American women, let’s imagine for a moment that it’s not us. T hat changing ourselves is not where our energy needs to be focused. (Access Flight Patterns of Superwomen discovery questions .) In the U.S., myths of personal choice and individual change mask the unjust realities of women’s lives. Wealth inequality, working women unprotected by national policy, and the framing of fundamental human rights as “women’s issues” anchor us, preventing further ascension in our otherwise meteoric educational and paid labor force rise.
The Flight Patterns of Superwomen is based on interviews with ‘ordinary’ women in 36 states. In the book, Jone Bosworth gives voice to what women care about, what they’re proud of, and what they want transformed in America. Like a 21 st Century Feminine Mystique , the quiet female majority speaks out, telling the world how do-it-all American superwomen really live.
Ages 29 to 79, the women are as beautifully diverse as American Main Streets. Snowflake unique, they agree on little. They do share three things in common: gender, not being in the “1%,” and exhaustion . With American women’s lifespans shortening and the Great Recession widening the gender poverty gap, like America itself, women may be on the verge of crashing if change doesn’t occur.
- People think they speak for women. I don’t know who these women are that they’re speaking for – they’re not me, not my friends or family . – Beth, Mississippi
- I feel like we need more women’s voices who say the emperor’s got no clothes. –Mary, Nevada
- Here, success is defined as working to the end of your pregnancy, working 12 hours a day, and making a lot of money. This is tragic. This is why our country will fall even further. –Ali, Hawaii
- We’re supposed to be the superpower, the nation of rights, an example to the world – look at us. I’ve faced discrimination all my life as a woman, Black, Black Hispanic. I’ve been the only woman in the boardroom. – Lisa, Washington, DC
- I can’t even picture what equality here would look like. I’m not even sure what that would be. – Heidi, Montana
The second wave of U.S. feminism fueled women’s take-off. Now, myths that changing ourselves and making choices as individuals will result in greater equality dangerously discount the true context of our lives. Avoiding the crash that change myths cultivate is critical for women and the country. The Flight Patterns of Superwomen (title pending) is due out in 2015.
Connect with women book interviewees at: US Main Street Women
