my mother was putting me very early on the path to studying racism. she remembers when i was a toddler sitting on the front steps with me explaining why the trash collectors were black. and i became very involved in looking at these issues from a young age because i have a short story i wrote in second grade on martin luther king and the language of slavery. it's always a -- i was a very unusual little kid, but that story's there. and in that story i was able to relate the struggle for black identity with my own understanding of having a i jewish identity. when you start a conversation with a kid, it will flower. but a lot of people believe you have to delay those conversations until, you know, you're in college. a lot of people don't go to college. so this is why we have to get women's studies, black history, everything into high schools and middle schools. by the way, m. carrie thomas is

the person who founded bryn mawr. it came to me in the synapse just now. >> host: and you know what? that was my next thing because i wrote it down. they gave me the right -- they gave me that information. >> guest: i remembered it. >> host: pardon me. arvin tweets in to you, professor morris: please ask professor morris to narrate her story about asking president clinton to watch the women's basketball game. >> guest: well, i know, i filmed an interview about that earlier, but sure. okay. so already a women's sports fan and basketball fan when i first began teaching at gw in 1994, i went to a doubleheader, and this was when they would have one ticket got you the men's game and the women's game, a long afternoon. so i was going to see two games, but i was surprised to have to go through a metal detector which had never happened at gw s. and somebody said the president's here. president clinton had brought chelsea to the game.

he was very accessible. you could go right up and shake his hand. he went into the crowd and met folks. and the men began to play. they win. and then the president got up to leave, and i was startled and then outraged. here is the commander in chief who's supposed to support title ix law at that time, by the way, the women's team had a better record than the men's, and he was going to walk out with his daughter when the women took the court. i didn't think so. so i pushed my way through the crowd, stuck out my hand and said, hi, mr. president, i'm a women's studies professor here, and i'd like to ask you that you stay and support the women's team. don't leave now that the women have won. it would be very important to the women of america and your daughter to show your support for women's sports. and he shook my hand and said i'd love to stay, but i have a meeting at the white house at two or something. and i looked at my watch, and i said, well, you can watch the first half of the women's game. please sit down. and he went back and sat down.

so i gave a direct order to the president of the united states. and he became the first president to phone in congratulations to the winning women's team of the ncaa championship that march, and i like to think i had something to do with that. >> host: gordon, felton, delaware. hi. >> caller: hi. can you hear me okay? >> guest: yes. >> host: we're listening. >> caller: okay, great. i do appreciate the great passion that i do sense coming from your guest. but i'm coming at it from a completely different perspective there's no argument that domestic violence for so long was not handled in an appropriate hander by the system -- manner by the system, but i'd like to speak to the whole issue of, quote-unquote, women's subjugation and them being the victims of domestic violence. with everything that's been done now, i've seen this throughout history, you know, as i've

studied history, when you attempt to confront a social ill that is on one extreme, inevitably you're going to go to the other extreme. i think we have the axiom for it called the pendulum effect. and i had seen that. in fact, i'm going to be speaking at a conference in d.c. this summer sponsored by faith services and the center for -- [inaudible] integrity. and it's going to highlight my experiences, how that i was thoughtfully arrested nine times which all have been expunged and i've received an apology, but it was based upon the allegations of what was proven to be an emotionally disturbed individual. but because there has been such one extreme to the either and, you know, my experience was not an isolated incident. it seems to be that that's where we've gotten to, where the system instead of going by rule

of law regarding domestic violence issues, we now adhere to a more err on the side of caution. so that has been my experience. and i would like to get any kind of feedback or comment from you regarding -- >> host: thank you, sir. let's leave it there. we got the point. >> guest: yeah, no. i think that's an important point. i understand what you're saying. i have a friend who was falsely accused recently. i this think you're quite right -- i think you're quite right that the erring on the side of caution has been a problem in terms of families being charged, for example, with potentially abusing kids if the kid shows up at school bruised. we have schools expelling kids for bringing in aspirin or a fork because of our anxiety about weapons. i would say these are aspects, yes, of a system that's adjusting to responding to things no one ever did respond to before. i don't think that there is that much of a extreme pendulum

swing. i think, if anything, we're uncovering more and more examples that we're horrified to see have been accepted as normal all along. i know that in the past, for example, a double standard sent women to prison for much longer sentences when they committed crimes because we were so shocked that women would break the law at all. so there's plenty of room for adjustment in the justice system, and i'm sorry for what you experienced. i would say that looking for evidence of domestic violence as part of, say, you know, a patrol car's response in any scenario, that is a good thing. and what we've found is that when women are paired with men in police partnerships, that often we do get a better story or a fair story in a call like that. i would also add that having

