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Women Across Cultures: A Global Perspective. Shawn Meghan Burn. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing. 2000. 342 nares. $35.95.
Whenever I am considering the use of a new book or text for a course, the first thing that I do is look at the Table of Contents. The old phrase "You can't tell a book by its cover" may be true, but for me, you can tell a lot about a book by its Table of Contents. Thus when I opened Shawn Meghan Burn's book, Women Across Cultures: A Global Perspective, for the first time, I immediately went to this important indicator to see what she laid out as the significant issues for women's global status.
Now, it is also essential to reveal that although I have taught Sociology of Sex Roles on a number of occasions at a number of institutions under a number of different names, I, admittedly, was lacking in a global perspective. Hence, a preconceived notion of what should or should not be included was not entrenched firmly in my psyche. At the same time, having taught the topic of gender in many of my courses, I did have some assumptions of what I felt were relevant areas to cover.
At first glance, Table of Contents did not seem to make sense. I was unsure as to the organization of the book (Why is Chapter Three, "Reproductive Freedom" before Chapter Five, "Women's Work?"). It seemed that the topics listed would not allow for a smooth transition from one subject to the next and I was concerned about how I would structure a course if I adopted this text. Furthermore, I was puzzled with the inclusion of Chapter Four, "Lesbianism," not that I thought lesbianism was unacceptable to discuss or explore, but simply because I had not considered it an international issue.
Thankfully, there...