Destroying the joint edited by Jane Caro

UQP, 2013. ISBN: 978 0 7022 4990 7. Paperback, 295 pps. RRP: $29.95
Highly recommended. Jane Caro has gathered a thought-provoking assembly of Australian women's responses to Alan Jones's comment on August 31, 2012 that 'women are destroying the joint'. The collection consists of essays, analysis, social comment, memoir and fiction combined with a healthy dose of humour.
Carmen Lawrence takes issue with destruction of the environment, arguing that it is fair to file responsibility with the 'privileged, powerful, Western white males' who across history have made crucial economic and societal management decisions.
Entertaining and engaging examples includes Jenna Price highlighting that Destroy the Joint put feminism on the front page, Catherine Fox protesting against the paucity of women in executive roles and Wendy Harmer's short and scathing description of how women are excluded from the radio industry joint. Other contributors present the perspectives of a teenage girl, parenting in a patriarchal society, and a nine year old trying to understand the abortion debate.
Covering double standards, oppression, a letter to a feminist (from a man who knows better) and the misogyny debate with the sombre words of Penny Wong, 'my realisation yet again that we still have so much more to do', this book provides much socio-political commentary for Women's Studies students to discuss and analyse. Highly recommended.
Cate Telfer