discovered the huge problem of assaults on girls, we have rapidly moved into an almost total focus on assaults on boy withs. and while that's an important thing looking at what happened at penn state or altar boys being molested and so forth, it again makes it much more egregious if a boy is violated than a girl. and i think we respond her rapidly. i don't have an answer to how we prevent false accusations. and i certainly do know of women who have abused the system by making false reports. people do that also with inventing, hate crimes. we certainly know that there are women who, in fact, were guilty of abusing their kids who blamed an outside party. all of that is a part of people abusing the system. >> host: just about a half hour left with this month's "in

depth" guest, professor bonnie morris. she teaches both at george washington and at georgetown university. the author of six nonfiction books and poetry books as well. her most recent is "women's history for beginners" which also is our booktv book club choice for february. so if you go to booktv.org, you'll see a tab up at the top. it says book club. you can participate -- just click on that, you can participate in the conversation. we'll be putting -- we'll be posting everything up tomorrow, this video from this program as well as reviews and articles by bonnie morris. we'll also be posting questions, discussion questions throughout the month of february. so pick up a copy, and we'd love to have you participate and interact with each other. it's kind of an online book club since so much of our world is online anymore. well, our next call comes from dory in san antonio, texas.

dory from women's history for beginners, who was the first tale member of -- female member of congress? >> caller: i don't know that. i'm 80 years old, and i can't remember dates anymore. i'm an -- i was an activist in the women's movement in the 1970s. i had a feminist bookstore in nashville, tennessee, called woman kind -- >> guest: yeah. >> caller: and had all the recordings of the women's music that you talk about. i've been a jazz musician all my life, and that's what i want to talk about. the thing that impacted my life the most negatively in terms of developing as a jazz musician was unintended pregnancies.

because birth control was not in sight any place. it was not in the media, it was not available, it was not legal. and so i've been a jazz musician all my life, and just last year i received a lifetime achievement award in san antonio. but i would like to hear you talk about margaret sanger, because she is my finish. >> guest: okay. wow. well, first of all, the first woman elected to congress jeanette rankin, and there's a statue of her in the capitol rotunda now. second of all, thank you for everything you've done. i'm writing a book chapter about women's bookstores, and i will add you. and i'm delighted to hear about your career in jazz. i write about that as well. i play the music of women who were in jazz for my classes including the international sweethearts of rhythm, a

mixed-race band in world war ii, but also many other women in jazz. margaret sanger, yes. a personal hero to my grandmother, my mother's mother, it would appear was one of the first young women in the united states to go to margaret sanger's clinic as a young woman in the 1920s and always held sanger in the highest esteem. i regret seeing birth control reemerge as a controversy almost a hundred years later. sanger, of course, was forced to leaf -- leave the country in part because she published a magazine called "the woman rebel" at a time when it was illegal to send information including discussion about birth control through the u.s. mail. so postal authorities seized her magazine. she had to flee. she, basically, studied in europe's first birth control clinic which was in holland and

returned with information about the diaphragm for american women. what most people don't realize is birth control became legal because men were at risk. condoms were legalized after world war i because more men returned from service overseas with sexually-transmitted diseases than with actual bullet wounds. much embarrassing uncle sam. and the result, we made condoms legal for men as long as they were sold with the provision, "sold for the prevention of disease." so we've actually protected men's health through legalized contraception before women had access to it. for prevention of pregnancy. this is all vital to the material my students are reading now. my students are reading "deliberate daughters," "the body project," and and "the girs who went away," about sex

education ask birth control and how that -- and birth control and how that created pain and suffering for unwed moms. as you indicate, interrupted opportunities. great question. >> host: next call is mary ellen in livermore, california. mary ellen, from bonnie morris' book "women's history forkers," who was the slave who bore thomas jefferson's children? >> caller: ooh, oh, i cannot -- almost, not quite getting it. >> host: okay. >> guest: sally hemings. >> caller: of course. >> guest: a huge controversy here at monticello. >> caller: of course. >> host: go ahead with your question or comment, mary ellen. >> caller: well, first of all, thank you, booktv, this is fabulous. i want to be in the book club. anyway, there seem to be some really strong voices in pop music today. katy perry, i know she has a huge following, pink. i turn on the radio, and i hear these really powerful women, and

then there's the miley cyrus thing and lady gaga, and i'm wondering if you have any comments about that, and thank you very much. >> guest: oh, you are so welcome. yes. i don't mean to situate all of the music i listen to was recorded in the '70s. and i am a big fan of a lot of contemporary musicians. i think one of the things that we're looking at is how women present themselves. on stage. do you have to present yourself many a sexually-provocative way in order to be considered commercially viable. do you have to appeal primarily to the male audience in order to get a commercial contract? if you don't present yourself as attractive in a certain way, will you be dropped or rebuked? si maid o'connor famously shaved her head because her agent told her to look more feminine.

