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Barbara Ehrenreich

Deirdre English

The classic work on women’s health and how the medical establishment helped to justify sexism, by the authors of Witches, Midwives, and Nurses.

From Barbara Ehrenrich, New York Times-bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed, Bright-Sided, and other titles, and Deirdre English, former editor of Mother Jones, this book delves into the history of how women have been diagnosed, defined, and often dismissed, by doctors, a problem that persists even today. 

From claiming scientific proof of female inferiority to prescribing the “rest cure” to labeling patients as “hysterical,” the medical profession treated women as weak and pathological—and here, the authors of the “underground classic” Witches, Midwives, and Nurses (Kirkus Reviews) show how this biomedical rationale was used to justify sex discrimination throughout the culture, as well as how its vestiges are still evident in abortion policy and other reproductive rights struggles.

The Feminist Press at CUNY

Contemporary Classics

Complaints & Disorders: The Sexual Politics of Sickness

June Jordan

When it was first published, His Own Where was selected by the New York Times for its list of Most Outstanding Books, made the American Library Association’s list of Best Books, and nominated for the National Book Award. A new introduction by Sapphire, whose novel Push will be released as an Oprah-produced movie in November 2009. Though initially created for young adults, His Own Where has massive cross-over appeal. The product of the “second renaissance” of black arts of the 1960s and 1970s, His Own Where is a novel of political protest in the tradition of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. A love story, His Own Where captures the youth, energy, and grittiness of two adolescents struggling with parental abandonment and abuse, an intimidating urban environment, and social institutions indifferent to human need. Despite the constantly looming constrictions of society, Jordan’s characters dare to reimagine their world as embracing freedom and trust. Jordan championed the use of black English in the education system 30 years before the start of the debate about “Ebonics”; His Own Where is one of the first books published to use black English. His Own Where is highly autobiographical: Jordan acknowledged being physically abused by her father while her mother, a nurse, passively stood by; she was sent to a religious preparatory school; and she worked with architect Buckminster Fuller to build low-cost, aesthetic housing in Harlem.

His Own Where