Difficulty: II
Length: III
Quick Review: A look into the pitfalls, the successes, the struggles, the reality of being a woman in the United States today.
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner is a founder of MomsRising and works tirelessly to promote women’s rights through public speaking, campaigning, writing, and, yes, marching. Keep Marching is a look into the status of women in the United States. It’s incredibly well researched and accessible. I will refer to the author as KRF for the rest of the post because it is simpler.
I am always wary of feminist books, especially when written by white women. Feminism, historically, has left women-of-color out of the narrative, out of the statistics, and out of the picture. From the beginning of Keep Marching, KRF preaches inclusivity and intersectionality. Thankfully, she follows through.
I don’t want to give too much away. KRF discusses topics falling into three categories: Our Money, Our Bodies, Our Communities. Under these categories our right to choose, pay gap, motherhood, immigration, laws, and more are discussed at length.
Full of statistics, Keep Marching is both distressing and shows signs of hope for women and society. Motherhood is a recurring topic as it is a central component in many women’s lives, even those who are not mothers face obstacles based on reproduction. Women of color are often overlooked, and KRF includes statistics to show just how left behind they are. The stats are often given for women as a whole, but also given based on ethnic background, socioeconomic background, motherhood status, and more.
The book is separated into three parts discussing different topics in chapters. The reader is not bogged down solely in statistics. There are many anecdotes supporting her claims and statistics. The stories also show the struggles every day women face from all backgrounds. They ground her argument in reality. At the end of each chapter, there is a short section about taking action. In case the chapter sparks your interest or lights a fire under your butt, you now have a resource to help you know where to start.
As a cofounder of MomsRising, KRF has been a part of legal reform on state and federal levels. She often reiterates the phrase “we won” giving a sense of hope. An important theme to keep repeating. If we connect, support, fight, and raise our voices as a group, women can win. When women win, society wins. KRF gives many examples showing that when women win we all win. Investing in the future and success is an investment in society. She gives a lot of statistics on how society improves when women are involved at all levels because people need proof to take women seriously…. Or at least, that’s my experience.
It feels like Keep Marching is directed at white women. It is important to educate all women, but KRF makes it important to highlight the battles woc face. White feminists have left this group of women out of the discussion, and KRF is doing her best to include them. I was really impressed by the fact KRF focused so much on the different groups making up women. We are a group, but we are a diverse group, most of whom are consistently overlooked.
None of the information was new to me, but KRF does an excellent job laying out the information in an appealing and educational format without losing the reader.
Title: Keep Marching; How Every Woman Can Take Action and Change Our World
Author: Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner
Publisher: Hachette Books
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9780316515566