The Future of Women Book

Imagining the future is the first step toward realizing or avoiding it, say Pamela McCorduck and Nancy Ramsey. The duo use some science and a lot of art to project what women's lives might be like two decades hence. They paint four brave new worlds by mixing different driving forces--group vs. individual rights; sluggish vs. strong economic growth--with present-day events and trends. One scenario is a golden age of equality and opportunity. Another postulates nightmarish backlash. In a future Germany, for example, it is said that "The Berlin Wall fell on women" because state-supported child care, abortion rights, and employment were swept away after unification and economic backpedaling pushed women to the bottom of the job market. The third vision has international women's organizations working too hard to retain earlier gains to move forward. In the last hypothetical situation, women advance their lot through alliances with other women, separate from men and governments. McCorduck and Ramsey freely admit that the complex chaos of societies and wild cards such as biological terrorism make predictions simplistic, but as we strain toward the future, their rich, imaginative book illuminates the present.Read More