《厌女》不是一部纯理论性著作，而是运用女性主义理论针对日本当代的各种社会现象的实践性分析。《厌女》处理了广泛的日本题材，其中既有文学性的，比如谈到小说家吉行淳之介、永井荷风、林真理子等，更多的则是社会性的。上野千鹤子谈到的许多现象，尤其是家庭的、婚姻的，在中国也有很类似的情况。知性的读者会从这些论述中获得强烈共鸣并得到理论上的指引。

什么是父权制？当代女性又是如何遭到父权制压迫和剥削的？女性解放道路在何方？
本书是作者历经十年完成的重要作品，是其在第二波女性主义接近尾声，后现代女性主义思潮、酷儿理论兴起之初，对女权主义各个派别，特别是马克思主义女权主义的再次思考。近代社会在“资本主义”支配的“市场”和“父权制”支配的“家庭形态双重控制下，以无偿的女性劳务等为中心，形成了女性地位低下的历史根源。 作者对此进行了深刻批判，并就如何改善女性的社会地位提出了中肯的建议。
本书尽管论述的是日本女性的地位问题，但其观点在相当大程度上适用于当下中国的国情。因而对于任何思考女性地位与男女平等问题的人都有着莫大的启发。

An Argentine comedian who portrays feminism as a banner speaks about sex, language, abortion and explains why it is okay to let man pay for dinner.

First published in 1978, "Silences "single-handedly revolutionized the literary canon. In this classic work, now back in print, Olsen broke open the study of literature and discovered a lost continent-the writing of women and working-class people. From the excavated testimony of authors' letters and diaries we learn the many ways the creative spirit, especially in those disadvantaged by gender, class and race, can be silenced. Olsen recounts the torments of Melville, the crushing weight of criticism on Thomas Hardy, the shame that brought Willa Cather to a dead halt, and struggles of Virginia Woolf, Olsen's heroine and greatest exemplar of a writer who confronted the forces that would silence her. This 25th-anniversary edition includes Olsen's now infamous reading lists of forgotten authors and a new introduction and author preface.