Choosing To Lead: Women and the Crisis of American Values

by Constance H. Buchanan

Overview

In this challenging book, historian Constance H. Buchanan shows that while public debate often blames women for the nation's "crisis of values," women's leadership actually has the potential to solve this crisis by redefining the American pattern of adult life and work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807020036
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	09/01/1997
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Constance H. Buchanan is a program officer in religion at the Ford Foundation. Previously, she was associate dean of Harvard Divinity School and the founding director of its Women's Studies in Religion program.

Editorial Reviews

A carefully researched and richly textured wake-up call to a society that perversely undervalues the leadership role of women. —Bill Kovach, curator, Nieman Foundation, Harvard University

"Everyone talks today about the crisis in American values. But Constance Buchanan explains how we got this way and how we can do better. Further, she shows how utterly integral the role of women will be in restoring the value dimension to public life in America. Buchanan combines a sure grasp of history with an ability to write engagingly." —Harvey Cox, author of Fire from Heaven

"Choosing to Lead lets Americans take strength from a long tradition of civic leadership by women. Writing with grace and conviction, Constance Buchanan shows that if only they can break free of culturally defined marginality, women leaders can forge a new democratic vision of work, family, and community in America. This marvelous book will inspire a wide readership." —Theda Skocpol, author of Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States

"While outlining the crises our children and families face today, Buchanan encourages women to examine their own values, expectations, and moral compasses in order to lead our country and our world to a new vision." —Marian Wright Edelman, president, Children's Defense Fund

"Extraordinary. . . . Choosing to Lead raises important questions not only for women, but for our entire society." —The Women's Capital Forum

From the Publisher

In this provocative and thoughtful scholarly essay, Buchanan, a historian and associate dean of Harvard Divinity School, contends that the cultural concept of a "good woman" as a married mother responsible for society's moral health and the concurrent stigmatization of illegitimacy limits female participation in civic life. Maternal virtue, according to the author, is not a "natural" or inborn trait but rather had its historical roots in the Christian traditions of the 16th century. Even today, she notes, the concept forms a cornerstone of American values. To inspire women today, Buchanan looks to the extraordinary achievements of 19th-century female social reformers whose public accomplishments were obscured by male-dominated academia. She is hopeful that their example will energize women to become more active civic leaders who will restructure motherhood to include compensation for women's labor and stimulate a societal response to meeting the needs of all children and their caregivers. (June)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Buchanan (associate dean, Harvard Divinity Sch.) undertakes two tasks in this book. First, she faults and then ostensibly corrects historians who, she alleges, have misunderstood the central role religion played in the lives of women reformers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her critique is not persuasive, however, since religion has been amply understood as central in the lives of these reformers and Buchanan adds little. Second, she claims a special role for women in the contemporary crisis of values, exhorting women to lead a movement for "a basic restructuring of the values that shape our public institutions," which would then result "in making unpaid social labor a structurally supported primary public value." Feminists might argue that such a movement has been underway for some time; Buchanan offers no practical suggestions to enhance its efficacy. Not recommended.Cynthia Harrison, George Washington Univ., Washington, D.C.

Library Journal

Buchanan (women's studies in religion, Harvard Divinity School) explains why women's leadership is vital to reweaving the moral fabric of American life, and traces the history of the idea that women's authority extends only to the home. She shows how black and white women reformers in the 19th and early 20th centuries challenged moral barriers to their leadership, and suggests that contemporary women learn from their example. Of interest to students and general readers. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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