for someone to be saying why is it so hard to have relationships and have a professional career and why do jobs interfere so much in people's lives, and should we be thinking about how to make that more possible? at the same time unaccommodating the people who really want to, on their own, also thinking about, you know, the things that are pushing them into the situation. >> guest: i feel we have a lot of things going on here. there's no doubt that we've spent an enormous amount of our waking hours working these days. those of us lucky enough to have jobs. a lot of people are unemployed. working a lot would be a luxury for them and they are not the people who are living alone. but we have changed social policies to such an extent i think now individuals experience of this belief that they have to be able to take care of themselves. they have to invest in their own career. they have to invest in developing themselves so they can be flexible and go where the opportunities are. there's not a strong set of welfare lifetime of support. we are free aging in this respect, and i think that kind of agency culture puts a lot of pressure on us as individuals and pushes us to think about our own needs above the needs of collective and that is kind of the scary part of this change. it's one of the reasons for instance why during the recession people don't just go and get married. a lot of people thought when the economic disaster hit people would stop living alone and get through it. but that doesn't happen. people don't want to make commitments to other people when they feel so insecure about their own lives. so the marriage rates go down during times and we haven't seen the decline of living alone. there are more americans living alone in 2012 than there were in 2008. so in fact there's a lot of pressure to invest as an individual in times like this and that's something that's worrisome. i don't know that anyone has a way of thinking out a solution for this problem. the debate now isn't about how to reduce the number of hours that people are working. but that seems like the kind of debate that we need to be starting. >> i found it interesting the idea that single people and people living alone there were some ways in which they were discriminated against or maybe discrimination is too strong of a word but where the social policies and so forth work to their disadvantage. >> guest: i spoke with a lot of aspiring professionals who live alone and they experience the kind of discrimination on different levels. one thing is a familiar experience for people watching. you work in an office where many people are married and have families and there is a lot of work to do. i would love to work this weekend. i care about this project but my son has a game and i promised my wife i would do this thing so the person kind of excess themselves because they have a family obligation. and many people who are single report that in the politics of the office there's a kind of promise that the single people are going to be available to do more work and the experience a kind of discrimination they would like to have time to themselves as well. it can be worse, however. people like talk to say they literally were denied bonuses or were given a lower bonus and colleagues during the same or lesser work because the managers of their company thought the person doesn't really need the money. he or she lived alone. and they seem like they are living a pretty good life. so these kind of things enter into the world we live even though i think much of the stigma about living alone has disappeared. another thing people reported from cities like manhattan or new york city, they are hard to get into the board as a single person. they're looking for families and those are tough things. as we have come a long way since the 1950's but we probably have a little bit more weight to go. but the numbers are -- the numbers suggest maybe this isn't going to last forever. half of americans are single and a big portion lived alone it suggests maybe our ideas will come around. but for instance, there are no organizations that are working very hard to organize singles as a political bloc saying we have so many common interests maybe we can have more of an effective we did this and a democratic political strategist started an organization in washington, d.c. specifically to try to get unmarried women to the voting booth because she recognized that in the 2000 election as narrow as it was there were 20 million single women who were eligible to vote and didn't vote. she thought they probably lean democrat and of the democratic party could reach out and appealed to them it could really do well. so in the 2008 election she was working hard to make single women in the new nascar dads or soccer moms and in 2012i think we will see even more of that. it's difficult to organize singles because they don't always identified that we but maybe things are starting to. >> host: where do you plan on taking this next or are you moving away from this into some -- >> guest: it's hard to say to it when i finished the heat wave book i felt i will never touch that again. who wants to think about being alone and living alone. but again, when i kind of step back and look at the social change i thought this is something that is too big to ignore. some people ask me why are you interested in this? you are a married a guy coming to have two kids, it seems like a strange thing. shouldn't you study something but my response to that is i simply can't think of anything that is as new and significant and massive as the wise of living alone in the contemporary world. i mean, literally this is something that our species didn't do. 50 or 60 years ago and we are developing ways to do it now, not just in the united states, not just in the west but also as i said in japan. the nations that have the highest increases in living alone now are china, india and brazil, places that have economic development and growth. we are seeing people living alone whenever and wherever they can afford to. and it's not what we expect when i collected surprising appeal of living alone. we have to expect their age will breed economic growth and affluence will lead to marriage to get something different. we find people are opting to be alone and not to be antisocial or cut off but to be connected in new ways so there's a lot more to study. >> host: some people are opting to be alone. one thing to study his for what is happening in the other class. >> guest: let's be very clear about this. people will say that in the abstract the like to be in a relationship