In this novel from a Quebecois feminist writer, a shy sixteen-year-old falls in love with a classmate while attending a Catholic boarding school for prospective schoolteachers. When the fantasized relationship fails she takes superficial refuge with a group of girls recognizing her own loneliness and that of the group.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An “addictive, thoughtful” novel (Entertainment Weekly) that brings us through the thrilling, bewildering years of early adulthood while pulling us inside the circle of three friends, perfectly capturing the wild frustrations and soaring joys of modern life. Isabella, Mary, and Lauren feel like everyone they know is getting married. On Sunday after Sunday, at bridal shower after bridal shower, they coo over toasters, collect ribbons and wrapping paper, eat minuscule sandwiches and cakes. They wear pastel dresses and drink champagne by the case, but amid the celebration these women have their own lives to contend with: Isabella is working a dead-end job, Mary is dating a nice guy with an awful mother, and Lauren is waitressing at a midtown bar and wondering why she's attracted to the sleazy bartender.

Professors and students alike are taking interest in Girls' Studies--the socialization of girls versus boys--and beginning to analyze the impact of media, pop culture, messaging, and more on America's girls. Girls' Studiestackles socialization and gender expectations, body image, and media impact, and gives insight into girl empowerment and how to equip our girls for a brighter future. Elline Lipkin, a research scholar with the Center for the Study of Women at UCLA, addresses girlhood in the U.S. from various issues-based perspectives, including Body Image, Health, and Sexuality; Socialization and Gender Expectations; and Girls and Media. This text includes a forward-looking chapter, encouraging readers to consider all the ways--education, mentorship, activism--they might take real steps to promote empowering our girls as we look to the future.

All women long for the enjoyment, counsel and emotional support found in close relationships. However, although they might wish that strong friendships would just "happen," they generally find that they require skill and effort. In the Company of Women gives insight into the art of friendship, offering wisdom and practical advice into how a woman can make-and nurture-lifelong relationships with other women. Whether a woman is single or married, employed or parenting full-time, In the Company of Women will give her tips for building stronger, closer relationships with her mother, sisters, daughters, friends, mentors and peers throughout every phase of her life.

The organized play of the pre-school child with a group of peers in an educational atmosphere is now recognised as an important element in child development. The Arab states of the Gulf, as indeed most of the emerging countries, place special emphasis on the education of the young generation and are therefore particularly interested in the creation of pre-school education. This book, first published in 1985, highlights the interplay in Kuwait of the traditional Islamic / Arab approach to education with the more Western influenced ideas on the education of the pre-school child.

The book presents the first English edition of Hubertine Auclert's Arab Women in Algeria which offers a unique picture of Algerian society in late 19th century. Hubertine Auclert (1848-1914) was one of the foremost militants for women's political rights in France from the mid-1870s. She lived in Algeria from 1888 to 1892, where she investigated the customs and traditions that defined the condition of women. She witnessed both the exploitation of women and that of the colonized people; in doing so, she drew a picture of colonial Algerian society. While women were mistreated by men (sale of prepubescent girls into marriage, forced marriage, repudiation permitted only to men, polygamy), Arab men were mistreated by the colonial administration and excluded from the government of Algeria. She denounced the contradictions and hypocrisy of French justice, which often enforced, for their own interest, the "anomalies" of Muslim law in contradiction with French law. The last chapter of the book comprises of several striking anecdotes that illustrate the author's theoretical views. Jacqueline Grenez Brovender is a freelance translator and a former lecturer in French at Tufts University. Denise Brahimi-Chapuis taught in French and Algerian universities about the relationship between France and the Maghreb and its effect on women.