Alison Wolf

I was born in 1944 and, in clear contradiction to many of the statistical trends cited in Ms. Wolf's work, I married young, did not immediately complete college and yet built a very successful career for myself in a work environment that was then at the leadingg edge of admitting women into the work place. Years later, I would spend invest two years of my time trying to persuade women to consider nontraditional, male dominated jobs as an option (and trying to persuade employers to hire them). It was fascinating, rewarding and, for the women recruited, an eye-opening step into a world in which they could earn a wage doing technical or skilled labor that paid them a salary competitive with most men. So I know a little bit about this subject. The book was fascinatingly well documented and I recommend it to any reader, even as I disagree with many of Ms. Wolf's conclusions. Some of the outcomes are obvious; were obvious even as this bit of history was unfolding. I don't think the game is anywhere near ended yet and I, having lived in a world in which I could be denied a credit card without my husband's signature or questioned about my choices in birth control, or denied a promotion, flatly and without apology because I was a woman, find it hard to believe that the outcomes we are living with today are "less equal" by any standard of comparison.… (more)

This was a Goodreads First Read giveaway.

I was intrigued by the title, so I entered the giveaway. And I'm glad I did, because it is a very interesting work. In The XX Factor, Alison Wolf researches the impact of the working woman on modern society. While the gender gap has narrowed considerably, the gap between working women and the more "traditional" woman seems to have widened.

Looking at the way education, work opportunities, marriage, family, and even sex; Wolf examines how options for women have changed over the years. We see how women have much more say in marriage and family than they once did, and how sex has become a wide open field for women as the "old maid" trope has fallen by the wayside and the pill has made the way for casual sexual encounters without the formality of marriage (not that that's its only purpose). Women are no longer burdened by family and societal obligation. She uses Jane Austen as a starting point, and quotes her frequently throughout.

Wolf has most definitely put in the time and research for this book, and it pays off. Definitely worth a read.… (more)

N.B. I received a free copy of this book through the First Reads program.

I found this to be quite interesting. A good many of the points brought up seem to make sense when you sit and think about them, but I hadn't thought about them prior to the book. I'm not sure if it is because I'm a male that I don't think of them, or if it is a generational thing, or if it is simply normal not to.

Being someone that has tried to move from one socioeconomic status level to another quite successfully, though not as successfully as I would have liked thus far, I can also identify with quite a few of the points made, either with myself, my family, my friends, or my former classmates and acquaintances.

The author has clearly done quite a bit of research into the matter and it shows with how dense the book is with the data (looking back, only ~250 pages are the book itself, with another ~200 pages of notes, appendices, and index).

I enjoyed this book, but there are two chief complaints that I have. First, with the shear volume of data, it would have been nice to have more time to process each tidbit before moving on to the next. While often times, adjoining tidbits were somewhat related, it felt like a research paper presentation being presented by a southern auctioneer. The second complaint is that she presents the data and draws her conclusions which is fine, but at the end it felt as if she should be pushing for a "solution" of some sort. Whether that means just educating people on the gap or coming up with a way to prevent or adjust the gap, I'm not sure. It just felt like there should have been an extra little push at the end that was missing.… (more)