alfred Lubrano
Wiley; Published: 2005-02-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.14
Price in other shops: $19.95
Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters ImageFull Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters
by Jessica Valenti
Seal Press; Published: 2007-03-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.27
Price in other shops: $15.95
Off-ramps and On-ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success ImageOff-ramps and On-ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success
by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
Harvard Business School Press; Published: 2007-05-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.93
Price in other shops: $29.95
The Rage of a Privileged Class: Why Do Prosperous Blacks Still Have the Blues? ImageThe Rage of a Privileged Class: Why Do Prosperous Blacks Still Have the Blues?
by Ellis Cose
Harper Perennial; Published: 1995-01-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.48
Price in other shops: $13.00
Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders (Center for Public Leadership) ImageThrough the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders (Center for Public Leadership)
by Alice H. Eagly, Linda L. Carli
Harvard Business School Press; Published: 2007-10-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.36
Price in other shops: $29.95
Mothers on the Fast Track: How a New Generation Can Balance Family and Careers ImageMothers on the Fast Track: How a New Generation Can Balance Family and Careers
by Mary Ann Mason, Eve Mason Ekman
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2007-06-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.47
Price in other shops: $24.95
FEMININE MISTAKE, THE: ARE WE GIVING UP TOO MUCH? ImageFEMININE MISTAKE, THE: ARE WE GIVING UP TOO MUCH?
by Leslie Bennetts
Voice; Published: 2007-04-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.94
Price in other shops: $24.95
Opting Out?: Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home ImageOpting Out?: Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home
by Pamela Stone
University of California Press; Published: 2008-06-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.83
Price in other shops: $16.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories