The Lipstick Proviso

Many women today prepare for a big meeting by reading a stack of folders and applying lipstick. They order their male colleagues around, then wait for those same men to help them on with their coats. They have higher-status jobs than some of the men they date, yet they never call men socially or ask them out.

What's going on? Why such seemingly contradictory behaviors? Have women completely failed feminism--or has feminism failed them?

In The Lipstick Proviso, Karen Lehrman--hailed by the New York Times as the "sharpest" of the new feminist thinkers--shows that women today are failing neither feminism nor themselves. Rather, they've entered a new stage of feminism, one in which the personal is not political, differences between the sexes need to be respected, and courtship, chivalry, and the nuclear family don't have to be jettisoned just because they existed before the sixties.

Thirty years after the women's movement liberated women from narrowly defined roles, Lehrman argues, we are finally beginning to see which traditionally feminine behaviors are more deeply rooted in biology and which are more heavily influenced by culture. Lehrman asserts that the result--whatever it is--will not undermine feminism as long as women still retain equal rights, opportunities, and responsibilities. Dispensing with the outdated notion of sisterhood, Lehrman offers women a "lipstick proviso": women don't have to sacrifice their complex individuality in order to be equal.

As the first book to move beyond a critique of orthodox feminism, The Lipstick Proviso sets a radically new course for the future of the women's movement. While there's still much political work to be done, Lehrman argues that women should now focus on the personal sides of their lives. Women can't rightly be called autonomous if they stay with abusive or even emotionally challenged lovers; say "yes" to sex when they really mean "no"; overeat or undereat to hide their sexuality.

With wit and grace, Karen Lehrman offers in The Lipstick Proviso a way to complete the feminist revolution, and clearly establishes herself as the definitive voice of the next generation of feminism.“Provocative, challenging, infuriating and insightful...A major contribution to the debate about what feminism should mean.”
–Susan Estrich, Robert Kingsley Professor of Law and Political Science, University of Southern California

“This book is a valuable contribution to the heated debate about the nature and future of feminism. Stressing the important work that remains to be done to secure individual freedom of choice and equal opportunities for all women--regardless of their views or values--Lehrman's message should be welcome to all civil libertarians.”
–Nadine Strossen, President, American Civil Liberties Union; Professor of Law, New York Law School

“Karen Lehrman brings something very attractive to the feminist debate: rigorous common sense. She confronts the hard questions--about sex in the workplace, aggression in the bedroom, about economic inequality and epidemic depression, about biological differences and psychological asymmetries--and finds a principled basis for answering them. There are sentences in this book that are worth volumes. Many of today's celebrated feminists will wake up one day and realize that she's right.”
–Mickey Kaus, author of The End of Equality

“A lively defense of equality and individuality; of feminist commitment and common sense; of the ways in which so much feminist theory is outstripped by the complex reality of women's lives. Lehrman brings zest to her task.”
–Jean Bethke Elshtain, author of Democracy on Trial