Life Ready Woman: Thriving in A Do-It All World
By Shaunti Feldhahn and Robert Lewis
B&H Publishing Group
Reviewed by Clint Walker
I am a guy. I was not super-excited to read about becoming a "Life-Ready Woman". But I had read The Male Factor by Shaunti Feldhahn, and thought the book was insightful and intelligent. In The Male Factor Shaunti Felhahn acts as a sort of translator for women to help them understand how men think in the workplace, and how the male-dominated coorperate culture functions. To me it was an enjoyable read because it advocated both for women to be sucessful in the workplace, and it also recognized that men and women have different gifts and strengths to bring to the table in the workplace. The Male Factor was open-minded, research-driven, and pro-woman. I found the Life-Ready Woman to be the opposite.
Despite my criticism, there is much that is positive to say about Life Ready Woman. It is written out of a dynamic partnership between the dynamic author that focuses on woman's issues named Shaunti Feldhahn and Robert Lewis, who is a pastor-at-large at Fellowship Bible Church and the founder of a men's ministry called "Men's Fraternity". Lewis wrote a book called The New Eve at one point, and this book rewrite of that book in many ways. Feldhahn does a good job of taking Lewis' general principles, and giving them a feminine twist that bears her stamp. About the time Feldhahn published this book she also signed on with MomLife Today, which appears to be an arm of FamilyLife. Both Lewis' church and Dennis Rainey's FamilyLife ministry are based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The book is well-structured and well-written. The first half of the book has to do with the genral principles about womanhood that the book is based on. The second half of the book addresses specific issues of women's life in more detail. It is an accessable book. Some of the statistics that are shared are interesting. The book is conversational in tone, and with the emphasis of inserting Feldhahn's voice, the text reads like it is speaking woman to woman.
What I object to in the book, and why I cannot recommend it, is that the book endorses a narrow-view, complimentarian view of what every woman's purpose is, while at the same time attempting to be supportive of professional women. Shaunti says "You may be able to do everything, just not all at once", and I agree with her. But when Lewis and Feldhahn start to argue that EVERY woman's purpose is to marry, have children, and then make a difference in the world IN THAT ORDER, I have to disagree. When the book implies that women who are childless are inherently unfulfilled and unhappy, I have problems with that. And when it implies that a father who takes responsiblity for caring for his child is reversing God's plan for the traditional family, and that the ideal world was the 1950s world, I just get angry. The book seems to make universal statements about issues that vary from woman to woman, and family to family.
Having said this, I know many of my friends may enjoy this book, and many people reading it will find it an encouragement. I am also aware that many believers are more conservative than I am on marriage and family concerns. I don't find Lewis and Feldhahn's words harmful, until they are universalized. There are many people who are faithfully following Jesus and who are called to live the methodology that Lewis and Feldhahn prescribe. But it is not for everybody, and this book implies that they have the answer for every family and every woman. I am sure it will find a wide audience. Maybe part of that wide audience will be someone reading this blog. If so, I have a wonderful book giveaway for you to participate in between now and the end of Feb 2011.
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