We Are Our Mothers' Daughters

Rating:
Summary: Must Read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quite stupendous!!!!!!!!!
Review: This book is what life is all about for the vast majority of women. It tells it like it is and how good it can be to be a woman, wife, mother, daughter, professional woman. It looks realistically at women and how our personalities change depending on what role we are in at any given time. Cokie puts herself on the line right at the very beginning, leaving herself in quite a vulnerable position talking about how her sister died and how she and the rest of her family dealt with it. She left me in awe and wonder at how she does it, yet I know the answer--we all do it because either we love it (our families and our careers) or it must be done. Cokie, you left me feeling proud to be a woman. Bravo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Summarizes the accomplishments of women in the last 150 yrs
Review: This book made me laugh out loud and made me weep. I have never seen such a thorough summary of the efforts of women in the past 150 years. Woven into this historical perspective is the story of a women who prizes her friends. We are biological daughters of the women who gave us life--but we are philosophical daughters of the women who made it possible for us to vote, to have a career, to own a business, to borrow money.

Cokie Roberts has ever so gently thrown down the gauntlet to all working women: someone made it easier for each of us--what are each of us doing to make it easier for those who follow us.

Read this book and ask yourself what you have done with your woman power.

Rating:
Summary: A great record of American Women's Heritage
Review: This book was great! She covers women's contributions through the history of the U.S. without it feeling like a boring history lesson. Better yet she reaffirms the relationships that all women have, with their moms, their friends, their co-workers, and their spouse. I'm buying this one for my friends!

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful work by Ms. Roberts
Review: This is a gentle book of celebration. Cokie Roberts is an attractive lady from a large family of achievers. She shares part of her life story with the reader and writes valuable information in the form of essays, about amazing women past and present; many of whom we have not been aware of.

I thoroughly enjoyed this easy to read book. I recommend it as encouragement to all women especially those hiding their talents.
Mostly though, it is a reassuring book in that we women are reminded to appreciate each other, ever learning, ever discovering new ways to contribute, even if our best efforts go unnoticed for a time; willing to step back or go forward as the need arises, and always share the credits.

With all due respect to the author, I find the title to be unworthy of this fine book. I am my daughter's mother; some women have no daughters, some daughters have no mother to encourage them - anyway perhaps I haven't gotten the point. Do read this book, enjoy it, and give it your own title!

Rating:
Summary: For all Women
Review: This is a gentle book of celebration. Cokie Roberts is an attractive lady from a large family of achievers. She shares part of her life story with the reader and writes valuable information in the form of essays, about amazing women past and present; many of whom we have not been aware of.

I thoroughly enjoyed this easy to read book. I recommend it as encouragement to all women especially those hiding their talents.
Mostly though, it is a reassuring book in that we women are reminded to appreciate each other, ever learning, ever discovering new ways to contribute, even if our best efforts go unnoticed for a time; willing to step back or go forward as the need arises, and always share the credits.

With all due respect to the author, I find the title to be unworthy of this fine book. I am my daughter's mother; some women have no daughters, some daughters have no mother to encourage them - anyway perhaps I haven't gotten the point. Do read this book, enjoy it, and give it your own title!

Rating:
Summary: We Are Our Mothers' Daughters
Review: Veteran journalist Roberts intersperses her memoir with vignettes of women she's gotten to know in three decades of political reporting. She grew up in Washington and Louisiana, the daughter of U.S. Reps. Hale and Lindy Boggs, with an extended family that provided strong female role models. Two of the women she profiles here are Esther Peterson, a consumer advocate in the 1970s, and Dorothy Height, former president of the National Council of Negro Women. Roberts also speaks of her career and motherhood in the years before employers provided maternity leave and subsidized daycare. Finally, she asks, "What is a woman's place? For most women it's many places, different places at different times." This lively recording will be popular among public library patrons

Rating:
Summary: As trite as the title
Review: We Are our Mothers' Daughters, by Cokie Roberts, ABC anchor and news analyst for National Public Radio, is a book about women. Through personal anecdotes and the spotlighting of certain women in history, Roberts examines women's place and roles. This thankfully short book is a series of musings on different aspects of these roles, with chapters such as- Sister; Politician; Soldier; Friend; Mother.

There is not much rhyme or reason to Roberts profiles'- consumer advocate Esther Peterson, welfare success story Eva Oliver, Civil rights activist Dorothy Height. The brief histories of women in politics, the military and the media are somewhat interesting, yet fail to pull this book together. Some of the personal anecdotes are entertaining. Roberts' mother, Congresswoman Lindy Boggs is an absorbing figure. Yet hearing about Roberts' wonderful marriage, her dear friends and her daughter's wedding gets tiresome.

Roberts often borders on the trite, telling women that "We are connected throughout time and regardless of place. We are our mothers' daughters." Despite this connection, her book has very little to say to women who are not like her- born in a time, place, and family with advantages and opportunities. She never examines why, even among women, lives and opportunities are so disparate.

This lack of analysis continues throughout the book. Roberts documents blatant discrimination against women yet never examines institutional or societal barriers to women's advancement, or men's role in this history. She is careful never to criticize men.

Roberts saves her criticism for her sisters. She blames women for devaluing other women's choices about work and family, criticizes women who are single-mindedly career driven, and complains about modern women's complaints that they "can't do it all," extolling pioneer women who "never insisted they couldn't be superwomen." But should women have to be superwomen? Maybe it's time to scrap the niceness and demand public policy which is adaptive to women's roles in the home and the workplace.

Roberts is conflicted about feminism. She wants equal opportunities for women in the workplace yet insists upon women and men retaining their traditional roles as nurturer and breadwinner. This keeping women and men in their places leads to some odd statements, such as when she says that the Democratic party hates the fact that the women's vote goes Democratic because they worry that "real men don't like Democrats."

Roberts seems somewhat uncomfortable with her professional success. She is careful to let us know that while she derives tremendous satisfaction from her work, "necessity dictated that [she] have a full-time, well-paying job". She adds she is uncomfortable when she is recognized in public and her husband isn't.

Roberts is out-of-step with young women today. Along with providing numerous anecdotes about plotting to get her husband to marry her, she advises young women not to worry so much about having all of the responsibilities of work and home- "women are tough." In the end her answer to what a woman's place is is the place of nurturer. Let's hope that this is not the only message that women carry into the 21st century.