what my students are concerned with is that -- because lots of little kids want to be famous or appreciate celebrity. is looking up to someone who dresses provocatively the wrong message to send to little kids? and one of the things that i've, obviously, studied is when you're not worrying about making a good impression on guys who might p want to date you, you can do whatever you want on stage. and it brings out a lot of talented women who might not fit the bill where someone is looking specifically at covergirl looks and so on. right now a big issue i would say is definitely the degree to which performers generate millions of dollars and have so much opportunity to say useful things at the microphone, do they take advantage of that opportunity. what could they say to younger women that would inspire them? how could they help young women accept themselves? how can you be a role model to

young women who don't fit what they think is the american ideal of appearance? and that could be racial, ethnic, size, sexuality. i think it's really important that you not just be successful, but that your message contain elements of empowerment. i think there's a lot of young artists who are doing that now. i think there's work that could be done. >> host: next call for bonnie morris comes from karen in astoria, new york. karen, here's your quiz question. who warned her powerful or husband that he better, quote, remember the ladies. >> caller: abigail adams. >> guest: yeah! >> host: ding, ding, ding. >> caller: and i partially know that from reading dr. morris' book, "the women's history for beginnings," which c-span booktv brought her work to my attention when you interviewed her, a shorter interview several months ago. and so i read "women's history

for beginners" from my public library, and thousand i'm currently reading-- and now i'm currently reading "revenge of the women's studies professor." learned a lot from both of them, and my comment is i wanted to say thank you to c-span booktv for bringing this to our attention or what this points of view that are so marginalized in ore media, but you are -- in other media, but you are devoting three hours that we can learn from professor morris, and i'm thankful. >> host: karen, what is -- can you -- tell us about yourself. >> caller: i'm a feminist, always have been, always will be. i'm dr. morris' age, and i am, happen to be a graduate of a women's college. >> guest: wow. i can't thank you enough. and, of course, i spent many, many happy years in astoria. and i hope that you use the public library that's just down

the corner. many good memories and hello to all my friends in astoria. i would say that -- thank you, again, but i want to also thank c-span. thanks for giving me an opportunity. doing this kind of work, many people doubted me when i announced my intention to become a women's studies professor. my family had concerns, my friends. they were supportive, but people worried quite openly how i'd earn a living or if i'd find a job. i think it was such an unusual occupation to be interested in. no one was sure how this would work out. it's worked out wonderfully. i've managed to carve out a job for myself. i've hanged to do the things i've wanted to within feminist action and also a as a citizen of the global world. i would add that for people who

are considering going into women's studies, do not let anyone tell you it's not a good role, occupation, pronegatives. when i see -- profession. when i see how the students respond and how lives are changed, right now i'm one of the scholarly advisers to the national women's history museum we hope to build here in d.c. that's right, we don't have one. we don't have a national museum of women's history. and when i see how my students are outraged we tonight have one, we don't have more monuments to women here in the capitol, what does it mean if you don't see your life or your sex represented in statues or in the architecture of a city? so there's much more to be done, and we need even. we need architects and painters and theorists and pharmacists and doctors and lawyers and accountants and even to remember the ladies as abigail adams said, remember the ladies. >> host: laura tweets in to you,

professor morris: all the women's studies majors i knew in college were back in school five years later getting business degrees. [laughter] >> guest: well, you know, i think a lot of students in my class right now are in the business schools. they're doing work as future wall street women or running nonprofits is on their agenda. i think that a lot of people major in something that may not necessarily be what they work in later on. but i wouldn't discourage anyone from pursuing it. i would also say that what's interesting is we have more majors this women's studies than in math and physics combined. we have a lot of people who minor. and we have a huge number of students who simply take the courses. they don't necessarily major. working with athletes on both campuses is just such a privilege, and many of the athletes are just discovering the history of women in sports for the first time.

