The happiness framework is rarely made explicit, and a lot of this was stuff I'd read in other feminist books already. society, broken down into the usual categories: sex, work, marriage/children, body image, etc. Sure, Filipovic includes a few policy suggestions in the final chapter, but otherwise this is just your standard run-of-the-mill feminist book that points out all of the gender inequalities in U.S.

Well, I've finished the book and I still don't really know. What are the steps we need to implement to make this reality? Sounds amazing, right? I want to know how this is going to work. But don't freak out, men-Filipovic also claims that focusing on making women happy will in fact result in everyone being happy. The time has come to start making policy based on what would make women happy. Women have propped up this system long enough, no one is actually all that happy, and there is obviously still a lot of social injustice. policy has not been neutral to all citizens it has actually favored men (particularly white men, of course).

In her introduction, Jill Filipovic advances a fascinating thesis: The United States was founded on the idea that we're all entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but over the years, U.S. Here, she provides an outline for a feminist movement we all need and a blueprint for how policy, laws, and society can deliver on the promise of the pursuit of happiness for all. If our laws and policies made women's happiness and fulfillment a goal in and of itself, Filipovic contends, many of our country's most contentious political issues - from reproductive rights to equal pay to welfare spending - would swiftly be resolved.įilipovic argues that it is more important than ever to prioritize women's happiness-and that doing so will make men's lives better, too. And never before have the requirements for being a 'good mother' been so extreme. Never before have the standards of feminine perfection been so high. Never before have women at every economic level had to work so much (whether it's to be an accomplished white-collar employee or just make ends meet). In this world of unfinished feminism, men have long been able to 'have it all' because of free female labor, while the bar of achievement for women has only gotten higher. In The H-Spot, Filipovic argues that the main obstacle standing in-between women and happiness is a rigged system. What do women want? The same thing men were promised in the Declaration of Independence: happiness, or at least the freedom to pursue it.įor women, though, pursuing happiness is a complicated endeavor, and if you head out into America and talk to women one-on-one, as Jill Filipovic has done, you'll see that happiness is indelibly shaped by the constraints of gender, the expectations of feminine sacrifice, and the myriad ways that womanhood itself differs along lines of race, class, location, and identity.

The H-Spot by Jill Filipovic