Threatening Women: A Cultural History of Why Ireland Shamed and Contained Women

by Dr Belinda Vigors

123 pages, Paperback

Published December 12, 2024

Reviews

[Niamh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Women in Ireland were shamed and contained, by the English, by the Catholic Church, by the Magdalene asylums, by folktales and fairy lore, by the capitalist agenda, through education, in the name of a free Ireland, and in the name of a “civilized”stronger nation.

Belinda unpacks all of this in a concise and succinct way that leaves you with a complete history behind the act of how women were put in their place for centuries.

[Aisling Leamy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of insight.
If you are a woman in Ireland or know one, you will benefit from reading this book.

[Mary-Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this is a five star read in terms of what I know it to be, which is a side project that the author felt pulled towards while working on a much larger project. It's a super quick read, full of useful information, and seemed to lay bare so many truths that I knew in my bones but didn't quite have the language to describe.

That said, I want so much more. I want the 500-page version of this book. I want more analysis, more detail. This book felt like wetting my appetite for more serious academic literature on the same topic.

Also, the author's continued use of the name "Southern Ireland" was... questionable. Given the time period she was dealing with, the Free State would have worked fine.