Author: Caryl Rivers

Caryl Rivers is a professor of journalism at Boston University. She is the a recipient of both the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism and a Goldsmith grant from Harvard Kennedy School. She has written critically praised books for Harper Collins, Dutton, Basic Books, McGraw-Hill, Tarcher/ Penguin and others. The New York Times called her book She Works, He Works—co-written with Rosalind C. Barnett—a bold new framing of the story of the American family, and praised its lucid prose. From Harper Collins, it was the winner of the 1996 Books for a Better Life Award.

‘The Talk,’ Circa 2023

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For generations, Black parents have sat their children down for “the talk”—not about the birds and the bees, but about the pigs.

This rite of passage occurs as adolescents become independent and need to learn what is likely to be in store, what to be wary of, and what they can do to protect themselves. With the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the issue of abortion has taken center stage. Parents must incorporate into their talk the stark fact of abortion restrictions and the implications for their adolescent children, especially their daughters. 

Girls Need to Say “Math Is for Me”

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Ideas about women not being “hardwired” to do math are falling like dominoes in the research area. But deep down, do girls and women really believe it? And will they take steps, as they grow, to make high-paying careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) a reality? New research finds that the answer may […]

“Neutering American Male” is Same Old, Same Old

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The book by Jim Wysong, delivers a rotten Valentine to aspiring, achieving women who also take a healthy interest in having a good sex life. If men can’t be in charge, warns Wysong, a self-described Christian writer, their erotic feelings disappear. But don’t rush out and read this for yourself. Spend time instead with that special someone in your life. Women don’t need another book that says men have to be dominant for the sex to be good.

The Myth of the “Girl Brain”

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Has your local public school opened up a new all-girls classroom? Are you tempted to enroll your daughter in it?  After all, the principal may have offered up impressive evidence that girls learn in very different ways from boys, and this segregated classroom seems to be a great boon to girls. The idea that the […]