"A day in the lives of 529 American Women"

Have you ever looked out of an airplane and wondered about the people living in the match- box houses below? Who are these people? What were they doing when you just flew over them?

Feeling down one day, writer Joni B. Cole decided to email a few women from different circles of her life and ask what a day in their life was actually like? I guess this would be something akin to looking down from my airplane. As she points out, "the responses they sent back were illuminating. Part itinerary, part journal, these 'day diaries' revealed their lives from the inside out-showing not only how they spent their time, but what was in their heads, and hearts as they went through those twenty-four hours."

Prodded on by the responses she received, Cole and two other partners, Rebecca Joffrey and B.K. Rakhra, decided to invite women across the USA to participate in a kind of survey, where they would write a personal and candid diary as to what they were doing and thinking on Tuesday Oct 15th, 2002. Why Oct 15th? "It was a window in the American calendar, unencumbered with holidays or national significance."

The culmination of the survey resulted in the publication of a book entitled: This Day: Diaries from American Women. Five hundred and twenty nine women contributed day diaries, and of these, thirty- five had been published. In addition, there were excerpts taken from several other day diaries.

Many of the respondents displayed a great deal of optimism, notwithstanding that their lives were not always a bowl of cherries. One very touching diary concerned a wife who was a full-time caregiver to a husband with Lou Gehrig's disease. She read books to look for magic in her life.

What is fascinating is some of the data extrapolated from the diaries. As an example, 64% of day diarists felt stressed out, 47% worried about money, 57% didn't get enough sleep, 22% cried, and 55% prayed.

When I interviewed the three editors, and asked them what information did they feel came as a surprise, Cole indicated: "she was moved by the honesty of these day diaries. Women wrote the truth about their daily experience, their relationships, and their feelings. Their openness and generosity still takes me by surprise. It makes me appreciate these women-and women in general-all the more." To this, my reply is, Amen!

Although the book is not meant as a scientific study, it certainly is an eye-opener. In fact, it would make a useful addition to a suggested reading list for university or college courses pertaining to feminism or relationships.

Reviewed by Norman Goldman
Courtesy Bookpleasures
Posted August 18, 2003

Read an interview with the editors http://www.bookpleasures.com/interviewsdetail.php? interviewid=18