BOOKS

SISTERHOOD IS GLOBAL
Edited by Robin Morgan. Garden City,
N.Y.: Anchor Press, 1984;
$17.50, paperback.

Reviewed by Dana Peebles

Sisterhood is Global is an unusual collection of commentaries written by women from 70 different countries outlining women's position in these areas. Each contribution is prefaced by an encyclopedic summary of the demographic, legal, and historical situation of women in each country. The purpose of the anthology is to show both the universality and diversity of feminism throughout the world.

In this, the anthology is quite successful as a wide variety of views are presented, all stemming from a feminist perspective. The encyclopedic summaries provide a useful source of often hard-to-find information about women's situation in different countries and Robin Morgan is to be commended for the successful completion of the mammoth undertaking of editing the many contributions in the anthology.

The book also serves to arouse one's curiosity through its brief presentation of feminism in different countries which is limited to two to three pages per country. Indeed, the brevity of these presentations is frustrating at times and leaves one wanting a more in-depth discussion of the issues at hand - something which is not possible in an anthology of this nature. Fortunately for those who wish to pursue their interest, there is a short list of suggested further readings at the end of each country presentation.

Apart from the introduction, Robin Morgan has chosen to let the contributions speak for themselves, a technique which tends to leave one with the impression that the book is simply an encyclopedia of feminist vignettes from a global perspective. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In her introduction, Ms. Morgan stresses two points which are essentially the major themes of the anthology. One is the growing importance of women as a world political force, and the other the fact that, rather than being an external ideology, each country has developed its own indigenous feminist ideology. Her presentation of country-by- country contributions provide ample proof that these are important issues. However, since the format is by country in alphabetical order, one must read the entire book (some 760 pages) in order to fully appreciate these conclusions.

The other disadvantage of the country-by-country format is that it results in a somewhat disjointed presentation of the material. A more powerful impact could have been made by possibly arranging the contributions according to themes or by providing a series of summaries as to strategies employed by women to increase their political power, and the nature of feminism in different regions of the world.

Two problems which also need to be addressed directly are those of the differences dividing the global women's movement and women's exploitation of women. More concrete examples of what women have accomplished by working together also would strengthen Ms. Morgan's stand on women as a growing world political force.

While no anthology can definitively answer all of the questions which are generated by the global women's movement, Ms. Morgan's anthology could make a greater impact if she had included more analysis of the issues presented by her contributors. It remains, none-the-less, a unique collection of work and underlines the positive contribution women are making at all levels of society everywhere.

Dana Peebles has a Masters Degree in labour Studies and Women in Development from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. She recently returned from Bolivia where she was working as a Women's Program Officer for the United Nations Development Program.