Facing the Mirror

Frida Kerner Furman is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University and is author of BeyondYiddishkeit: The Struggle for Jewish Identity in a ReformSynagogue.

"An accessibly written ethnography, the women in Furman's beauty shop reveal a great deal about women's lives and positions in contemporary culture." -- Feminist BookstoreNews"I quickly absorbed Furman's words-the results of nearly five years of research"...it is a book long overdue." -- Heritage Sunday"Facing the Mirror combines studies of aging, Judaism, and beauty into an excellent ethnographic study of a beauty salon in Chicago." -- Gender & Society"The book calls much needed attention to an area of women's experience that has been seen as socially insignificant." -- C. AdamskyChoice"A respectful and even tender treatment of a large and largely neglected population in our culture: elderly, middle income, middle American women...[Furman's] account is beautifully written, warm." -- Sally B. Purvis"What Furman gives us in Facing the Mirror is hard to come by: a mostly jargon-free chronicle of an oft-ignored population." -- In These Times"Facing the Mirror is a thoughtful feminist analysis." -- Booklist

• Introduction; Chapter Chapter One; Women’s Territory; Community and the Ethic of Care at Julie’s International Salon; Chapter Two; The Witch in the Mirror; Feminine Beauty and Its Imperatives; Chapter Three; “What’s My Alternative?”; Aging and Its Challenges; Chapter Four; “The Cheese Stands Alone”; Women in Relation to Work, Caring, and the Family; Chapter Five; Energetic Anger; An Invitation to Resistance;