The Gate to Women's Country

Sheri S. Tepper is an American science fiction author who explores gender, conflict and the environment in her often excellent novels (though they do have definite flaws). I was introduced to her by a friend who loaned me The Gate to Women's Country when I was a freshman in college. It's a sort of utopian tale: after a terrible war, society in America becomes matriarchal, with the women living in towns and essentially running things while men live outside in military installations and make war on the men of other towns. That may sound terrible rather than utopian, but really mostly the men play at war to appease their basic confrontational nature, while the women manage the economy and society with careful attention to preserving the environment. I don't really remember the plot, except that it seemed kind of depressing to me at 18. I was the kind of feminist who believed that men were really reasonable creatures who could actually see the inherent appeal of making society fairer for all involved (given proper encouragement and training of course). Our job as feminists was to loosen the death grip of patriarchy so that an egalitarian future would be the natural heritage of our children. Truth be told I thought American women had little to complain about, compared to what Somali women have to suffer. But I figured even Somali society could be changed without resorting to segregation of the sexes. We already have that, thank you very much, and it's no utopia. Now a more jaded and older me wonders if Tepper's idea doesn't have some merit. However, it's idle speculation only;, I'd get martial on anyone who actually tried to remove the lovely men in my life.

Anyway, I was helping my friend (not the same one) move today and found the book among her collection and I think I will re-read it. It's been sufficiently long enough to forget most of it, so it should be enjoyable. I'll give a second review if anything else strikes me (which I promised for The Years of Salt and Rice but honestly, I lost that book on a trip).