Book Review Women Who Win

Women Who Win: Celebrating courage, conviction and change by Antoinette Lattouf

My Goodreads rating: 5 of 5 stars

Winter is Brisbane is starting to recede and cold wind and foggy windowpanes are starting to clear so I have come out of literary hibernation to complete a blog post I started months ago. Here it is in an unrefined state but hopefully quite clear.

Several years ago this Antoinette Lattouf book would have speared me through the heart like a flaming arrow and lit me up like a Christmas tree. Instead it merely interests me with its powerful women, powerful convictions, staggering stories and the serious need for ongoing change. Now I am older and wiser (from the Germaine Greer generation) I can see that our male dominated society is never truly going to change for the better. Remember that ‘Make love not war.’ slogan? Antoinette Lattouf is fired up way beyond slogans. Her input is strong, the message is quite clear. Follow up is essential. There are probably some really good guys out there if I look hard enough but do I have the inclination? Hopefully bit by bit women will equal the balance in centuries to come but today I found this powerfully eloquent book depressing in the fact that I have read similar exposé styles and discovered that nothing truly alters the unpardonably unbalanced status quo.

Lattouf’s Chapter 7 Page 191 ‘Slander Slam Dunks’ is particularly enraging and almost a form of courtroom gladiator sport. While there are inspirational examples, there is a perpetual disparity which most women live with throughout their lives. During an office job interview I was told by the manager that I would probably have a baby and resign. That still infuriates years later, although I declined his ‘offer’ and got a better paid job. Help and guidance is key to celebrating Courage, Conviction, Change and with insights from writers like Antoinette Lattouf bringing inequality to the fore once again.
Will males read this book? Surely men have the attention span to grasp its influential construct and accept Women Do Win.

📚 © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2026

Postscript: Find me on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/gretchenbernetward
I have varied tastes in reading and my GR comment section works:
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For the love of books! Creator Michelle Hutton of Beenleigh Quilters at Brisbane Craft & Quilt Fair in Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre 2024 *© image Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2024*

A Day For Mothers

How time flies, my first blog post was 2017 and ideas for blogging still somersault around in my head. On this calm Sunday in May 2025 it is Mother’s Day in Australia.

I am a mother and thoughts of my own dear mother and that of my aunts and women I know flash through my mind. I recall their varied roles in my life, and women who shape the lives of others in millions of families and societies around the world. It is possible to write about the wealth, poverty, injustices and generally low standing of women in most countries including Australia, but what is their true status? What is their role in the history of the universe?

In my opinion, one of the most powerful roles for women, in the world as we know it, is the eternal internal creation. While not ignoring the biodiversity of Mother Nature, without human females, women who give birth, there would be no world. There would be no evolution, there would be nothing ahead. Of course men play a role but generally stand back when events are underway.

Perhaps this creates jealousy? Why bigoted, misogynistic, cruel, political, rule-making men of our current world order put women and mothers at risk by keeping them out of sight, in second place, give them menial tasks, overlook females for promotion, make derogatory comments, portray them on television, in movies and books as the trivial second character, the support, the one answering phones, at home doing the laundry, tidying up or cooking dinner. You can add more diverse roles to the list but usually not a complete reversal although caring sharing life partners do exist.

In 1971 a childless Germaine Greer is quoted as saying:
“Bringing up children is not a real occupation,
because children come up just the same, brought up or not.”
A rather shallow look at the future, I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germaine_Greer

With or without conception, the women of Mother Earth are versatile people. Today there are strong female roles and powerful women in all walks of life who do rise above. When they do, it’s a novelty in the press, on social media, and invariably a TV chat show host asks “How do you cope with a family and work?” A man’s world not an equal world yet.

Today I shout out Thanks Mum, Happy Mothers Day because without mothers there would be no living breathing humans in the world today. Including you and me.

💓 Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025

NOTE: My opinion piece acknowledges birth mothers, first mothers, adoption, surrogacy, LGBTQIA, IVF, child reunification. Parenting is precious. 🌼

Beach Boys and West Coast Girls

Guest post from Maud Fitch who looks at 20^th century male chauvinism, surfer culture and skin cancer.

Okay, she looks at one particular song––California Girls by The Beach Boys––with the observation that it reeks of male teen spirit.

Thanks for filling in, Maud. “No problemo,” she writes “My comments relate to the inequality of the sexes and when males sang about women with such defining features, dare I say ‘personalities’, that a song could transcend the decades. Whereas women sang about males who are leaving/arriving or causing tears/heartache and are not physically described, leaving nothing etched in the memory.”

Maud’s musical hypothesis…

The Beach Boys // Photographer Unknown // 23681 // Beach Boys publicity shot

If you don’t know the song lyrics (lucky you) here they are:

California Girls
The Beach Boys
https://www.thebeachboys.com/

Well, East Coast girls are hip
I really dig those styles they wear
And the Southern girls with the way they talk
They knock me out when I’m down there
The Mid-West farmer’s daughters really make you feel alright
And the Northern girls with the way they kiss
They keep their boyfriends warm at night

I wish they all could be California girls
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California girls

The West coast has the sunshine
And the girls all get so tanned
I dig a French bikini on Hawaiian island dolls
By a palm tree in the sand
I been all around this great big world
And I seen all kinds of girls
Yeah, but I couldn’t wait to get back in the States
Back to the cutest girls in the world

I wish they all could be California girls
I wish they all could be California
I wish they all could be California girls

I wish they all could be California girls
I wish they all could be California girls
I wish they all could be California girls
I wish they all could be California girls
etc, etc…

Songwriters: Brian Douglas Wilson / Michael Edward Love
California Girls lyrics 1965 © Universal Music Publishing Group

Location is not an issue here, the girls in question are prominently mentioned and The Beach Boys diplomatically reference various US regions so as not to offend by omission.

A catchy tune, they sing of the visual pleasure of one woman pitted against another until the type named ‘California Girls’ moves to the top of the lust list.

The objectifying of women does not translate well to 21st century sensitivities. Although in 2010 Katy Perry sang a similarly shallow song California Gurls.

It can be argued that The Beach Boys were young and represented their gender and the world-wide surfing movement with what appealed to them at the time. Their songs certainly represented the superficiality of youth and what was uppermost on the manly mind. In contrast, The Supremes song of 1965 Surfer Boy shows an entirely different slant on surfing and a more emotional approach.

The Beach Boys skimming appraisal of the external woman brings me to the French bikini on a Hawaiian island girl. I don’t know skin cancer statistics in other countries but at one stage Australia had the highest skin cancer rate in the world. Most beach babes of the mid-to-late twentieth century now have a crusty epidermal layer of melanoma sores and spots which are regularly checked by their skin cancer specialist.

Are these bikini babes still loved? Nobody of that beach culture vintage is cute now, unless Botox is involved. Heck, everyone of that generation has aged and, depending on decrepitude, may wish they had that body again.

Allowing for variants, The Beach Boys and The Supremes are now older, wiser people who made a lot of money from their hard-working vocal chords and have moved into Music Legend status. I wonder if they sit in comfy chairs, musing about their past lyrics? Do they laugh, cringe or couldn’t care less?

The world may have moved on but surfers still surf, boys still ogle girls, and sex discrimination still remains. And no matter how irksome, old songs never die.