The Cost of Being Female

"The Cost of Being Female is 30 cents," say the authors of this new book on discrimination against women. They demonstrate their thesis by constructing an index that documents the costs of discrimination against women in five aspects of life: economic, political, social, education, and health. The index compares the costs for American women with those of women in Sweden, Norway, France and China, and measures the costs for three time periods: 1990s, 1950s, and the 19th century. The authors interviewed over 70 women, providing a human approach to the statistics of earnings, occupations, political participation, marriage, divorce, childrearing, education, and women's health. The women's narratives are living testimony to the experiences of the costs of being female.

SUE HEADLEE is Assistant Professor of Economic Policy in the Washington Semester Program at American University. She is the author ofThe Political Economy of The Family Farm: The Agrarian Roots of American Capitalism (Praeger, 1991).

MARGERY ELFIN is Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of History and Political Science at Hood College.