Joan Lewis

As a bit of a gallop through history it turned up some interesting snippets. It is amazing how badly women have been treated over the centuries. The ending was deeply disappointing with the theorising about genders. Of course we all know that to be male or female does not require us to conform to any particular stereotype but to suggest that there are more than 2 sexes is scientifically illiterate. (There are a very small number of people with DSDs but these people are still either male or female). There are 2 sexes, many ways of being either male or female but we all know that women have been discriminated against because of their sex and the fact that their bodies are different from men's bodies due to the different roles the 2 sexes play in reproduction. On page 545 she quotes 'Legal reforms that benefit women, are so often followed by renewed efforts by men to maintain the status quo.' The efforts of men attempting to destroy women's spaces and sports would seem to be following in this tradition. So I thought her Afterword to be a very poor ending to a book describing the oppression of women.