Book Reviews ! 87

T m ~ m z ~ BLACK F~mms~ts, edited by Stanlie M. James and Abena P. A. Busia, 300 pages. Routledge, London, 1993.

Those of us who research the multiple oppressions of race, gender, class, and sexuality know the need for new and intellectually stimulating texts that articulate those experi- ences and assist in the teaching of Black women's studies. Over the last few years a handful of books and an increas- ing number of journal articles on Black women have appeared, broadening the scope of our contemporary sources. Pioneering anthologies such as But Some of Us are Brave (New York: Feminist Press, 1982) and Charting the Journey (London: Sheba Press, 1988) which indicated the interrelationship of issues of class, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality opened the way for this expanding field.

In the United States, African American women have a long history of academic achievement through institutions such as Spelman College where the anthology Theorizing Black Feminisms was nurtured. This collection comprises a wide-ranging forum on contemporary Black feminis t debates across several disciplines and grapples with issues such as education, health, body politics, art criticism, and the socioeconomic status of women, as well as discussing overt political ac t iv ism. In four parts, "On Revis ing Paradigms," "On Theory and Action," "On Controlling our Bodies," and "On Language and Identities," some distin- guished writers, including Cheryl Clarke, Patricia Williams, and Morlara Ogudnipe-Leslie, convincingly reshape the area of Black American women's studies.

The collection is well worth reading, informative, and detailed. Its greatest strength lies in the lucid documentation of experience such as Andrea Benton Rushing's autobio- graphical piece on "Surviving Rape" which scrupulously indicates the political implications of Black male violence against a Black woman. Social injustice and social transfor- mation also underpin the excellent pieces by Nellie McKay and Patricia Will iams. "Acknowledging Differences ," M c K a y ' s essay, was written in the l ight of the Ani ta Hill/Clarence Thomas confrontation, an event which she describes as "an irreconcilable intellectual and visceral divi- sion between the majority of Black and White women." Here she demonstrates why questions of "unity" are not sim- ply academic and looks forward to a women's movement "unfettered" by today's problems. Williams, a professor in law, e x a m i n e s con tempora ry global s o c i o e c o n o m i c upheavals caused by multinationals in the world of free trade zones, of manufacturing islands, and operational shifts between North Carolina and Mexico, or Los Angeles and the Philippines. This grounding of Black feminist theory within wider socioeconomic debates is very welcome. Equally apt though is the attempt to place autobiographical stories with- in historical contexts as Loretta Ross does in "Abortion 1800-1970." This "deliberate combination of the personal and the objective" to "create authority, authenticity and uniqueness" is used extensively within the collection. Theoretically, however, the collection is only moderately successful, partly because of the lack of editorial interven- tion and comment throughout the four sections. For exam- ple, although largely based on African American subjects, the collection includes two essays on postcolonial women in African states, but does not theorise the relationship between these women and their African American sisters.

This American collection is an accessible and useful source for s tudents and scholars of African Amer ican women's cultural and social experience. It focuses exclusive-

ly on women of African descent. In their book, Anthias and Yuval-Davis discuss the collapse of the discourse of racism into the discourse of race; they concentrate on analyzing the constructs of race and racism, including gender as one of their considerations along with "nation" and class and colour.

Racialized Boundaries is a well-researched, sociologi- cal, scholarly work which reviews the extensive race rela- tions literature of the last 2 decades. Of special interest to feminist readers is the chapter "Connect ing Race and Gender," a debate to which both writers have contributed elsewhere, but which rarely appears in literature on race relations. Going beyond a celebration of difference and diversity, the authors argue that articulations of race, gen- der, class, and ethnicity must "draw on the analytical dis- tinctions between the categories and their social effectivity and begin to theorize particular ways in which they interre- late in different contexts." Some of this chapter, such as the section on Black feminist critique of western feminism, traverses fairly familiar ground. However, taken as a whole, the chapter is substantial and will be of value to sociologists and "gender" and "ethnicity" studies readers because it brings together a considerable body of work in clear and well-defined sections.

Racialised Boundaries offers a critical analysis of the con- eepts of race and racism, in six chapters. The second of these explores the ways in which different elements of the national- ist project - - citizenship, culture, religion, and origin - - can become racialised. The authors demonstrate, for example, how the connection between state and refigion serves to mar- ginalise and exclude Muslims from national collectivity.

Within the chapter on race and class, the economic posi- tion of racialised groups in contemporary Britain is dis- cussed. Although divisions of "Black" and "White" are not entirely eschewed here, the authors show that social class and differences in the structural position of groups defined by ethnicity, gender, and legal status demand a more com- plex analysis. They assert a need to look beyond the econo- my to understand the position of various ethnic minorities.

The discussion on racism and the colour black draws on several theoretical approaches to racism and questions the extent to which colour is at its root. It also considers Blackness in Britain against the influence of the American Black Power Movement . The final chapter "Resist ing Racism," looks at multiculturalism and equal opportunities policies, using the former Greater London Council as a case study.

One drawback within this work is the lack of contem- porary commentary (the discussion tends to be historical). Overall, however, this is a welcome book. It provides a valuable route into considering how an analysis of race, gender, class, and nation might overlap: for this alone, it is a helpful text.

DELIA JARRETT-MACAULEY BIRKBECK COLLEGE, LONDON UNIVERSITY

LONDON, UK

GENDER POLITICS AND PO~T-COMMUNISM: REFLECTIONS FROM EASTERN EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION, edited by Nanette Funk and Magda Mueller, 349 pages. Routledge, London, 1993. Br£11.99, soft cover; £35.00, hardback.