they're thrilled, they're uplifted. i go to all their games. and i think that making the information available to people you might not think would take the class -- yeah, tool guys, they're -- football be guys, they're incredible. basketball players, track stars, everybody. and, of course, women in sports. having everyone together and creating a climate in the classroom is what makes the study of women a successful enterprise for everyone, because they can connect to each other's lives. and right now i have students from all over the world in all my classes. just off the top of my head, haiti, singapore, hong kong, vietnam. and one thing that i allow students to do is, of course, write from their own cultural perspective. what has it been like for them to observe the changing status

of women in their culture and society. so we're engaged in, you know, global perspectives, we're working on the development of the different countries. i have a whole lot of students as well who are very excited by the possibility of doing work in health that's going to prevent some of the illnesses that have kept women from participating more fully. and, of course, in terms of women's sports, one of things i really love is just cheering on many by players. >> host: r.j. williams, pell broke pines, florida. , mail: is margaret chase smith, our republican of maine, senatorial decision ever discussed, and do you consider christina of summers a feminist colleague? >> guest: good lord. yes, i include the history of women who have run in my

classes, absolutely, and we spend a lot of time on women in politics. who was the first, who were the unknown candidates. christina love summers has been very critical of women's studies, and a lot of her books are very hostile to the field. i'm happy to talk back to that viewpoint. i think that the field is both academically viable, scholarly -- sound in a scholarly way. there's very mixed stereotypes about women's studies. one is that we're all, you know, like axe-wielding, castrating man-haters. that's a very harsh image. and and then there's the opposite which is we're tree-hugging, you know, nothing really goes on in the classroom, it's all airy fairy and so on. wrong, wrong, wrong. what's startling to my students is just like anything else, you can flunk this material. do the readings, take the it'ses, turn the work in -- the

tests, turn the work in on time or watch your grade go down the tube, and isn't that a wake-up call? so people enrolled thinking this is, you know, an easy class or i just have to agree with the professor and i'll get an a or, oh, we're all going to sit in a circle and give each other pap smears, wrong. inaccurate. so i have to be fairly tough on the first day and scare away anybody who's not going to work seriously. and you have to do that. i have to interrupt students who are shaming other students who might be in the room whether that's unintentional, say someone who makes sweeping generalizations about anyone who is on welfare be, right? we talk about unwed moms. suppose somebody is one, you know? so let's check out who's in the room. this headaches the material -- makes the material personal, yes. it is personal because it is about the body and sexuality and is life giving and so on. at the same time, i'm very clear

i am not a counselor, i'm not a rabbi, i'm not your therapist, so students who need support i can refer them to the appropriate places. i do have students who have cheated. i've had to deal with plagiarism. obviously, it's a sign of the times that a lot of students are unfamiliar with how you quote correctly from the internet. what this says is women's studies is mainstream. it's like any other class in terms of the academic as educate. aspect. what brings students in is a variety of motives, and being ready for each of those is also, you know, a very demanding aspect. at the end of day, i come home exhausted, and my replenishment very much comes from being able to write in my journal about my teaching day. and i find i write more and more about teaching and less and less, you know, about other things because i'm concerned

with doing a good job. but also because these interactions raise so many questions about our current moment historically. >> host: bonnie morris, mary jo e-mails in to you from dearborn, michigan: my question deals with the novel "the help." my sister is white ask a women's studies professor at a small college in kentucky. she assigned this book to one of her introductory classes and was criticized by a black colleague for using that book. i remember that there was a lot of controversy surrounding that book and wonder what you think about it. >> guest: well, my mother gave me the book, and i've read it, and i've assigned it. i use a number of other books as well. i use "the mailed narratives -- the maid narratives" which is a very useful book because it's actual interviews with women who worked as maids. there's also interviews in there with women whose moms worked as

maids and women whose moms had maids. in other words, both white and black women, everybody involved this these intricate relationships. i understand some of the criticism of "the help" was that it was written by a white author, and at the same time i think it's useful in getting students to think about a really complicated problem in women's history. segregation kept people apart in housing, schooling, public accommodations. but women were with one another intimately because black women worked in white women's homes and were assigned to do the inti hate care, the daily intimate care, childcare, actually nursing white babies with their own breast milk. all of that. that's an intimacy that sounds strange when we look at how segregation is supposed to keep us from touching.

