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From: tittle@ics.UCI.EDU (Cindy Tittle Moore)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Book Review: The Women's History of the World
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Date: 1 Jun 91 19:13:34 GMT
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Review by Cindy Tittle Moore
May 21, 1991

This article may be reproduced only in its entirety; which includes
preserving the author's name, this notice, and all addresses given at
the end.  It is freely redistributable as long as all recipients are
entitled to do so likewise and no profit is made.

Copyright (C) 1991 by Cindy Tittle Moore

The Women's History of the World
by Rosalind Miles
Perennial Library, Harper & Row Publishers, New York
ISBN: 0-06-097317-X (trade paperback)
Library of Congress: 88-39598

All page numbers given are from the paperback version.


This book is a witty, mildly irreverent, extraordinarily intriguing
retelling of human history with women as the primary focus.  The first
chapter alone explodes all the comfortable bases for considering Man
the Hunter as the primary force behind the creation of civilization.
For example, the argument that the cooperation needed to organize
successful hunts was the significant factor in civilization is
countered by the argument that

  ``The need to organize for feeding after weaning, learning to handle the
  more complex socioemotional bonds that were developing, hte new skills
  and cultural inventions surrounding more extensive gathering --- all
  would demand larger brains.  Too much attention has been given to
  skills required by hunting, and too little to the skills required for
  gather and the raising of dependent young.'' (pg 8)

Miles moves through all of history, from the primitive beginnings
outlined above, to an examination of Goddess worship before the rise
of ``Phallic-centered'' religions, to a discussion of the implications
of ``God the Father'' for women.  She outlines how and in her view why
the roles women have played throughout history have been
underestimated and belittled.  Her writing style is clear and readable
and she writes with a distinct lack of bitterness.  For example:

  ``Not all women, however, lived as victims and died as slaves; it
  would be historically unjust as well as inaccurate to present the
  whole of the female sex as passive and defeated in the face of their
  oppressions.'' (pg 50)

In many respects, this book echoes similar themes that _The Gospel
According to Woman_ did in its discussion of religion and its effects
on women.  Miles shows how religion and the (religiously sanctioned)
lack of education for women combined to devalue ``women's work'' and
to keep women in an inferior position.  Uneducated, it was more
difficult to fight for justice and to be taken seriously; uneducated,
the myth of ``stupid women'' was perpetuated.

She touches on the Industrial Revolution as taking away even the
importance of work at home:

  ``With the shift from an agricultural to an industrial economy, from
  country to town, from home to factory, women lost the previous
  flexibility, status and control of their work.  In its place they were
  granted the privilege of low-grade, exploited occupations, the double
  burden of waged and domestic labor, and the sole responsibility for
  child care that has weighed them down ever since.'' (pg 155)

In the nineteeth century, when religion began something of a decline
with the `Age of Reason,' women started to make comebacks,
particularly in reclaiming their bodies and in disemminating birth
control information.  Religion was then replaced by philosophy, of
which Freud's was so prominent, which was equally successful (though
not for as long) in putting women back down, this time as incomplete
men with penis envy.  Other factors are examined such as the early use
of Darwinism against women, the amazing extent of anti-female law
codified in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (such as the Code
Napoleon).

Miles' narrative is logical, connected, compassionate, and never
descends into absurdities.  It is well worth reading.


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