This volume consists of an introduction and 29 articles. All the countries of Eastern Europe are represented, with the

188 Book Reviews

exception of Albania. The articles are very diverse in theme, approach, and length. Some attempt a comprehen- sive description of the current situation, referring to the communist and precommunist past for explanation. Others are more selective and polemical. Some are quite theoreti- cal. Most of the contributors are East European scholars, and the diversity of the volume is enhanced by the fact that they represent a range of disciplines, such as philosophy, sociology, enthnography, history, and cultural studies. The publishers suggest that the book be classified as women's studies/philosophy/political science. It should certainly be of interest to those whose primary interest is in women's studies or feminism and to specialists in Eastern Europe (particularly in view of the fact that so much of the writing on the transition period is narrowly economic in focus, rather than exploring social developments),

The essays are written deliberately for a Western audi- ence. The authors are consciously in dialogue with West- ern feminists, responding to ideas and misconceptions which they have encountered, and trying to explain the sources of confusion. It is not just concepts like "emanci- pation" which may be understood differently: One author even points out that, in Romania, "when one speaks of restaurants, dining out, fast food, or even pizza or a sand- wich, we enter the realm of linguistics" (p. 43). The editors hope that as well as being useful to Western readers, the "essays may also help alleviate the difficulty women in postcommunist countries experience in creating a public discourse about women, one shaped by women themselves and committed to helping women become subjects on their own behalf" (p. 1).

It is difficult, in view of its variety and richness, to sum- marise the content of Gender Politics and Post-Communism at all comprehensively in a review of this length. The reader is referred to Nanette Funk's excellent introduction. This review will conclude, then, by selecting just a few of the issues raised. The authors on the whole agree that women have benefitted less than have men from the collapse of communism. Economically, they stand to lose more and more as unemployment grows because such unemployment is generally affecting women disproportionately. In the political sphere, newfound rights and freedoms have more meaning for men than women. Women's access to power has not increased. Quota systems which created a facade of equality have been abolished, but not replaced by any gen- uine efforts to ensure greater participation by women in government and representative institutions. Moreover, con- servative governments have displayed a tendency to restrict women's rights, notably with regard to access to abortion. (The exception is Romania, where the restitution of legal abortions was one of the fh-st acts of the National Salvation Front, p. 49).

The combined effect of all the tendencies mentioned above is to create the impression of a patriarchal approach to women's issues on the part of both governments and substantial sections of society. However, the contributors also suggest the need for a more nuanced view. Conservative attitudes had roots before 1989 and cannot only be attrib- uted to the special needs and characteristics of the transi- tion period. This point indicates that 1989 was not a water- shed. Rather, the uprisings of that year accelerated process- es already occurring in many areas, marking the gradual decay of the neo-Stalinist system. Moreover, one should not exaggera te the s t rength of conse rva t i sm in East European societies. A number of the authors recognise that in the field of women's rights it is important not to jettison

the achievements of the communist period, particularly in countries such as the former German Democtatic Republic where these had some existence in practice as well as in ideology. Since Gender Politics was written, electoral sue- cesses by ex-communist parties in Poland and Hungary suggest that nostalgia for former social and economic rights, however imperfectly realised these were in practice, has a strong hold on East Europeans in general and that the success of the Right in 1989-1990 was to some extent a temporary phenomenon.

What are the prospects, then, for feminism in Eastern Europe? It is often suggested - - even by some of the con- tributors to this volume - - that East European women are not receptive to Western feminism because they equate it with campaigning for access to paid employment, whereas Eastern Europeans are more oriented toward home and family and would prefer not to go out to work. Several contributors, however, present survey evidence to suggest that most East European women actually prefer to have paid employment . Moreover, with reference to those women who would prefer to stay at home, Funk argues convincingly that their rationale for doing so does not nec- essarily suggest "an essentialist belief that it is women's nature to be in the home" (p. 324). Rather, like Western women, they had conducted a cost-benefit analysis of what "home" and "work" had to offer and came to the opposite conclusion. The home, for example, did not have the same significance on both sides of Europe as Havelkov~i and Lissyutkina point out. Funk writes,

It was here that one could more safely discuss social, cultural, and political issues. Rather than being the antithe- sis of the public sphere, the family became an ersatz public sphere. Eastern women also used their commitments to the family as a strategy to sidestep participation in the discred- ited political system. (p. 323)

Taking this and other factors into consideration, and recognising the existence of important cultural differences both within Eastern Europe and between East and West, Funk concludes that the prospects are good for dialogue between feminists on both sides of the former Iron Curtain (p. 328).

ANNE WHITE UNIVERSITY OF BATH, SCHOOL OF MODERN LANGUAGES AND

IrClmtNATIONAL STUDIES BATH, UK

VIVA: WOMEN AND POPULAR PROTEST IN LATIN AMERICA, edited by Sarah A. Radcliffe and Sallie Westwood, 269 pages. Routledge, London, 1993.

OUT OF THE SHADOWS: WOMEN, RESISTANCE AND Po t .mcs IN Sotrrlt AMERICA, by Jo Fisher, 228 pages. Latin America Bureau, London, 1993.

Viva: Women and Popular Protest in Latin America is an important and fresh look at the growth of women's partici- pation in Latin American political life, particularly over the last decade. A thought-provoking introduction raises a wealth of questions about the construction of the category of latina woman, exploring the racial as well as gendered roots of this construction. At the same time, the authors put forward critical reflections on their own role as White, Western w o m e n and make clear that their a im is to