"Sexist Society" is rather a messy piece of work. It comprises a silly cover, 20 odd hard luck stories and seven fairly forgettable essays, all based around the statement that "A sexist society is one which is sexually discriminating and results in immense pain and suffering for both sexes." Thrown in with this assortment are a number of predictable photographs, very obviously posed "by professional models". The binding is terrible, my copy collapsed after only one reading. For Alister Taylor's sake I hope thousands of others who had the same misfortune don't converge on his company's headquarters at 194a Sydney Street West demanding their money back.

"Sexist Society" will probably prove to be a useful work, albeit in a limited way. It catalogues a large number of trials and sufferings arising from the fact that our society is sexist, sufficient in number and variety to point out that the problem definitely exists. It also makes some effort to cover a wide and relevant field of sexist problems, although scarcely any emphasis is put on the class nature of our society. This leads to the most unforgiveable omission of the book. New Zealand is a multiracial, capitalist social democracy. The fact that it is a sexist society is quite irrelevant if it is not squarely placed in this context. The only real attempt to do [unclear: tot] that our whore economic system needs to be changed and made far more responsive to the people who live in it".

This fact may be obvious to Kedgley, Cederman and the "People's Voice" but it is surely important enough to be enlarged on far more explicitly.

The bulk of the book is the collection of anecdotes from "Breadwinner", "Baby Basher", "Pregnant at 16" and the like. These true accounts are no doubt a useful way of putting the problem, but the plea that they be seen as representative of their group should fall on very deaf ears. To present these individuals' personal biographies as a substitute for a social survey is lazy and irresponsible. As a collection of genuine cases of social evil the book may awaken some people to the problem of being male or female in New Zealand.

The failure of "Sexist Society" is a failure to seek the principal contradiction of our society (i.e. the relationship of its economic base to its cultural and political superstructure) and the contradictions of the nuclear family as the economic unit of the society. If it had been in such a context this book might have become a weapon in the hands of the oppressed rather than a platform to moralise from.

It is fitting that Frederick Engels' great work on sexist and capitalist society "Origin of the Family. Private Property and State" is referred to in the reading list. He should be joined in this list by Mao Tsetung, one of history's most successful champions of women's liberation. He commented "Genuine equality of the sexes can only be realised in the process of the socialist transformation of society as a whole".