What Women Want by Deborah L. Rhode, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters

American women fare worse than men on virtually every major dimension of social status, financial wellbeing, and physical safety. Sexual violence remains common, and reproductive rights are by no means secure. Women assume disproportionate burdens in the home and pay a heavy price in theworkplace. Yet these issues are not political priorities, and worse, there is a lack of consensus that there still is a serious problem, or at least one that women have any reason or capacity to address. This "no problem" problem helps explain why women fail to mobilize around issues that materiallyaffect the quality of their lives. Why is this, why does it matter, and how can we best respond?What Women Want focuses on the policy agenda for women. Deborah L. Rhode, one of the nation's leading scholars on women and law, brings to the discussion a broad array of interdisciplinary research as well as interviews with heads of leading women's organizations. Key questions addressed includewhether the women's movement is stalled. What are the major obstacles it confronts? What are its key priorities and what strategies might advance them? In addressing those questions, the book explores virtually all of the major policy issues confronting women. Topics include employment andappearance discrimination, the gender gap in pay and leadership opportunities, work/family policies, childcare, divorce, same- sex marriage, sexual harassment, domestic violence, rape, trafficking, abortion, poverty, and politics. Discussion focuses on the capacities and limits of law as a strategyfor social change. Why, despite four decades of enforcement of equal employment legislation, is women's workplace status so far from equal? Why, despite a quarter century's effort at reforming rape law, is America's rate of reported rape the second highest in the developed world? Part of the problemlies in the absence of political mobilization around such issues and the underrepresentation of women in public office. This path-breaking book explores how women can and should act on what they want. | What Women Want by Deborah L. Rhode, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters