Anarchism and Other Essays

I loved the book. It is very thorough in many subjects, and even though I already agree on many points, I was able to look at many things in different ways. Also the fact that the book is written a century ago shows the curve we're following when comparing it to the present days. In summary basically all issues are just getting worse, wether it's country's arm race, industrialization or prison privatization and slave labor. For women issues, there are progresses since then, but it's good to read early feminist writings, cause it feels like we lost the plot.

A thing I loved about her feminist views, is that the whole equality thing is a sham, we seem to be wanting women to be more like men, while it should be the other way around in many stuff. Why do we all want to thrive in work, instead of focusing on the humanitarian side of our existence. Why are emotions supposed to be set aside and deemed inferior, by men and feminists alike. Also, a very important point, especially that the book is written during the suffragettes time, is the belief that women are going to purify politics. As we know (and as Goldman had seen), elections including women did not bring better leaders. Now the focus seems to be that women politicians will purify politics, which is another lie. Emma Goldman states that all big wins to the feminist movement and women issues happened with the force of protests and strikes, and never with the ballot. Of course she's not against women voting, but she states that it's an illusion of progress, instead of an actual win, and I kinda agree. Especially when women are still bound by the patriarchal shackles, and imposing these views on each other.