Beyond the Double Bind: Women and Leadership"I can remember," says lawyer Flo Kennedy, "going to court in pants and the judge remarking that I wasn't properly dressed, that the next time I came to court I should be dressed like a lawyer." It was a moment painfully familiar to countless women: a demand that she conform to a stereotype of feminine dress and behavior--which would also mark her as an intruder, rising above her assigned station (as the saying goes, she dared to "wear the pants" in the courtroom). Kennedy took one look at the judge's robe--essentially "a long black dress gathered at the yoke"--and said, "Judge, if you won't talk about what I'm wearing, I won't talk about what you're wearing." In Beyond the Double Bind, Kathleen Hall Jamieson takes her cue from Kennedy's comeback to argue that the catch-22 that often blocks women from success can be overcome. Sparking her narrative with potent accounts of the many ways women have beaten the double bind that would seem to damn them no matter what they choose to do, Jamieson provides a rousing and emphatic denouncement of victim feminism and the acceptance of inevitable failure. As she explores society's interlaced traps and restrictions, she draws on hundreds of interviews with women from all walks of life to show the ways they cut through them. Kennedy, for example, faced the bind that insists that women cannot be both feminine and competent--and then demands that they be feminine first; she undermined that trap with wry wit. Ruth Bader Ginsberg attacked the same quandary head-on: when she heard that her law-school nickname was "bitch," she replied, "Better bitch than mouse." Jamieson explores the full range of such double binds (the uterus-brain bind, for example--"you can't conceive children and ideas at the same time"; or the assertion, "You are too special to be equal"), offering a roadmap for moving past these barricades to advancement. Unlike other breakthrough feminist writers, she finds grounds for optimism in areas ranging from slow improvements in women's earnings to newly effective legal remedies, from growing social awareness to the determination and skill of individual women who are fighting the double bind. Jamieson is a widely sought-after authority on politics and communications; this book marks a dramatic new departure for her, one certain to win widespread attention. With intensive research and incisive analysis, she provides a landmark account of the binds that ensnare women's lives--and the ways they can overcome them. |
What people are saying - Write a review
Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified
BEYOND THE DOUBLE BIND: Women and Leadership
User Review - KirkusAn accessible though mostly familiar analysis of the Catch-22s in women's professional lives. Childless women are frequently regarded as cold, calculating careerists, yet mothers are often dismissed ... Read full review
Beyond the double bind: women and leadership
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictJamieson, dean of the Annenberg School of Communications, University of Pennsylvania, and author of several works (e.g., Dirty Politics: Deception, Distraction & Democracy, Oxford Univ. Pr., 1992 ... Read full review
Contents
The Binds That Tie | 3 |
Hillary Clinton as Rorschach Test | 22 |
WombBrain | 53 |
SilenceShame | 77 |
SamenessDifference | 99 |
FemininityCompetence | 120 |
AgingInvisibility | 146 |
Newsbinds | 164 |
The Stories We Tell | 184 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
American Angeles appearance argued asked Association assumed assumption Barbara become behavior called campaign candidate career century choice claim competence cookies Court critics Democratic denied described difference discrimination double bind equal example expressive faced fact female feminine feminist Gender going Hillary Clinton House husband identified included invited issue John Journal judge July June Lady less lives look male March married masculine means mother move natural noted observed older once person political positions Press protection question reporter Republican response result rhetoric role Senator sexual Social speak speech stereotypes story suggested television things thought tion told tough turn University University Press voice Washington Post wife woman women writes wrote York