Successful Women, Angry Men

by Bebe Moore Campbell

Drawing on more than one hundred interviews, this thought-provoking guide to relationships discusses the prolonged struggle that develops out of the frustrations both men and women feel when they try to reconcile the pressures of daily life with the ideals of the dual-career marriage. Reprint.

Genres: Nonfiction

233 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Bebe Moore Campbell (February 18, 1950 – November 27, 2006), was the author of three New York Times bestsellers, Brothers and Sisters, Singing in the Comeback Choir, and What You Owe Me, which was also a Los Angeles Times "Best Book of 2001". Her other works include the novel Your Blues Ain't Like Mine, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and the winner of the NAACP Image Award for Literature; her memoir, Sweet Summer, Growing Up With and Without My Dad; and her first nonfiction book, Successful Women, Angry Men: Backlash in the Two-Career Marriage. Her essays, articles, and excerpts appear in many anthologies.

Campbell's interest in mental health was the catalyst for her first children's book, Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry, which was published in September 2003. This book won the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Outstanding Literature Award for 2003. The book tells the story of how a little girl copes with being reared by her mentally ill mother. Ms. Campbell was a member of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and a founding member of NAMI-Inglewood. Her book 72 Hour Hold also deals with mental illness. Her first play, "Even with the Madness", debuted in New York in June 2003. This work revisited the theme of mental illness and the family.

As a journalist, Campbell wrote articles for The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Essence, Ebony, Black Enterprise, as well as other publications. She was a regular commentator for Morning Edition a program on National Public Radio.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Sashaly · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book I’m reviewing is Successful Women Angry Men by Bebe Moore Campbeli. This book is nonfiction. The main theme of Successful Women Angry Men is difficulties in marriages like sex and independence.
Successful Women Angry Men is based on problems in different marriages. This book talks about couples staying together because of there children even though they didn’t want to be together. ”Even in these days there no-fault divorces, many unhappy couples stay because of there children (pg.169)” This couple would make up by having sex. But there sex wasn’t regular sex. “My husband and I had a lot of angry sex (pg.140)” There are couples that argue because there wives spend too much time working.
This book is interesting. I think this book is interesting because it tells how people feel about their marriage. My favorite character is Jonathan a 42 year old writer who cares a lot about his son. But he doesn’t get to spend time with his son because he got divorced. When you read this book you mostlikey would be able to visualize lots of things that are going on like when some of these women get abused. The reason I was able to visualize scenes in this book was because they were so interesting. This book only affected me in one chapter because it reminded me of an incident that happen with an important person in my life.
I would recommend this book to parents that like nonfiction books. Successful Women Angry Men is a chapter book. This book is similar to the child called it because of the way some of these men treat their wives. If you’re in a relationship that is struggling and you read this book you would notice that you’re not the only one people are going through the same problems. If you’re a teenager and you read this book you will learn more about serious relationships. Enjoy Successful Women Angry Men.

[Sarah Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like this book was dated. The main premise may have been through in the 90s and even in the early 2000s, it's been part of our society for over 30 years and I feel that it isn't the main issue the way it used to be. With that being said they still had a lot of valid points. The idea that women are expected to still be homemakers and wonderful mothers and yet old careers and they're overwhelmed and overworked it's still true. There are still some in that do not pick up the slack which is the main premise they feel threatened because they feel I need it and are worried about not being considered men. But I don't feel that that's the main issue anymore. I think the issue is now these super women have been around so long forgotten they still need to help them out. I also think those men are now the minority. In this book the minority is the “evolved man†and I think that is far more than majority in our society now than when this book was written. Which makes this much less applicable to the masses than it used to be.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book can be pretty depressing due to its focus on some pretty horrible behavior by some of the men she highlights. But if you can brace yourself against the unflattering light put on some of the men in relationships with successful women, it's definitely a worthy read... the descriptions of the more normal men and how their expectations in marriage can change over time, especially when married to successful women, could potentially be an eye-opening read.