Philosophy professor Christina Sommers exposes a disturbing development: how a group of zealots, claiming to speak for all women, are promoting a dangerous new agenda that threatens our most cherished ideals and sets women against men in all spheres of life. In case after case, Sommers shows how these extremists have propped up their arguments with highly questionable but well-funded research, presenting inflammatory and often inaccurate information and stifling any semblance of free and open scrutiny. Trumpeted as orthodoxy, the resulting “findings” on everything from domestic abuse to economic bias to the supposed crisis in girls’ self-esteem perpetuate a view of women as victims of the “patriarchy.” Who Stole Feminism? is a call to arms that will enrage or inspire, but cannot be ignored.
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"I love that the author doesn't stoop to name-calling or political rants. She just makes her case fact by fact and study by study. She provides a refreshing deconstruction of many of the gender-war myths and false statistics that have become entrenched in our collective cultural consciousness."
— Joseph (5 out of 5 stars)
“Sommers’ voice is brashly confrontational; her approach is both investigative and polemical. But one need not accept her politics to appreciate the best of her book: its critical reporting.”
— Washington Post“Ms. Sommers simply lines up her facts and shoots one bull’s-eye after another.”
— Wall Street Journal“Likely to be the most talked-about manifesto since Susan Faludi’s Backlash.”
— Newsweek“Christina Hoff Summers has done something lethally deflating to the pretensions of the shriller sort of feminists: she looked at their evidence and found it lacking.”
— Los Angeles Daily News“An incisive description of the heartbreaking violence done social science by polemicists who confuse righteousness with rightness.”
— Lionel Tiger, author of The Pursuit of Pleasure" lol, feminism. basically some chick decides to use a seemingly intelligent counter-argument against the irrelevancy of modern feminism as an excuse to bitch out some other chick. "
— Omaima, 1/5/2014" Sommers refutes the many "lies, damn lies, and statistics" that float around discussions of gender relations. She is very opinionated about her fellow feminists (and not in a positive way), but she is clear about it and doesn't let it interfere with an objective analysis. "
— Nathan, 1/1/2014" I read this book when I was still in college. In hindsight I guess it's a critique of second wave feminism. What really sticks with me is how university/college campus-centered it was. I have to re-read it at some point. "
— Meredith, 12/27/2013" Excellent. Brilliant. "
— Darla, 12/25/2013" Christina Hoff Sommers is an anti-feminist funded by right wing foundations; her books are only intended to act as misinformation. "
— Scott, 12/21/2013" Excellent Book that shows you just how often we as women are lied to in order to support certain agendas. "
— Erin, 9/21/2013" Interesting read in which the author argues that feminism has gotten away from much of its intiial focus and become "Anti-man" rather than "pro-women" "
— Andrew, 6/16/2012" I won't say I agree with everything in here (although I am not allowed to be a feminist, or even have a vagina, according to most people who talk about such things) but it did get me to look more closely at how statistics are generated. "
— frazzledsoul, 2/22/2012" Not sure I'm going to finish this one or read it all at once. Maybe I should take it in little gulps 'cause the author is annoying me. She disagrees with most everyone's approach to feminism. I'm about 70 pages in and she's not had a good thing to say about anyone. She's right, they're all wrong. "
— Ruth, 10/21/2011" This is the book that taught me how to question things around me. I love the author and make it a point to read all her stuff. She never lets me down. "
— Hannah, 1/18/2011" I picked this up hoping to get a perspective different from the "party line," as I feel alienated from much of what passes as feminism among women of my generation. While many of Sommers's points are interesting, I was disappointed by her obvious polemic intent. "
— Tamar, 1/23/2010" An interesting, relentlessly entertaining, and often funny survey of the excesses of radical feminism, albeit one coming from the Conservative perspective. Also look into Rene Denfeld's "The New Victorians" for an indictment of radical second-wave feminism from a liberal standpoint. "
— Andy, 6/20/2008" Eshibit A in the case would be Sommers herself. I guess there's money to be made blaming the women for not having fixed everything by now. Slackers. "
— Kaethe, 12/9/2007" Stunning scholarship and polemicism. "
— Michael, 4/21/2007Christina Hoff Sommers has a PhD in philosophy from Brandeis University and was a professor of philosophy at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. She has written for such publications as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. She is the author of Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women. She is married, has two sons and lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.