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Mihaela Miroiu is the most consistent and influential opinion leader of liberal feminism in Romania, a point o reference for what real and authentic feminism can be. She influences the lives of thousands of people who benefit from her experience and she often goes out of her intellectual cocoon and recommends everyone to do so. Her public appearances are always full of wisdom and substance, so Polirom’s Publishing House idea of putting it all together was an excellent idea. To have wings, you must have had roots.
An experience of a lifetime shared over two decades of interviews – this is the promise of the Wings and Roots. 23 interviews and two conferences in one volume.
The first part of the book is placed under the title “Feminism is humanism with women included”, and the second – “We cannot live with less freedom”
The first part, predominantly autobiographical, not only provides a key to understanding the author as a feminist intellectual and woman, but, through this and her history, put in a new light the ideas that consecrated her and the motivations behind them, revealing their roots in a parental manner, disarming yourself, challenging you to empathize and ask the problem differently.
The second part, focused on topics of political ethics, on “daily life in the city”, reveals the vices and shortcomings of the system, the causes of the inequalities and injustices we face every day, while also offering alternative solutions and personal examples of good practices.
This book gives the opportunity to meet a very sharp-minded, lucid and courageous professional philosopher, endowed not only with an excellent knowledge of his professional field but also with the great gift of compassion and sympathy towards the life experience of women.
“I don’t believe in the <war of the sexes>. Who shall we war with? With those we gave birth, we raise them, we help them become autonomous and sometimes misogynistic. The term <filicide> is not very common. Parricide and matricide are quite familiar. If we want to have our dignity, freedom, safety, skills, opinions, and differences respected, does it mean we are at war with someone? Do we want to violate the same rights of those who violate ours? It means we would contradict ourselves and be incoherent. Not only we are not from different planets, but we draw and grow from each other. I dream of a world where people are descending both naturally and culturally from mothers and fathers alike. To a world where at home we are partners, and in the public sphere equal partners and competitors. Our world is probably not like that yet, because women keep men very dependent on them in the private sphere, just as men keep women dependent on them in the public sphere. And addicts always revolt. Women are also misogynists (in their reactions, mostly private), not just misogynistic men (in their reactions, mostly public). I consider both reactions childish, immature, complex.”
This book is also about female leadership, as it is nourished by feminine values: care, prudence, but also courage, the science of building long-term relationships, teamwork, taking on vulnerabilities and turning them into strengths. This is what female leadership actually consists of – being able to turn unfavorable conditions into favorable conditions, to create authority through authenticity and performance. Empathy, compassion, resilience, collaborative spirit, active listening, intuition and perspective thinking – characteristic of a leader – are rather qualities characteristic of women.
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