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Book Review of Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight from Equality

Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight from Equality
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From Publishers Weekly:
Unlike egalitarian feminists who demand full economic equality, "protectionist feminists," those who appeal for special maternity benefits and child-care laws, would settle for less, according to Kaminer, a jounalist and lawyer who teaches writing at Tufts. She believes such preferential treatment traps women in a cycle of institutionalized discrimination. A self-described egalitarian feminist, she demolishes the stereotype of the "selfish" woman who pursues a career for self-fulfillment and expects sacrifices in marriage to be mutual. Protectionist feminists, argues Kaminer, view women not as autonomous, self-reliant individuals but as "mothers first," a view said to be rooted in the image of the traditional hierarchical family. She advocates employer-sponsored childcare, parental leave programs and greater male participation in family life. With compelling scholarship, her analysis ranges over such issues as abortion, divorce, child custody, surrogacy and antipornography legislation.