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years.
CONDITIONS OF ILLUSION 4 sharp class profile emerges. For example, one in four working class women in the random community sample with children at home were considered to have a clear psychiatric disorder, compared with one in 14 of their middle class counterparts. And 41 percent of the working class women with children at home had experienced at least one major event in the year prior to the interview, as against 18 per cent of the middie class women similarly placed.
The experience of overcrowded living conditions, eviction, a husband losing his job, or in jail, is needless to say, not equally sharted. Yet even when only those women who had experienced a major event or severe difficulty were considered, working class women were found to have a five times greater chance of breaking down as a result.
The investigators identify four vuinerability factors which according to their findings, account for both the onset of depression after an event or difficulty, and the class differences. These are: lack of a confiding relationship, having three or more children under 15 at home, the carly loss of a mother by death or separation, and the lack of employment outside the home.
### CIRCUMSTANCES
The circumstances impued by at least three of these factors", the report says, 'gencrate a sense of failure in meeting internalised expectations of being a good mother and wife, and this leads, to chronically low self-esteem, leaving the women particularly vulnerable to the effects of the loss."
The report sees the problem as essentiallv dealing with the objective circumCONDITIONS OF ILLUSION, Ed. Sandra Allen, Lee Saunders, & Jan Wallis. Feminist Books, £1.85 paperback, £4.75 hardback.
The American women's movement has produced a plethora of collections of articles and papers. In Britain, although at least as much has been achieved on both the theoretical and practical level, this is not reflect ed by a similar richness of published material. This book represents only the second collection of British writings. (The first was Body Politic). All have been written since 1972 and represent a wide range of subjects and viewpoints within the movement.
One unexpected aspect of this book is the wide-ranging source from which the original material has been taken not simp ly from women's liberation magazines or from conference papers, but also, for example, from Foran It thus represents a collection which is bound to have some thing new in it for the reader.
The areas covered by the book are: body politics-our attitudes to our bodily functions, especially birth, contraception and aborition which deals with our attitudes to our own sexuality and gives accounts of research into the subject; the patter of tiny contradictions- which explores how sex roles are determined and takes up especially how these role are learnt in childhood; sexism, capitalism, and the family- this section can only touch on the subject, since an immense amount has been written on this, especially recently. (Berhaps an anthology is needed on this last subject).
### WOMEN'S WORK
"Trying to stay human' looks at the nature of women's work out of the home in the past and now, and "The Struggle" goes on to deal with such issues as equal pay and the Working Women's Charter.
The final section is a selection of documents giving the aims of various groupings, such as Mothers In Action, together with a list of groups, women's newspapers, etc. This list is particularly helpful.
The editors state that they do not claim to represent all the viewpoints held in the movement, nor do they attempt to cover all the debates currently going on. This is obviously impossible, and it would be equally impossible to have a selection that would please every one... we all have our favourite articles or conference papers that we feel should be in and are not. This emphasises the necessity of more collections being gathered and published. I would like to see one rather more slanted towThe NCCL has recently produced a number of pamphlets which can only be welcomed by women in the movement. They are especially useful for groups running any sort of advice centre, and for Working Women's Charter Committees.
Equal Pay and How to Ger It is essentially a practical handbook. It explains the Act, tells you if you can claim equal pay under it, and if so, how to go about it. The pamphiet gives ten examples of how employers can and are getting around the Act. There is a useful appendix on job evaluation.
Women Factory Workers- the case against the protective laws. This is more of a discussion document and will be of interest to all Charter groups who are considering ways to Improve the Charter. The pamphlet explains what the laws are, how they could be abolished and what the effect of that would be. It gives the main arguments for and against repeal. There is also a section giving the views of women workers on the question of shift work, one of the most important arcas covered by protection.
Battered Women-how to use the law. A useful booklet, especially for women's centres. The law is different for married and single women and therefore there are different sections giving the exact proced ures open to the woman in either case. Married women require a solicitor because the procedure is so complicated, but single women are provided with an 'injunction kit' which perhaps with the help of a friend, enables them to manage without having to use a solicitor. In addition, there is a section showing how the law could be improved-a necessary part of any campaign proved-knowledge which is necessary for any campaigning group, on issues connected to battered women.
A number of other pamphlets of interest to the women's movement have also been published recently from sources other than the NCCL.
Women of the Rerolution, for example, published by the CFMAG, is a brief account of the oppression of women in Angola, Mozambique and Guinca-Bissau before the liberation struggle began. It includes poems and quotations from some of the women themselves active in the struggle in the Portuguese ex-colonies. The interesting part of the pamphlet is where it is devoted to how the oppTELL
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