so it demonstrates a whole lot. one aspect that we tell gate child -- we delegate child care to people who are seen as less socially important. because throughout history aristocratic women have always had nurses and servants. so there's a history of servants as well as a racial history. all of that can be summarized in a novel, but it has to be sup mr. presidented with real stories -- sup mr. presidented with real stories from women who lived through the experience, and there's a way to do that through the curriculum. it's a great question. >> host: robert in atlanta, georgia. robert, in what year did a women's bathroom finally have to be added to the senate building so that newly-elected women would not miss the roll call for votes? >> caller: ms. chism was there, i imagine, so it would probably be '88? >> guest: well, actually, 1992, '93. a lot of women ran for and were elected after the anita hill

hearings, and you had to leave the senate building and go across to another venue to get to a women's facility. this is another example of women's history through architecture. the georgetown science building didn't have a women's bathroom until quite recently, because there were never any plans that women would major in science. they had to make a broom closet into a women's room. so the history of segregation through toilets is something i also talk about. and it's okay to laugh at this stuff. >> host: robert, go ahead and ask your question and make your comment. >> caller: yeah. i'm 58 years old, so i, i've seen the women's movement, you know, and archie bunker. i guess i consider myself a feminist, but duplicity is the summit of this call, and that's kind of bothered me about the movementment i -- movement. i want to ask you to address two

liberty things, one is -- [inaudible] i propose this question. if you have a group of women put together in a room and you ask them to take a vote, would you prefer that your future husband headache more money than you or less money than you, that was an interesting answer, particularly considering you want equal pay. and oleana, well, you can just tell me anything you feel about that. thanks. >> guest: okay. well, i don't know enough about oleana to respond. camille polly is an interesting figure. part of what she was anxious about in her work was empowering women or reclaiming in her book sexual per sew nay that women had as femme fatals and that they shouldn't jettison that and it wasn't a negative thing. she was hostile at the concept of victim feminism which many

other people have argued puts feminists in a bad light in emphasizing the negative aspect of womanhood. the question, you know, about earnings, that was also addressed in a great tv interview about women breaking into women's sports. so i'm very familiar with that question. and the idea that women still expect to be supported by men this some scenarios and yet want equal pay in others. part of the problem there is that if a woman takes time out to have kids, if he doesn't get maternity leave or doesn't have health coverage and so forth, to what degree is a woman really compromised financially by giving birth or needing time for child care? and if she doesn't have a partner who can assist, that's

one of the reasons why we find that women are more likely to live in poverty than men. women who expected to be supported either emotionally or financially by a loving husband who are then abandoned need to go to work in a scenario where they will be paid wages that they can live on. ask one of the reasons -- and one of the reasons, the '70s saw so much change, many women were being divorced and discovering suddenly without a husband's income they were very bad lu off, but they weren't being offered fair wages if they entered the work force in their 30s and 40s. i would also add that a unique issue here, of course, is that we have a work callen da daughter that -- calendar that's built around the idea of one person working and a partner being at home. now we expect everyone to work, so we have everyone out in the public sphere, million dollar houses and and nobody's in them.

so concerns about who's taking care of the children. i understand where that comes from. we now have the ability for everyone to work out of the home again because of computers. you don't have to go out in the public sphere to be a businessman or woman. these are all changes that we look at in my classes. they're wonderful discussions. what does it mean that we now expect everybody to have a primary identity outside the home, and yet homes are more and more expensive, you know? if you're going to invest all that in a home, don't you want to be there some of the time? i ask the same question. i have a nice amount that i'm hardly ever -- apartment that i'm hardly ever in, and this winter i've within enjoying being in it in the cold weather and kind of looking around at my 1500 books and going, yeah, i live somewhere. i live at dupont circle, and i'm happy. >> host: mar e-mails in: i'm an

academic at marries college. what i want to ask, is there any sustained, actionable focus among feminists on behalf of women in prison? >> guest: yes. terrific question. hi to my two colleagues from grad school who were maris professors. i am fortunate to teach in a women's studies program, george washington, chaired by dan moshenberg whose focus is women in prison or women in the prison system. we offer an excellent curriculum on this topic. i showed the film "what i want my words to do to you" in which eve especialliler teaches a writing class at bed forth hills prison in upstate, new york. my students addressed the subject of not only women as summits of violence, but women who are in prison for crimes or who have taken violent action. and they read a series of papers by women who have experienced living long term in prison. much of that literature covers

the way that women are either rewarded or punished with, you know, access to chair own kids -- their own kids, what to do with women who become mothers while behind bars, how we accommodate access to child rearing this those conditions. but we also examine the fact that many women are imprisoned because of intimate violence. they take the rap for a boyfriend, they fight back if they're battered. they turn to prostitution because they're addicted. and the other social ills we're familiar with. so, yes, that is very much on my syllabus. >> host: dwhren reilly e-mails in: mail chauvinism bad, female chauvinism good. i use up a significant part of my weekend watching this generally excellent tv show. this morning is pushing the limits of objectivity and honesty. this should not be the place for political propaganda. thank you for your comments, sir. appreciate that.

