Seawomen of Iceland: Survival on the Edge (Naomi B. Pascal Editor's Endowment) - Tapa dura

Sailing on the eloquent prose of Willson's research on Icelandic seawomen is the definition of experiencing the pleasure of reading a good ethnography. The book shows how deep curiosity and small questions lead us to large-scale insights. . . . This is a book that everyone with an interest in ethnography should read regardless of the kind of anthropology or social science they are engaged with.

The seawomen's tales are full of their love of the sea and pride in their strength and achievements, and Willson's sense of humor and enthusiasm for the sea and the seawomen shine through her very accessible writing.

What if a certain working demographic had disappeared from memory? . . . Willson is repeatedly told that women do not work at sea--except that archives and real lives attest that women actually do. . . . Seawomen of Iceland is about tough work and tougher weather, about fishing through changing socioeconomic currents, and about the subtle--and not-so-subtle--roles gender plays in working lives.

A wonderfully detailed and lovingly crafted study of Icelandic women at sea through the ages. Willson . . . explore[s] not only why so many women fished and participated in maritime labour, especially in the past, but also to ask why this knowledge remains hidden and marginalized.NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research