in the right relationship but what has changed now is what is much less likely to settle for a relationship that doesn't feel like the right one and when i say opting to live alone it's because there are always other cheaper possibilities. there are always other cheaper options to be living alone is expensive roommates, parents come in nursing homes, a single room occupancy hotels. there are many kinds of living that are different from having your own apartment, and what we are seeing are people who have different choices making this choice. >> host: i really had enjoyed this opportunity talking about the book and a really made me think about a lot of different things. thank you. >> guest: yes. i enjoyed our conversation. book tv interview bonnie more is at georgetown university about her book revenge of the women's studies professor a book based on her one-woman play in the same name whose interview is part of booktv college series. >> professor bonnie more is in your book regions of the women's studies professor published by indiana university i want to start with chapter 4. professor morris, i'm sorry to bother you like this but can wet talk privately for a moment? you see i really enjoy your women's study class, i love it and i want to finish the semester but my husband feels wn differently the semester, but my husband feels differently. he thinks it's a lot of radical ideas and he ideas and he wants me to drop your class right now. he just doesn't like me going out at night to take a women's studies class, even those just want once a week and i told them over and over it does count towards the finish made business degree. you write, so i went to meet her husband and when his approval. i talk lately about camping and hiking in movies while he stared at my last over this by his tail. at the end of the mill he stood up to shake my hand, saying well that the lady, i guess i thought you would have points on your head and come dressed in a suit of armor, but i reckon you are abundant enough after all this. >> this is a true story and the book is based on my one-woman play, which in turn is based on actual incidence in my career teaching women's studies. and when i was in graduate school, was able to start teaching my own women's history courses. when i had a masters degree attack night school and the class, which has a history of lebanon work and wrote actual working women, many of whom were 36, 40. i was trying three at the time. these women were coming back to school. they were returning adults, students who had amazing stories and whatever software of what they were experiencing in the workforce. and family. what i did have a student and i could not ban at the head of the domestic and i've really wanted her to stay in school. so this was who had a stereotype and a women's history class and i knocked myself out trying to win enough of his approval that he would not keep his wife out of class. i was in and into new york. at a time as of now poverty and struggle, but his desire for many women. fortunately as now, women's studies or history it's too controversial to many people. >> what is women's studies. >> edison effort to fill in the blanks of what we are not thought about in terms of how women have contributed there simply absent. the founding fathers were men are seen as the private side and people are respectful of the family is private. sometimes it's not seen as important. so because women are also traditionally portrayed as modest or hidden, bringing attention to what women do or how women have returns to the question of the body. people object to women's studies is only about, birth control, abortion and it's about women in politics, women in law, women working on farms prime minister. and my job is to write down this year many people have. what goes on in the women's studies classroom. and she said in a circle humming so i students come seeking the class that will be radically easy. and they are horrified. they can actually font women's studies. as the courses become mainstream, i now attract people who just want that humanities credit and you think this'll be my easy class while i take my premed spring. and many of the sad faces in my office. how could i possibly earned a b.? you know, you really need to know the names of some of these mothers. and now you really didn't get that in high school, so you have to read the book. and one of the things i else to do the same errata for the ap u.s. history exam and every june i read about 1100 ap assays. and we do have content that my sister that's part are the standardized testing is that not everybody has to know more women's history than they used to do because tittered an honor student and can't advance credit. that's elevated the status upon this history, but that has not eliminated the kind of questions and nervousness i encounter every semester with a lot of people. >> host: professor morris, if you teach a survey class, how many men are not class? >> guest: that's a good question. i would say it's about 10%. it depends on the gear. sometimes in a group of 100 i will have 17 men, 12 men. they are great. the guys are often some of the best students. i can also say interestingly i tend to have a lot of international male student. i think many of them has been pretty upfront about wanting to look at gender issues. they come from the middle east or korea, pakistan. i had students who have told me deliberately they want to take this class because it is the only time they'll have a chance. they want backend by rain. i have also had guys who are very up front about being raised by single moms. they are terrorists but full of what women have done historically or to keep families together. i also just have really smart guys who are political science majors or who intend to pursue careers from every game from justice to love. >> do you have that male student in the class to bbc's bias as -- has more nefarious -- >> guest: sure. i have guys who raise their hands and a judge. i have, but not any more than women actually. as more conservative women than i used to impart because this deal has been mainstream. we have people like kay bailey hutchison writing women's history textbooks. so it is no longer considered a brand of radical feminism to do with this history research and that is a whole other topic. but it is also true that a lot of people are just shocked by what they are learning. they never learned that women couldn't do this until 19 whatever. they didn't know that women were forbidden from serving on juries or attending princeton until 1958. so the result is a lot of folks say