Mothers & Daughters

The Menstuff® library lists pertinent books on Mothers & Daughters. Updated 10/31/00.

• Bartle, Nathalie & Lieberman, Susan, Venus in Blue Jeans: Why mothers & daughters need to talk about sex. Sage advice & practical strategies for guiding girls toward womanhood. For generations, mother and daughters have struggled to say the right thing - or have said nothing at all - when the time has come to discuss sex. This book brings refreshing hope and guidance for every mother (and good information for fathers) who has been undone by such questions as "What's French kissing?" or who has agonized over their daughter's newfound interest in boys. In this wise and radiant book, the author tackles some of the toughest topics of sexual education: What do girls know about sex?  When is the right time to begin talking with them about sex?  How can parents get the conversation right?  Today's teenagers face enormous pressures to become sexually active: by age nineteen, more than 50 percent of American girls have had intercourse. From billboards to cyberspace, society is awash in sexual images. Parents assume that teens possess abundant sexual knowledge, but information gleaned from the media or the teenage grapevine can be woefully inaccurate: many teens list AIDS as the only sexually transmitted disease; others assume they can't get pregnant "the first time". We need a new dialogue for this generation of young women. Adolescent girls crave information, but they may be too afraid or embarrassed to ask for it. Parents can encourage conversation, correct misinformation and stress the importance of relationships and of a young woman's values. Houghton Mifflin 1998 ISBN 0-395-84172-0 Buy This Book!
• Boynton, Marilyn Irwin, Goodbye Mother, Hello Woman: Reweaving the daughter-mother relationship, New Harbinger, 1995
• Caplan, Paula, Don't Blame Mother:  Mending the mother-daughter relationship, Harper & Row, 1989
• Caralson, Cathie, In Her Image: The unhealed daughter's search for her mother, Shambhala, 1990
• Cohen-Sandler, Roni & Michelle Silver. "I'm Not Mad, I Just Hate You!" A new understanding of mother-daughter conflict. Surviving and thriving during your daughter's teenage years. The teen years are often tumultuous for both girls and their mothers. Teen girls, who are socialized to stifle their anger and avboid confrontation, frequently take out their frustration on their mothers as the only safe and available targets. The good news is that with patience and the right guidance, mothers can transform the teeage years into positive onoes that enrich the mother-daughter relationship. This book combines the expertise of a clinical psychologist who has worked with women and adolescent girls for more than twenty years with that of a teen magazine editor. Their dscussion of social, emotional, cultural and psychological issues is interwoven with the voices of real-life mothers and daughters in case studiees that are both illuminating and reassuring. Mothers are supported in exploring their own contributions to the mother-daughter relationship, examining various persepctives on conflict and learning practical strategies to resolve inevitable disagreements. This book demonstraetrs how mother=-daughter friction during adolescence, managed creatively, empowers girls by teaching them invaluable skills. And perhaps most important, throughout this process mothers stay engaged with daughters, enriching and deepening their connections. In the wak of widely popular books exposing the perils adolescent girls face, this book provides mothers with much needed pra ctical strategies to help their daughters grow in to emotionally healthy and capable adults. At the same time, women will encourage loving and lifelon connections with their daughters. (Ed. - We feel that fathers - when in intact families or a single father, will be able to glean valuable information to also have that close connection with their adolescence daughter)  Viking, www.penguinputnam.com 1999 ISBN 0-670-883433 Buy This Book!
• Edelman, Hope, Motherless Daughters: The legacy of loss, Delta, 1994
• Enberg, Karen, It's Not the Glass Ceiling, It's the Sticky Floor: and other things our daughters should know about marriage, work and motherhood. Putting family first in an ambitious, career-minded society can be a very difficult, an even passe, decision. Young women contemplating marriage, motherhood and work need a helpful guide to understanding and meeting the challenges of work and family. Those who have sacrificed career dreams in the face of motherhood are especially in need of reassurance. This is the author's urgent call for women to negotiate equality in the home and for men to understand that motherhood and "housework" are just as important as breadwinning. In pithy and hard-hitting chapters, using hilarious and hair-raising personal experiences, she challeges the studies and assertions of "experts" who fail to address family issues in realistic, or realizable, terms. She offers fresh points of view and advice for women on youthful decision making, parenting, handling teenagers, finance and much more. Emphasizing a feminie individualism and forecasting the highs and lows of family/work life, she sets a blue-print for a new kind of duty structure. Prometheus Books, www.prometheusbooks.com 1999 ISBN 1-57392-745-7 Buy this book!
• Ford, Judy and Amanda, Between Mother & Daughter: A teenager and her mom share the secrets of a strong relationship. The special and loving bond between mothers and daughters doesn't have to vanish with the onset of the teenage years. Listen to this mother and her teenage daughter, as they discuss issues that often led to conflict. Learn how you can solve problems and grow closer to each other as a result. Conari Press www.conari.com or conari@conari.com 1999 ISBN 1-57324-164-4 Buy this book!
• Hammer, Signe, Daughters & Mothers: Mothers & daughters:  New understanding of how every woman is profoundly affected throughout her life by her mom, Signet, 1976