The cost of being female

by Sue E. Headlee

"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, childbearing, education, and women's health. The women's narratives are living testimony to the experiences of the costs of being female.