The W Effect: Bush's War On Women

by Laura Flanders (Editor), Phoebe St. John, Livia Tenzer

In this unique and essential collection, Molly Ivins, Maureen Dowd, Maria Hinojosa, and a host of other frontline thinkers, journalists, and activists employ wit, outrage, and cold, hard facts to expose the “W Effect,”a comprehensive incursion into women’s rights. In recent years, women around the globe have come under attack—both literally, in the case of war and punitive repression, and more subtly, in the case of eroded rights and economic power. Yet this dangerous trend has not, to date, been comprehensively documented and deconstructed—in part because women are finding it harder to gain access to the mainstream media.

Both a harsh reality check and a hopeful starting point for new action, The W Effect brings together the premier feminist voices to provide cutting-edge reports; fresh, empowering analyses; and engaging, provocative ideas for the future—including a resource guide for information and activism. At this pivotal time, The W Effect is a necessary book for feminists of all ages and genders, for all progressive activists, for students, and for anyone interested in current politics and the future of women’s rights and women’s lives in America and around the world.

With reports on: affirmative action, the Patriot Act, welfare “reform,” sexual freedom, reproductive rights, the impact of the religious right, education funding and Title IX, public health policy, globalization, international HIV/AIDS policy, the International Court and the U.N., and more.

Journalist and broadcaster Laura Flanders was the founder of the Women’s Desk at FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting), where, for 10 years, she hosted the syndicated radio program CounterSpin. Flanders currently hosts “Working Assets Radio” and is a contributor to The Nation, The Progressive, Ms. and In These Times. She is the author of Real Majority, Media Minority, The Cost of Sidelining Women in Reporting and Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species (April 2003).

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

About the author

Laura Flanders is a British-born US-based journalist who presents the current events show GRITtv, broadcast weekdays on Link and Free Speech TV.

She has written for The Nation, In These Times, The Progressive and Ms. Magazine, and has contributed op-ed pieces to the San Francisco Chronicle. Flanders hosted the weekday radio show Your Call on KALW, before starting the Saturday/Sunday evening Laura Flanders Show on Air America Radio in 2004. It became the weekly one-hour Radio Nation in 2007. She was founding director of the women's desk at the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), and for a decade produced and hosted CounterSpin, FAIR's syndicated radio program.

Flanders has published four books: Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians (2007); Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species (2004), a study of the women in George W. Bush's cabinet; and a collection of essays, Real Majority, Media Minority: The Cost of Sidelining Women in Reporting (1997). She edited The W Effect: Sexual Politics in the Age of Bush (2004).

Her TV appearances include Lou Dobbs Tonight, The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity and Colmes, Washington Journal, Donahue, Good Morning America, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Ed Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation TV news discussion program counterSpin (not to be confused with the FAIR show of the same name).

Flanders has described herself as a "liberal, lefty person." She is the daughter of the British comic songwriter and broadcaster Michael Flanders and his wife Claudia Cockburn. The brothers Alexander, Andrew and Patrick Cockburn all journalists, are her uncles. Her sister is Stephanie Flanders, a BBC journalist.

Reviews

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every American should read this book.

The most wonderful aspect is its sheer format as a collection of eloquent essays written by many, many writers from many different fields of research, resulting in a plethora of detailed evidence for a wide variety of topics concerning gender. It covers policy affecting everyone from poor transsexuals to welfare mothers to immigrants to small business owners to women needing late-term abortions to traumatized soldiers and their abused wives to the juvenile victims of abstinence-only education and the adult victims of patriarchical pro-marriage counseling.

The most disturbing aspect of these accounts compiled is that they were published in the book shortly before Bush was re-elected. I cannot help but shudder to think how many more accounts there must be from those suffering the casualties of nearly eight years of his anti-feminist, anti-social, patriarchal Christian policies.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone, women especially, MUST read this book in order to see the unimaginable amount of damage done by the Bush administration to the rights of women everywhere. It's disturbing, eye-opening, and necessary.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just happened upon this volume while browsing shelves at Barnes & Noble. It's a great collection of writings on the impact of the American wars in the Middle-East. Can be used for college courses--women studies, Native American history and studies, American history, comparative studies.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

i'm packing this away. don't plan on finishing it.

[Amy D.P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read. Thankfully the Bush regime is almost over so let's hope we don't have to write a book about the next President being horrible to women!