April East Bay Book Club

6:30 - 7:30 pm
RINA Offices, 475 14th Street, Suite 1200, Oakland, 94612

Roundtable discussion of the book "Double Bind: Women on Ambition."

There's no need to have read the book - a willingness to listen and share is the only price of admission.

March's book: Double Bind: Women on Ambition

"Even as toweringly successful women from Gloria Steinem to Beyoncé embrace the word "feminism," the word "ambition," for many, remains loaded with ambivalence. Women who are naturally driven and goal-oriented shy away from it. They’re loath to see themselves―or be seen by others―as aggressive or, worst of all, as a bitch. Double Bind could not come at a more urgent time, a necessary collection that explodes this conflict, examining the concept of female ambition from every angle in essays full of insight, wisdom, humor, and rage.

Perceptively identifying a paradox at the very heart of feminism, editor Robin Romm has marshaled a stunning constellation of thinkers to examine their relationships with ambition with candor, intimacy, and wit. Roxane Gay discusses how race informs and feeds her ambition. Theresa Rebeck takes on Hollywood and confronts her own unquenchable thirst to overcome its sexism. Francine Prose considers the origins of the stigma; Nadia Manzoor discusses its cultural weight. Women who work in fields long-dominated by men―from butchery to tech to dogsledding―weigh in on what it takes to crack that ever-present glass ceiling, and the sometimes unexpected costs of shattering it. The eternally complex questions of aspiration and identity can be made even more treacherous at the dawn of motherhood; Allison Barrett Carter attempts leaning in at home, while Sarah Ruhl tries to uphold her feminist vision within motherhood’s infinite daily compromises.

Taken together, these essays show women from a range of backgrounds and at all stages of their lives and careers grappling with aspiration, failure, achievement, guilt, and, yes, success. Forthright and empowering, Double Bind breaks a long silence, reclaiming "ambition" from the roster of dirty words at last."

Follow the link to purchase the book and concurrently donate to FWSF.  

Event is FREE but please register for planning purposes. Open to prospective members.

Please contact Sorcha Evenhouse at sorcha.evenhouse@gmail.com if you are a prospective member and would like to attend, or if you are interested in leading a group.

Simply register below.

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