Not for the guys...

...unless you want to learn more about women's lives.
I've recently re-read a beautiful book that was written in 1997, kind of the second, or third-wave of women's rights movement.
Actually we probably need a continuous one.

But the book is The Red Tent.
There's a movie somewhere or another.
And there are groups of women that meet calling themselves Red Tent groups.

This is a novel about a woman.  Dinah was a Bibical woman, daughter of Jacob and Leah.  Her story is parallel to those from the Bible, only it's her life story, and that of the women around her.  And it also has meaning for everyone in how lives of a tribal culture intertwined, on an individual basis.  Then it takes us into the times and how one culture, the nomadic tribes who raised sheep clashed with those who lived in a town.  And then there are completely different nations with different languages.

So it's not so different from today.

Of course the stories of birth and mid-wives are such that continued throughout all times.  Use of herbs and techniques and how women helped each other.  And what is the Red Tent itself?  The place where women put aside their work and gathered to share stories, jokes and their histories for three days each month as they bled. 

When women live by natural light of sun and moon, they usually share their menstrual cycles.  So this was a time when they could go away from the daily chores of feeding and carrying water for a tent community.  They would have prepared meals for the men ahead of time, that would last for these three days.  And when did this monthly Red Tent happen?  I'll leave it to reading the book for you.