Description

This article is from the Feminism References FAQ, by Cindy Tittle Moore tittle@netcom.com with numerous contributions by others.

Literary Writings:

Atwood, Margaret. _The Handmaid's Tale_. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1986.
ISBN 0395404258.
Description of future in which women's reproduction is completely
state-controlled.

Charnas, Suzy McKee. _Walk to the End of the World_. In _Radical
Utopias_, Quality Paperback Book Club, New York, 1990.
Charnas has also written excellent young adult fiction (_The
Bronze King_, etc). This is an exploration of a post-apolcalyptic
world, in which women are blamed for the apocolypse and treated
accordingly.

Delany, Samuel R. _Triton_. In _Radical Utopias_, Quality Paperback
Book Club, New York, 1990.  
An exploration of gender and gender roles set in the future. 

Lefanu, Sarah. _Feminism and Science Fiction_. Indiana University
Press. 1989. ISBN: 0-253-23100-0.
From back: "Through intriguing literary criticism of the works of
writers such as Joanna Russ, Ursula Le Guin, Suzy McKee Charnas,
James Tiptree, Jr., and Josephine Saxton, Lefanu explores the ways
in which feminsit ideas have been stealthily at work, subverting
male authority in one of its strongholds." A penetrating and very
interesting book.

LeGuin, Ursula K. _The Left Hand of Darkness_. Ace Science Fiction
Books, New York. c1969. 29th printing, 1984. ISBN: 0-441-47810-7  
(paperback).
Constructs a world inhabited by non-gendered people that shift
from one sex to the other only for purposes of reproduction. A
fascinating exploration of gender, gender roles, and gender
identity. Lyrical and well written.

LeGuin, Ursula K. _Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on
Words, Women, Places_. Perennial Library, Harper & Row, Publishers.
1989. ISBN 0-06-097289-0.
A collection of articles written by the author. Well worth
reading.  

Russ, Joanna. "When It Changed." Originally published in _Again,
Dangerous Visions_ edited by Harlan Ellison, in 1972. It was
reprinted in _Kindred Spirits_ edited by Jeffrey M. Elliot, in 1984
(Alyson Publications). Also reprinted in _The Arbor House Treasury of
Science Fiction_ compiled by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg
(Arbor House, New York, 1980, ISBN 0-87795-246-9).
From introduction in Arbor House edition: "The planet that is the
setting for Ms. Russ's story is completely devoid of men, and
although this situation has been dealt with in science fiction
before, it was usually in the form of 'men to the rescue' and/or a
reaffirmation of the 'natural' need of one sex for the other.
This is not the case here. The physiological problmes of a
single-sex situation have been solved and the social system and
the satisfactions deriving therefrom are perfectly logical. Like
all fine science fiction, 'When it Changed' has much to tell us
about the present." (p 513).

Russ, Joanna. _The Female Man_. In _Radical Utopias_, Quality
Paperback Book Club, New York, 1990.
This is an extension of the work begun in "When it Changed."

Spender, Dale. _Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Novelists before
Jane Austen_. Pandora Press, 1986. ISBN 0-86358-081-5.
Puts the lie to every thing you learned in high school and
university literature classes about how only men create LITERATURE.

Tiptree, James Jr. [Alice Sheldon]. "The Women Men Don't See," in
Silverberg, Robert and Martin H. Greenberg, eds, _THe Arbor House
Treasury of Science Fiction. Arbor House, New York. 1980. ISBN
0-87795-246-9.
From introduction: "We listen, but we don't hear. We see, but we
don't understand. We reach, but we don't grasp. These human
failings are a part of life for all of us and not always because
of lack of effort or talent. Some things are mysterious, and life
is the richer for it. Science fiction has always explored the
things that are not what they seem and the things that are more
than they appear to be, but rarely as disturbingly and profoundly
as in this outstanding story by 'James Tiptree, Jr' (Alice
Sheldon)."