Available From UC Press

In Seriously!, Cynthia Enloe, author of the groundbreaking analysis of globalization, Bananas, Beaches, and Bases, addresses two deeply gendered and contested questions: Who is taken seriously? And who gets to bestow the label “serious” on others? With a strategy of taking both women and gender dynamics seriously, Cynthia Enloe investigates the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair and the banking crash of 2008, the subsequent recession, as well as UN peacekeeping and the ongoing Egyptian revolution. Each case study highlights the gritty experiences of women in diverse circumstances—in banks, on the job market, in war zones, and in revolutions. The results of taking women seriously are fresh insights into what fuels the cultures of hyper–risk taking, of sexual harassment, and the denial of women’s post-war security.

Cynthia Enloe is research professor at Clark University and author of numerous books, including Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics.

“This is simply a brilliant book. It is timely and necessary. In the shining of her feminist spotlight on deepest fissures of the structures of our modern world, she uncovers and explains; patriarchy, misogyny and masculinity, she moves effortlessly from militarism to financial institutions and shows that the triumvirate of P, M and M, still defines politics and power across all spectrums. In exposing how it works, she also exposes something we, as feminists, have been ashamed to confront, (save for the brave few), our own fear of not being taken seriously, our tacit ‘collaboration’. Its time for us to change, and as the imaginary dinner table concluded; ‘Now not later’! Thank you Cynthia!”—Madeleine Rees, Secretary General, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

“Of all the lessons I have learned from Cynthia Enloe’s pathbreaking scholarship, perhaps the most important is that to understand how any system of power works, one must examine who is on the margins of that system and how they are kept there. And to do that, one must pay close attention to the lives of those who live and operate on the margins, women in particular. In her new book, Enloe shows exactly what scholars, activists and officials lose when they fail to take the lives of women seriously. It is a must-read for any social scientist or graduate student.”—Aaron Belkin, Author of How We Won: Progressive Lessons from the Repeal of ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell’

“Cynthia Enloe’s work is unique in that it challenges us all—policymakers, activists, scholars and students alike to take gender seriously. She asks provocative questions that are not normally asked about global politics and is always questioning our ‘common sense’ understanding about the way the world works.”—J. Ann Tickner, author of Gendering World Politics: Issues and Approaches in the Post-Cold War Era

“Cynthia Enloe is the leading authority in the field of gender, feminism, women and international relations.”—Amrita Basu, Paino Professor of Political Science, Women and Gender Studies, Amherst College