"Like so many other areas of female endeavor in the last thirty years, we tend to think that the idea of women on the battlefield is something brand-new under the sun. It's true that the congressional debate on the Persian Gulf War marked the first time I can remember the phrase "our men and women in the military" used regularly to describe the fighting force. (As a reporter covering the debate, I was struck by this interesting bit of rhetoric and then I realized that it was also the first time I had regularly heard the term" our men in the military." It had always been "our boys in Vietnam" or "our boys in Korea," leading me to the quite delightful observation that this was not the first time a woman had turned a boy into a man.")
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Teaser ~ We Are Our Mothers' Daughters
Today's teaser is from pages 62-63 of We Are Our Mothers' Daughters by Cokie Roberts (1998):
I like that! My mom was in the military back in 1945... she was a WAC making parachutes.
ReplyDeleteLove your book reviews and 'teasers'!
I hope not as I am nt at all like my mother and have worked very hard not to be.
ReplyDeleteMadge, as I read this book I get the idea she may mean something more like we are following in the footsteps of the feminist women who went before us. I'll try to decide how she means it by the time I write a review of the book and let you know. I can say she's giving a history of the women's rights movement, including the things her mother -- Lindy Boggs -- did to help change the laws.
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