Women Who Make the World Worse by Kate O'Beirne

Women Who Make the World Worse by Kate O'Beirne is subtitled with "and How Their Radical Feminist Assault is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports". With rave reviews by readers such as Rush Limbaugh, how could I resist? I wouldn't call myself a feminist, but if disagreeing with every point she had to make makes me one then so be it. Nonetheless I did go into this book with an open mind, hard as it was. I tried to read it objectively and consider what she had to say without taking a stance on any of the topics. It was only 199 pages but it felt like an eternity.

It would have been an easier read, and a shorter one, if she would make her point and then move on to another one. But alas, she writes in circles and it makes me crazy. She portrays feminists as women who are glad when other women are killed in war, who hate families, and who tolerate sexual harassment by political figures who share their views. It was quite a ride. I agreed with her on one thing and that was Title IX. As much as I think women should have the same opportunity as men to engage in sports, I don't think men's opportunity for sports should be cut back to make things even when not enough women go out for teams. Another reason she's a little hard to follow is because of how much quoting she does. Don't get me wrong. Research is great when you're making a point, but I would have liked to hear more about what she thought without referencing and quoting everyone she came into contact with.

When she discusses topics she paints the opposing view as wrong and misinformed. Since this is an opinion piece I found that a little extreme. There's really no need to insult folks you disagree with, especially publicly, as long as you can argue your side to the best of your ability. For the most part she was good about keeping the information relevant, but there was one part that seemed ill informed. When she discussed abortion and Roe vs. Wade she says "In fact, these feminists defend every single one of the over 40 million 'choices' that have been made since Roe V. Wade, which itself was the product of a series of lies. Feminists at the time argued that they wanted to see 'therapeutic' abortions legalized. The plaintiff in Roe falsely claimed she had been raped." This is, in fact, false. The plaintiff did make that claim and then take it back, but it was long after the trial was over. She didn't tell her lawyer or anyone involved in ruling of the case while it was going on. The claim and the case are unrelated. This slip up does make me question the legitimacy of the rest of her information. Just putting that out there.

Basically the title and subtitle say all you need to know about the book. If you think you share those same views, you will enjoy this book. If you want to read it like I did just to see how the other half thinks, tread carefully. With anything opinion based it's best to take it with a grain of salt. I picked it up at my local library, so if you're interested I'm sure you can find it at yours. Thank you for reading.