and the next call for bonnie morris comes from annie in pilot hill, california. >> caller: this is a terrific show. i'm to happy you're running it, and i love booktv. i grew up in the '70s, and it seemed like it was sort of the first era maybe when girls were asked what are you going to be when you grow up instead of just assuming that everybody was going to be a mother. and this kind of does hail back to a question you had earlier about katy perry and pink and some of the people that are in the entertainment industry. i'm just wondering what your comment is, if you think there's progress in the fact that we have everything from now women can choose to be a professor or an astronaut or even, god forbid, you know, the star of a reality show where you, your job is to, basically, dress up and fight with a bunch of other

women. do you see that as that we've made progress, that now women can basically make choices like that, or -- [laughter] or do you see that as sort of backsliding? >> guest: well, that's a great question. thank you very much. i do think we've had, we've made progress. i would say it's very limited to a small section of the, you know, western world. i have traveled widely, and in much of the world women are living in very traditional villages, they're subject to tribal law, they're not permitted to advance in any profession, let alone get, you know, an education there. primarily living agriculturally, doing very hard work in fields. throughout china, many women are working in factories making our stuff. and the conditions for women vary from place to place. so what with we experience in terms of progress is, is a mask for the work that still needs to be done.

but within, let's say, american culture one of the predicaments we have is we valorize people based on how much money they earn. something i resent bitterly because i'm infamously underpaid. i also would say that there's a sense that to be provocative is to gain be fame. so as long as people see that you can make money being controversial, we have hate radio, we have reality tv, we have women fighting each other in a public forum because it improve ratings or generate income. i don't know how much of that would go on if it wasn't compensated. so part of it is to what degree do people still look to become rich as a motivating factor? i never did, and, you know, i'm not. but i amish shoe-driven -- i am issue driven, and i think a lot of girls as well as boys are

pushed to identify with material gain and comfort, so that is going to affect the choices they headache in terms of how -- make in terms of how they can be rich and famous. >> host: bonnie morris, in your favorites list that we got from you that we ran at the break, you listed writing in your journalings. 668 of them. are they ever going to be published? >> guest: well, i am crowd to show off the last journal, and i am ending this one, here's the last page, something i've always wanted to do. i amening my journal on -- i am ending my journal on national tv. i am starting the next one this night. i've been keeping a journal since i was the. i don't know be they'll -- since i was 12. i don't know if they'll ever be published. my handwriting has gone awhoo. as i write on the keyboard more and more, my hand can't keep up with my thoughts, with the pen. i still use a fountain pen.

i love feel of paper and the journal in my act and the physical act of writing and the fountain head gliding over the page. i don't want to lose that. i've tried to write historically and write about what it's like, you know, to be a lesbian in late 19th, 20th century america. those accounts will be instructive to somebody someday. i do have an archive that has requested all hi papers, the schlesinger library at radcliffe, and they're going to get all my journals and recordings in women's music culture, interviews and narratives and so on. i've tried not to write anything unkind, and i've tried to be honest about my life. >> host: bonniejmorris.com is her web site. thank you for being with us on "in depth."

author bonnie morris, in your book revenge of revenge of the women's study, revenge for what? >> guest: the final tight is not meant to be provocative or rude. it's about having the opportunity to talk back to many people who steer type my field, or ask really unfair students. i have a bunch of terrific students intimidated by taking a basic class in women's history. they come to me and express doubt or concern. they're afraid what people will say. what will it look like on their transcript. so those experiences lead me to a really keen awareness of how many people feel there is something wrong with looking at half the world's history. i've negotiated many of these rude conversations throughout my teaching career. the idea of revenge was i wanted

to talk back but in a cheerful way. a cheerful/playful way. i wanted to be the smiling face of women's studies and women history. show that as a diplomat from academic feminism, i'm not scary, i'm approachable, i love my students, but enough with being rude to the professor. people who come by and say i love your class. you're not at all a nazi. thank you, rush rush limbaugh, you're not rude to the professor on the first day. the class will not hurt you. looking at women's history will only improve your life. what is it look for us on the other side of the desk that have to deal with the range of our work being impugned by people who are fearful. >> host: where do you teach? >> guest: george washington university and part time at georgetown. hello to my terrific