wait a minute, where u.k. not. and that is a natural reaction. but i would also say that once in a while, we look at somebody who is just very comfortable because the subject matter is painful. it is painful to look at the history of exclusion and assault. and so what i have to do as an academic is to say, in the discussion section, please feel free to respond as personally or angrily or emotionally as the readings in the view. in the written work you submit, you have to be professional, scholarly, empirical, reasonable. and so, that is the deal. you can say whatever you wish. all political opinions can lead to na. you don't have to have one view, but it will evaluate your writing taste on a good scholarly style. and so, i teach many athletes. i also teach a women's sports history. and sometimes the athletes will use a little bit of street slang and i have to read in the margin, let's find another word for this. so it's really about teaching folks to write about personal history in a way that is professional and not so much people challenging me because they are horrified by this subject wanted. >> what does one do with abundant study nature? >> that's a very common question. to the question is law school. most of the students i have worked with who have been miners come in meters and studies go to law school. they do very well. a lot of women and men to work on women in development, often in africa, southeast asia, south america. they build women's shelters. they rent agencies. many go to work for nonprofits, ngos. some do website design for women organizations or become direct heirs. lots of students who do internship with different groups in d.c., whether it is planned parenthood are working for a little bit of international focus, to. there's also a lot of students have a minor in women's studies and they combine it with a health degree. they are going to be nurses, doctors. there's a lot of folks who are looking at the impact of more access to education. growth in women in the rest of the developing world and these include students who will go work the world bank. they have a background on gender, which is this then and how you plot programs and assist families. >> host: when did the women's studies at the beginning who are the foremothers? >> guest: well, first program was at san diego state university in 1969, so we've had like a 40 year anniversary for a couple of years now. this was based on obviously the feeling at the time are bringing real topics into the university, whether it was the peace movement for black studies, but there was an obvious lack of coverage of women's issues and women still were not welcome at a lot of schools. so what is funny is if you look at a book like who is who in women's studies métis and 74, a lot of the first classes were deemed todd by nuns at catholic women's college is and it titles like women in society. those are very much part of sword as the act of his sons, post-vatican ii feelings. in terms of women's history, one of the main proponents is gerda lerner, who was an amazing historian refugee from germany. my particular mentor and one of my years in grad school was also a refugee from the holocaust. so a lot of the women who started women's history had amazing stories of their own to tell and are also persons who knew very well but it is late for history to try to make people invisible and that's an important side note. you couldn't really do a doctorate in women's history in too many places until the late 80s and when i started grad school, it was one of about software places in the u.s. and the big change has been that women's studies programs have been offering degrees that range from a minor in a certificate to a masters at washington university where he also cheats has the oldest and a program in public policy in the country and the focus here in d.c. obviously has more on women in government, but other programs around the u.s. you might dimorphic focus on women and literature, women in psychology and and a lot of the programs bring together faculty students and administrators every year through something called the national women's study association. for women's history there's something called the berkshire conference and not as once every four years a big gathering of women's history expert, male and female. these are a wonderful offense, where you see the range of topics everyone is interested in and it is everything from the renaissance to female pirate. i don't work on jewish women's history and immigration, when it spores, women and poor, women in rock 'n roll. and it fills a niche with hunger to go to these events to really meet your colleagues. >> professor morris, is women's studies a u.s. phenomenon for u.s. movement? and has been internationalized? >> guest: is pretty global and one of the things i have learned is that his son at the same challenges exist internationally . ipod mini program called semester has become a very popular with undergrads. 1993 and 2004. on each occasion it's a 100 day voyage and you take about 400 students around the world on a ship, 12 countries, 100 days. what day is this? what is the currency were using? has a very different kind of teaching. at any rate, not only is there a semester at sea, but because they took this one-woman show, two different sites including israel and new zealand and ireland and ice land, i encountered women's studies, faculty and students and at least 20 different countries. they'll have the exact same story. everyone is made fun of for pursuing research on women. everybody has to spend more time art everybody has to spend more time articulating why do you want to look at women than talking about what they have learned. we're all wasting a lot of time defending her choice of subject matters. on the other hand, there is a fantastic to work. the internet has made it possible for me to connect with women's studies, faculty all over the world. the first program i really got friendly with online within mongolia. these women were incredible. hi, want to start a program. we have two books. could you send us more. we know we will not fail. we are the daughters of genghis khan. i show that you to my dad and i said no self-esteem problem there. those women are going to survive. like ship every book i have to mongolia. when i did my presentation in iceland, very different peer female prime minister, women's building, everyone in government came to hear me speak. i had to prepare a welcome speech and icelandic because everyone there spoke english and i wanted to try. and they are comic even with all of the gender equality that is