The Futures of Women: Scenarios for the Twenty-First Century

by Pamela McCorduck

Book Overview

The "official future" says that women are moving toward equality with men. If not in our lifetime, we say, then in our children's.Think again.If the rate of change during the last twenty years holds,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0201489783
• ISBN13: 9780201489781
• Release Date: April 1996
• Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A Strong Voice

Sometimes a book comes along at just the right time. Perhaps this is one of those for the women across several generations who may have the chance to work together towards a common vision. The Futures of Women speaks with a strong voice about four future scenarios created by the authors based on current ideas, trends and facts. The authors tell us,"Scenarios permit us to see how the choices each of us makes in the present are linked to outcomes 20 years in the future. Imagining these four possible futures today gives us a means of grasping the consequences of choices and gives us hope of influencing the course of events." Each of the four futures has been extrapolated to provide a vision into "what might happen if" scenarios entitled Backlash; The Golden Age of Equality; Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back; and Separate and Doing Fine, Thanks! As we read the scenarios we bring personal view points to whether this or that envisioned future will be predominant. What matters to the scenario process, however, is that we expand our view of what is possible as we read them and allow the process of thought to promote individual understanding. Innovation requires that we expand our understanding of what is possible and to "see" problems, opportunities and solutions before others see them. Perhaps scenarios are most effective as development tools in the innovation process rather than the divining rod for innovative ideas. The simple act of gathering the material to use for imagining variations of what the future may hold drives one of its most important benefits. In understanding where we are and what could happen through sifting evidence of our culture and time, a foreshadowing of who we might become is unearthed within several possible futures. The storytelling in the scenario weaving process then provides the context for relationships between ideas that may lead us to imagining futures whose paths are trajectories that we can either access or build towards.

The Women in the First Twenty Years of the New Millennium

The Futures of Women The Authors' PerspectivesPAMELA MCCORDUCK is the author of Machines Who Think and The Fifth Generation.NANCY RAMSEY is a former legislative director to Senator John Kerry and co-author of Nuclear Weapons Decision-Making.The Futures of Women began as a project for the clients of Global Business Network (GBN), Emeryville, California. The central business of GBN is the planning and creation of scenarios for corporate, government, and nongovernment long-range planners. The principals of GBN are encapsulated in the Shell Oil team that in 1968 predicted both the sharp rise in oil prices and in the early 1970's the fall of the Soviet Union. GBN claims not to have predicted either event. Rather, "they examined the predetermined elements and identified what they viewed as the driving forces." (p. xi) In 1993, from October through December, GBN gathered in two meetings to examine facts and trends, destroy complacency, and predicate thoughts about the roles of women in the next twenty years-a generation into the future. The two conferences, on-line and face-to-face, generated many novel ideas, one of which is the fact that "most women are years ahead of most men in thinking about changing roles. Most men are just now beginning to [admit] to women, 'You really mean it.' Many men are confused; some are resentful. They consider themselves decent and good and are pained to be perceived as obstacles. They also realize that the privileges their sex enjoyed for centuries are threatened with extinction." (p. xiii) The on-line conference produced so many emotional stymies that as a model of the real world, it is clear that unfulfilled emotional business will play a role in the real future. "The on-line conference was evidence that men especially are anguished about pending changes....McCorduck had never seen so much raw emotion on the computer screen. The face-to-face meeting, on the other hand, provided exhilarating evidence that women and men working as respectful partners can envisage a world that meets, even exceeds, our rosiest expectations." (pp. xiv-xv) IntroductionMain Idea: The Reality of the Present--Women Are Not Achieving Equality. "Statistics collected by the United Nations since 1975 show that in most economic respects, things are getting worse, not better for most women in the world. (p. 320) In 1970, the top managers of major American Corporations were 99 % male. Twenty years later, only 95% of top mangers were men. At this rate, it will be the year 2270 before women and men are equally likely to be top managers of major corporations. In Congress, were 6 % of elected representatives in the mid-1990s, a tripling of the 2% they were in 1950. At this rate, Congress will achieve equality between men and women by the year 2500. The percentage of high-level women may remain frozen forever at under 10% in business and in politics....Women generally avoid thinking about these numbers and the difficulties they re

An intelligent look at the future

Tired of the banalities of "futurists" who are either dead wrong or tell you what you already knew? McCorduck and Ramsey offer an *intelligent* exploration of several possible futures for women. They have done their analysis carefully, and have woven together the facts and some believable creativity into four scenarios for women. The scenarios are richly detailed, and many aspects of each are hauntingly familiar-- as if some of these futures have already happened. Set aside your preconceived views about what you believe the future holds, and embark on this journey. It will be an eye-opening adventure.I have written a longer review of this excellent book [online].

This book is a wakeup call for women throughout the world

In this futuristic book by Pamela McCorduck and Nancy Ramsey, the authors step into the future to describe what women's lives might be like two decades from now. In addition to their knowledge gained through various opportunities and extensive research, the book is an outgrowth of attending the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, China (September 1995). The authors created four scenarios by mixing group and individual rights, economic trends, and the impact of present day events and trends. The four worlds include the following:o Backlash: Women lose what they have gained in societyo Utopia: Women rise the economic ladder through technology and scienceo Status Quo: "The more things change, the more they stay the same."o Separatism: The loss of individual rights in a different kind of society where women develop separate (all female) groups within societyThe Futures of Women: Scenarios for the 21st Century is a wakeup call for women throughout the world who are interested in understanding their roles in society. The experience of reading about our future in past tense is, at times, alarming and disheartening. Throughout the book, the authors remind the reader that these are scenarios developed to "illuminate the present, not necessarily to predict the future". The Futures of Women: Scenarios for the 21st Century was written to provoke thought and stimulate readers as an invitation for further conversations about possible desired changes that will impact the future of our society as a whole. The book is imaginative and somewhat frightening in suggesting concepts that could easily, in fact, become reality. The book will help the reader recognize his or her responsibility in facilitating change for women, if change is desired.

Discussion Guide available!

A Discussion Guide is now available as a partner to this book at: http://www.womenswork.org/futures/guide.html