{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1478009411?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"1478009411","authors":["Françoise Vergès"],"book_id":"9781478009412","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/the-wombs-of-women-9781478009412","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781478009412.jpg?v=b205398a42a9d7af","description":"In the 1960s thousands of poor women of color on the (post)colonial French island of Reunion had their pregnancies forcefully terminated by white doctors; the doctors operated under the pretext of performing benign surgeries, for which they sought government compensation. When the scandal broke in 1970, the doctors claimed to have been encouraged to perform these abortions by French politicians who sought to curtail reproduction on the island, even though abortion was illegal in France. In The Wombs of Women —first published in French and appearing here in English for the first time—Françoise Vergès traces the long history of colonial state intervention in black women’s wombs during the slave trade and postslavery imperialism as well as in current birth control politics. She examines the women’s liberation movement in France in the 1960s and 1970s, showing that by choosing to ignore the history of the racialization of women’s wombs, French feminists inevitably ended up defending the rights of white women at the expense of women of color. Ultimately, Vergès demonstrates how the forced abortions on Reunion were manifestations of the legacies of the racialized violence of slavery and colonialism.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781478009412","publication_date":"20200814","publisher":"Duke University Press","slug":"the-wombs-of-women","subtitle":"Race, Capital, Feminism","title":"The Wombs of Women"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"SOC008010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"African Studies","score":0.6829,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL035010","confidence_band":"low","label":"Human Rights","score":0.6651,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004150","confidence_band":"low","label":"French Literary Criticism","score":0.6534,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"SOC008010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"African Studies","score":0.6829,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL035010","confidence_band":"low","label":"Human Rights","score":0.6651,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004150","confidence_band":"low","label":"French Literary Criticism","score":0.6534,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS001020","confidence_band":"high","label":"East African History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"MED082000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Reproductive Medicine & Tech","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC028000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Women's Studies","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"African Studies","score":0.6829,"slug":"african-studies"},{"label":"Human Rights","score":0.6651,"slug":"human-rights"},{"label":"French Literary Criticism","score":0.6534,"slug":"french-literary-criticism"}],"reader_fit":["For readers interested in colonial histories of reproductive control.","For readers studying race and feminist movements in France."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Sarah Ruden"],"book_id":"9781324075905","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781324075905.jpg?v=945997108fe8c29d","score":0.6635,"title":"Reproductive Wrongs","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781324075905"},{"authors":["Marilyn French","Margaret Atwood"],"book_id":"9781558615830","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781558615830.jpg?v=f3fb5f118f9bfce7","score":0.6533,"title":"From Eve to Dawn, a History of Women in the World, Volume III","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781558615830"},{"authors":["Marquis Bey"],"book_id":"9781478017813","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781478017813.jpg?v=c1e41017d55a46e3","score":0.6508,"title":"Black Trans Feminism","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781478017813"},{"authors":["Mélanie Lamotte"],"book_id":"9780674272835","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780674272835.jpg?v=d863be0a90cfefa4","score":0.65,"title":"Empire Unseen","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780674272835"},{"authors":["Diana Greene Foster Ph.D","Diana Greene Foster"],"book_id":"9781982141578","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781982141578.jpg?v=a8ac170bf0e8a8cb","score":0.6498,"title":"The Turnaway Study","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781982141578"},{"authors":["Emma Heaney"],"book_id":"9781478030454","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781478030454.jpg?v=d6e8eff90cae12bd","score":0.6475,"title":"Feminism Against Cisness","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781478030454"},{"authors":["Toni Cade Bambara","Eleanor W Traylor","Toni Cade","Frances Beale"],"book_id":"9780743476973","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780743476973.jpg?v=78c2b56c36ba9282","score":0.6472,"title":"The Black Woman","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780743476973"},{"authors":["Frantz Fanon","Richard Philcox"],"book_id":"9780802143006","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780802143006.jpg?v=132e1f8bdec1b94c","score":0.6469,"title":"Black Skin, White Masks","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780802143006"}],"topics":[],"what_you_get":["Themes: Colonial reproductive control, Racialized violence of slavery, Race and feminist movements.","Reading lane: African Studies and Human Rights.","Publisher: Duke University Press."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.94,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["For readers interested in colonial histories of reproductive control.","For readers studying race and feminist movements in France."],"themes":["Colonial reproductive control","Racialized violence of slavery","Race and feminist movements"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":6,"goodreads_ratings_count":217,"goodreads_reviews_count":22,"quality_score":0.8827}}