Examines the long-term ramifications for adult women who, as adolescent girls, lost their fathers to death, divorce, or addiction; helps them understand how their behaviors were shaped by that loss at a pivotal developmental stage; and provides some interactive exercises to help them heal. Original.
If there’s one thing we can agree on in a post-Trump America, it’s that sexism exists. While there are myriad books on female friendship in the marketplace, Toxic Femininity is the first book on the special relationship between female coworkers and gender dynamics in the workplace to hit the market in a comedic gifty way. Talented humorist Ginny Hogan explores themes of sexism, workplace gender dynamics, and the challenges facing women at work (particularly in STEM fields) with disarming wit. Toxic Femininity includes fun short pieces (such as, “I'm Not A Sexist; I Also Ask My Male Colleagues If They’re Menstruating” and “How Silicon Valley Created The Perfect Meritocracy If You Specifically Happen To Be A Young, Straight, Well-Educated White Man”), true-false and multiple choice quizzes (including: “Are You Too Aggressive, or "Are You Politely Stating Your Opinion?” and Are You a True Feminist, a Male Feminist, a Feminist Just to Get Laid, or a Loaf of Bread?”), and even some surrealist essays (such as “A Woman From The Year 3018 Visits a Tech Startup” and “The Noise-Canceling Headphone’s Lament”). Toxic Femininity is a book that can be enjoyed in little sips or in one long drink. The variety of the pieces and the illustrations make a lovely and gifty package—this product is perfect for a mentor encouraging her mentees, a big sister preparing her little sister for the work place, or shoring up your best friend after a rough day. A conversation piece as much as a gift, the humorous nature of the work makes it possible to face topics that can be difficult to tackle head on; and we hope that this book will be able to serve not just as a gift but as a jumping off point for those hard-to have conversations that are a part of every work place environment.
The father-daughter relationship is a truly special one--what a dad does can have a tremendous influence on helping his daughter to grow into a confident woman who does well in life. So what does a daughter need most from her dad? What does a dad need to watch for and be aware of? Byron and Robin Yawn look to Scripture and life stories for practical principles that will help fathers become all they can be for their daughters. Among the topics they cover are... the importance of being a male role model a daughter can look up to the need to carefully balance sensitivity and strength the keys to good and meaningful father-daughter communication the character qualities a daughter needs most in her dad the ways a father can prepare his daughter for adulthood A superb resource for helping fathers navigate this relationship in a way that results in lifelong joy and blessings.
"What is it about the relationship between fathers and daughters that provokes so much exquisite tenderness, satisfying communion, longing for more, idealization from both ends, followed often if not inevitably by disappointment, hurt, and the need to understand and forgive, or to finger the guilt of not understanding and loving enough?" writes Phillip Lopate, in his introduction to Every Father's Daughter, a collection of 25 personal essays by women writers writing about their fathers. The editor, Margaret McMullan, is herself a distinguished novelist and educator. About half of these essays were written by invitation for this anthology; others were selected by Ms. McMullan and her associate, Philip Lopate, who provides an introduction. The contributors include many well-known writers--Alice Munro, Jayne Anne Phillips, Alexandra Styron, Ann Hood, Bobbie Ann Mason, Maxine Hong Kingston, among others--as well as writers less well-known but no less cogent, inventive, perceptive, lacerating, questioning, or loving of their fathers.
A Pulitzer Prize winner’s memoir of her search for her enigmatic father is “an absolute stunner . . . probing, steel-nerved, moving in ways you’d never expect” (New York Times). “In the summer of 2004 I set out to investigate someone I scarcely knew, my father. The project began with a grievance, the grievance of a daughter whose parent had absconded from her life. I was in pursuit of a scofflaw, an artful dodger who had skipped out on so many things—obligation, affection, culpability, contrition. I was preparing an indictment, amassing discovery for a trial. But somewhere along the line, the prosecutor became a witness.” So begins Susan Faludi’s extraordinary inquiry. When the feminist writer learned that her 76-year-old father—long estranged and living in Hungary—had undergone sex reassignment surgery, her investigation turned personal and urgent. How was this new parent who identified as “a complete woman now” connected to the silent, explosive, and ultimately violent father she had known? Faludi chases that mystery into the recesses of her suburban childhood and her father’s many previous incarnations: American dad, Alpine mountaineer, swashbuckling adventurer in the Amazon outback, Jewish fugitive in Holocaust Budapest. Her struggle to come to grips with her father’s metamorphosis takes her across borders—historical, political, religious, sexual—to bring her face to face with the question of the age: Is identity something you “choose,” or is it the very thing you can’t escape? “Riveting . . . Ms. Faludi unfolds her father’s story like the plot of a detective novel.” —Wall Street Journal “Penetrating and lucid . . . rich [and] arresting.” —New York Times Book Review “A gripping exploration of sexual, national, and ethnic identity.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
