Reviews

CLICK HERE to read the full-length review of Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Women To” Generation Tells Its Story by Story Circle Network book reviewer Karen Ryan.

Rosie’s Daughters is the first collective memoir of an entire generation of women–and what a generation it is. Women born between 1940-1945 (my generation!) danced to Elvis, went to college, burned our bras, married and had babies (or sometimes just had babies), climbed career ladders, and fought gender discrimination. Rosie’s Daughters helps us understand the social contexts within which our stories have taken place. It is impressively conceived and vividly told.
–Susan Wittig Albert, best-selling author of the China Bayles mystery series, founder of the Story Circle Network

Rosie’s Daughters is the story of a relatively unsung generation of women, a generation that has powerfully shaped our lives today. These women were pioneers in an often unwelcoming world, finding their way amid fast-paced changes–changes they themselves did much to bring about, often not entirely intending to. As a Boomer, product of a much more consciously change-making age, I found their stories both inspirational and humbling. In turn, I am eager for my young adult daughters to read of the joys and struggles of Rosie’s Daughters, so that their own decisions about love and work will be enriched.

The book is a unique combination of personal stories, research, history, art and the author’s own reflections, engagingly written and beautifully presented. This is social history without the turgid prose, a compilation of interviews without the annoying interruption of flow—even a motivational book without the saccharine—in the appealing voice of a perceptive author. Women who want to reflect constructively on their own lives will find much that is helpful here, as will students seeking to understand an era that powerfully affects their own. Indeed, Rosie’s Daughters offers to all a prototype of how to present a rich feast of important information in an appealing, accessible way.
–Geneva Overholser, Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Reporting, University of MO; and past Editor, Des Moines Register

… a masterful job of weaving many voices into a text that is easy to read and filled with “Aha!” moments. Rosie’s Daughters is a stunning contribution to the history of the ‘movement in America. I take it as a given that Rosie’s Daughters will be a textbook in every Women’s Studies course across the country, but it deserves a wide readership among the general public as well. Rosie’s Daughters helps me understand who those women were, the forces that shaped them, and how very rough and rocky the terrain was before they passed by.
–Beth Proudfoot, Director of the East of Eden Writers Conference

Rosie’s Daughters is beautifully written and a joy to read. What a pleasant surprise to find that a work of sociological history can turn out to be a page-turner! Matilda Butler has woven the stories of many women in the wartime generation into a fascinating tale–providing a new perspective on the way we view ourselves and how others appraise us. As classmates raised with the ‘50s perception that a woman’s future would be defined by marriage and children, Matilda and I never envisioned where life would take us and so many others in our generation.
–Martha Craig Daughtrey, Judge, US Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit

This lively book will resonate not only with those born in the early 1940s but with those of us who arrived a decade later, when sex-segregated help-wanted ads still prevailed and when women interested in math and science careers were steered toward school teaching and nursing. Our daughters, sons, and grandchildren will learn of the experiences, triumphs, and failures of this generation through interviews, anecdotes, and historic photos in Rosie’s Daughters. Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett have given us a provocative personal history of our time.
–Christine L. Borgman, Professor & Presidential Chair in Information Studies, Univ. of California, Los Angeles

Rosie’s Daughters is a testament to the old, a recording of adventures experienced and lessons provided by a unique generation of women. There is much to learn. There is even more to enjoy.
–Walter Bortz, MD, author of bestseller Dare to Be 100 and past-president of American Geriatrics Society

Rosie’s Daughters grounds its readers in specifics and soars our spirit with inspiration.
–Cathleen Rountree, Ph.D., bestselling author of series: On Women Turning 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70

Diving into the memoir, Rosie’s Daughters, was like reading a fun history book where I recognized five generations of my own family. I love the unique format of this book. If I were studying history, I could cram for the test just by riding the “fast track” timeline that runs across the bottom of each page. It is evident that Butler is not only a scholar and psychologist, but a compassionate human-being who has added a significant chapter to our U.S. history books. Rosie’s Daughters should be required reading for women’s studies courses.
–Betty Auchard, speaker and award-winning memoir author, Dancing in My Nightgown

Reading Rosie’s Daughters makes me proud of the women who have gone before us. Women who walked from the safety of what was to catapult future generations of women and men to who and what we are today. Matilda Butler encourages us to consider our worth and spend it wisely as powerful and empowered women.
–Martha Alderson, author of Blockbuster Plots Pure and Simple

The presentation of Rosie’s Daughters adds to the book’s importance. It is not linear; rather, it is elliptical, with each page turning into a new two-page spread, including historical information in the center, statements from interviews at the top, comments from famous women in the age group along the sidebars, and a running commentary of the times along the bottom of each page. You are in the middle of this multi-source of information and stimulation. You are part of the action.
–Edith Henderson Grotberg, Ph.D., author of Tapping Your Inner Strength and co-author of Creative Anger, Lecturer at George Washington University