EBN A Book by an Author with Your Name: Radio Girls by Sarah-Jane Stratford

Well, here comes another dumping of book challenge entries. This having only one computer while your husband is going to school full-time is for the birds. He is either at school with the computer or doing homework at home with it. It only ever seems to be available late in the day when I am too tired to read, let alone type. I caught a lucky break today though. He is neither at work or at school and doesn't feel like studying this morning. So I am seizing my opportunity and  entering the last few books I've read before the opportunity is lost.

Radio Girls is a story that takes place in the late 1920's. I covers the working experience of a secretary at the BBC. The book as a very strong feminist message and highlights the work of Hilda Matheson (one of the first and most successful female producers). I really liked the story, especially the evolution of the main character Maisie. It felt like her negative perception of the female was a bit exaggerated, but maybe not. Perhaps people really did view women as weak and one dimensional, but based on what I've  read, that feeling was mostly due to a lack of imagination rather than the intentional repression of a race. There were genuine misogynistic pigs in roles of power for sure. Maisie's perspective may have been exaggerated at the beginning of the book to show greater contrast, but her confidence at the end was strong and felt real.

I really enjoy most feminist literature and read a lot of it in college, but I do have my qualms about it. I feel that in our effort to be considered the equals of men we strive to become like them, losing all the beautiful characteristics that make us female. By throwing off those things that make us feminine, we are not showing  the world that women are the equal of men, we are only showing that the male is better and all genders should strive for it. At the same time there are those who say that all those things that make us women not only make us the equal of men, but make us better. I find myself going down that particular rabbit hole all the time. But that stand is flawed too. Men and women are different, as they should be, but those differences don't make  us of unequal value. I really believe that men and women need each other and that both are dependent on the other in more ways than just procreation.