A #1 New York Times bestselling author traces her father’s life from turn-of-the-century Warsaw to New York City in an intimate memoir about family, memory, and the stories we tell. “An accomplished, clear-eyed, and affecting memoir about a man who is at once ordinary and extraordinary.”—Forward Long before she was the acclaimed author of a groundbreaking book about women and men, praised by Oliver Sacks for having “a novelist’s ear for the way people speak,” Deborah Tannen was a girl who adored her father. Though he was often absent during her childhood, she was profoundly influenced by his gift for writing and storytelling. As she grew up and he grew older, she spent countless hours recording conversations with her father for the account of his life she had promised him she’d write. But when he hands Tannen journals he kept in his youth, and she discovers letters he saved from a woman he might have married instead of her mother, she is forced to rethink her assumptions about her father’s life and her parents’ marriage. In this memoir, Tannen embarks on the poignant, yet perilous, quest to piece together the puzzle of her father’s life. Beginning with his astonishingly vivid memories of the Hasidic community in Warsaw, where he was born in 1908, she traces his journey: from arriving in New York City in 1920 to quitting high school at fourteen to support his mother and sister, through a vast array of jobs, including prison guard and gun-toting alcohol tax inspector, to eventually establishing the largest workers’ compensation law practice in New York and running for Congress. As Tannen comes to better understand her father’s—and her own—relationship to Judaism, she uncovers aspects of his life she would never have imagined. Finding My Father is a memoir of Eli Tannen’s life and the ways in which it reflects the near century that he lived. Even more than that, it’s an unflinching account of a daughter’s struggle to see her father clearly, to know him more deeply, and to find a more truthful story about her family and herself.
A thoughtful and "utterly mind-blowing" exploration of fatherhood and masculinity in the 21st century (New York Times). There are hundreds of books on parenting, and with good reason—becoming a parent is scary, difficult, and life-changing. But when it comes to books about parenting identity, rather than the nuts and bolts of raising children, nearly all are about what it's like to be a mother. Drawing on research in sociology, economics, philosophy, gender studies, and the author's own experiences, Father Figure sets out to fill that gap. It's an exploration of the psychology of fatherhood from an archetypal perspective as well as a cultural history that challenges familiar assumptions about the origins of so-called traditional parenting roles. What paradoxes and contradictions are inherent in our common understanding of dads? Might it be time to rethink some aspects of fatherhood? Gender norms are changing, and old economic models are facing disruption. As a result, parenthood and family life are undergoing an existential transformation. And yet, the narratives and images of dads available to us are wholly inadequate for this transition. Victorian and Industrial Age tropes about fathers not only dominate the media, but also contour most people's lived experience. Father Figure offers a badly needed update to our collective understanding of fatherhood—and masculinity in general. It teaches dads how to embrace the joys of fathering while guiding them toward an image of manliness for the modern world.
"Lady Father" is a narrative account of my journey through the ordination process in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia of the 1980's and the subsequent years of ordained ministry. As the first female admitted to the ordination process by the Rt. Rev. C. Charles Vach , 7th Bishop of Southern Virginia, who was then a strong and vocal opponent of the ordination of women, I was a "reluctant pioneer." Dubbed "the Lady Father," I have served the church for 25 years and I am now offering my experiences and the insights I learned from them to others who feel a similar call and who may find themselves on a similar journey "against the flow." "Lady Father" is filled with anecdotes that will ring true with many clergy, bring hope to those aspiring to ordination, and shed light on the continuing debate in the Church over who should be ordained. "The Process" described in the book is a journey most clergy have traveled, but my story is a unique blend of the obstacles, denials, and rejections I faced and overcame, along with the uplifting moments and spiritual growth that came out of the struggle. It is truthful and so, at times, it is painful; it is often light-hearted, even humorous; it is moving as it deals with real people, real events, and real emotions; and, most of all, it is mine - my story, my journey, my life.
This book is an invaluable key to self-understanding. Using examples from her own life and the lives of her clients, as well as from dreams, fairy tales, myths, films, and literature, Linda Schierse Leonard, a Jungian analyst, exposes the wound of the spirit that both men and women of our culture bear—a wound that is grounded in a poor relationship between masculine and feminine principles. Leonard speculates that when a father is wounded in his own psychological development, he is not able to give his daughter the care and guidance she needs. Inheriting this wound, she may find that her ability to express herself professionally, intellectually, sexually, and socially is impaired. On a broader scale, Leonard discusses how women compensate for cultural devaluation, resorting to passive submission (“the Eternal Girl”), or a defensive imitation of the masculine (“the Armored Amazon”). The Wounded Woman shows that by understanding the father-daughter wound and working to transform it psychologically, it is possible to achieve a fruitful, caring relationship between men and women, between fathers and daughters, a relationship that honors both the mutuality and the uniqueness of the sexes.