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The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World |  | Author: Michelle Goldberg
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Seller: TSCBOOKS
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 257155
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 0.9
Dewey Decimal Number: 363.46091724
ASIN: B002KAORXE
Publication Date: April 2, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In this groundbreaking work of investigative journalism by the author of the New York Times bestseller Kingdom Coming, Michelle Goldberg exposes the global war on womens reproductive rights and its disastrous and unreported consequences for the future of global development
Womens rights are often treated as mere appendages to great questions of war, peace, poverty, and economic development. But as networks of religious fundamentalists, feminists, and bureaucrats struggle to remake sexual and childbearing norms worldwide, the battle to control womens bodies has become a high-stakes enterprise, with the United States often supporting the most reactionary forces.
In a work of incisive cultural analysis and deep reporting, Michelle Goldberg shows how the emancipation of women has become the key human rights struggle of the twenty-first century. The Means of Reproduction travels through four continents, examining issues such as abortion, female circumcision, and Asias missing girls to show how the battle over womens bodies has been globalized and how, too often, the United States has joined sworn enemies such as Iran and Sudan in an axis of repression. Reporting with unique insight from both the rarefied realm of international policy and from individual womens lives, Goldberg elucidates the economic, demographic, and health consequences of womens oppression, which affect more than half the worlds population.
As The Means of Reproduction reveals, the conflict between self-determination and patriarchal tradition has come to define pressing questions of global development. Empowering women is the key to retarding the progress of AIDS, curbing overpopulation, and helping the third world climb out of poverty, but attempts to improve womens status elicit fierce opposition from conservatives who see womens submission as key to their own national or religious identity.
From the anticommunist genesis of Americas attempts to stem population growth in poor countries to the current worldwide attack on womens rights as a decadent Western imposition, Goldberg explores the interplay between the great issues of our time and the politics of sex and childbearing. Finally, The Means of Reproduction shows how women, strengthened by a solidarity that transcends borders, are fighting for freedom.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
 All the facts, not opinions to support Reproductive Health April 5, 2009
Zoe Ann Nicholson (Newport Beach, CA)
27 out of 35 found this review helpful
I first read about this book at RHRealityCHeck.org in an interview of Michelle Goldberg by Mandy Van Deven. I ordered it immediately and had to wait for it to arrive on April 4. This book is landing in our march toward reproductive intelligence, liberty and health at precisely the right moment. While social justice is unfolding; the backlash is mounting, gasping its last breaths, this book is rich with vision and understanding.
American women need to understand the reach of their influence, their dollars and their personal religion. There are places in the world where pregnancy and childbirth can be punishment, torture and deadly, US policies are contributing through policies and funding certain programs, unfunding others, gag orders and relinquishing responsibility to religious organizations.
Michelle explains all of this and more, making it clear how decisions in Washington DC or a neighborhood clinic end up practiced in Africa or India with no understanding of the cultural consequences.
The Means of Reproduction is brilliant, responsible and approachable. I highly recommend it. Finally a book that makes it clear that American women, with all our freedom, need to commit to provide women world-wide with comprehensive birth control information and methods.
Great read on radical right and reproduction April 5, 2009
Frances Kissling (USA)
25 out of 33 found this review helpful
Just read Nick Kristoff's op-ed column in the Sunday Times on the need for more funding for international family planning assistance. The Means of Reproduction is critical to a modern understanding of why something as simple and noncontroversial as family planning has been stalled for the last decade by the US religious right and the Vatican. Solid data, great stories and good analysis.
Smart and engaging April 5, 2009
Beth Fredrck (USA)
23 out of 31 found this review helpful
Michelle Goldberg brings passion and intelligence to an important global issue--women's health and rights. Her ability to combine political analysis with compelling storytelling makes this an interesting and informative read.
Interesting & Important June 12, 2009
Sophia Linson (Tucson, AZ)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
I highly recommend this book! The book is obviously meticulously researched and there is a lot of factual information, but it is never boring. It is very well written - the author addresses broad, complex issues and provides insightful analysis, but also brings in personal stories and descriptions of characters.
If you are interested in human rights, economic development, international politics or women's issues you will get a lot out of it.
Too important to be ignored October 25, 2009
Dr. Lorinda Sheppard
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
In this powerful book, Goldberg deftly weaves the accounts of individual women against the backdrop of nations, cultures, international law, and US policy as she illustrates the impact of women's rights in general, and reproductive rights in particular, on not only the women themselves, but on our global society. She argues convincingly that providing all women with reproductive freedom--including access to reliable birth control, safe abortion, and educational opportunities that enhance their economic potential and their ability to self-advocate--can be a powerful means for lifting both women and their families out of poverty. This book made me alternately angry and hopeful by outlining the successes and failures of numerous countries, including the United States, in ensuring that women's potential is achieved. Goldberg shows us what has worked, what has failed, what the threats are to continued progress, what the potential outcomes are if those threats are allowed to prevail, and what rewards we can anticipate if all countries would move forward in recognizing the valuable contributions and the basic human rights of women.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
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