‘The Soul of a Woman’ review: A soulless attempt to challenge gender stereotypes

In her quest to address too many issues from violence against women to problems of old age and euthanasia, Isabel Allende loses focus

Are you happy being a woman? When Isabel Allende posed this question to some of her female friends and acquaintances, they responded that they embraced womanhood, unlike Sylvia Plath who said that her most awful tragedy was to be a woman. The reasons they gave though were trite generalisations: they said they have more empathy and solidarity than men; they aim to nurture, not destroy; and they are happy to express, not suppress, their emotions. In The Soul of a Woman, part memoir and part introduction to feminism, Allende challenges, as she has done for years, these age-old stereotypes that refuse to die. “Have you noticed that individualism and selfishness are considered positive traits in men and defects in women,” she asks. “[Sexual abuse] didn’t happen to her because she was pretty; it happened simply because she was female,” she writes about a young woman’s experience.