Your International Women’s Day Reading List
In celebration of International Women’s Day, we’ve rounded up a selection of must-reads. From stories with strong female lead characters to non-fiction books written by inspiring female authors, here are 6 titles to add to your bookshelves this year.
Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights by Helen Lewis
Feminism’s success is down to complicated, contradictory, imperfect women, who fought each other as well as fighting for equal rights. Helen Lewis argues that too many of these pioneers have been whitewashed or forgotten in our modern search for feel-good, inspirational heroines. It’s time to reclaim the history of feminism as a history of difficult women. Drawing on archival research and interviews, Difficult Women is a funny, fearless and sometimes shocking narrative history, which shows why the feminist movement has succeeded – and what it should do next.
The Gendered Brain by Gina Rippon
Rigorous, timely and liberating, The Gendered Brain has huge repercussions for women and men, for parents and children, and for how we identify ourselves. Gina Rippon unpacks the stereotypes that bombard us from our earliest moments, taking us back through centuries of sexism. This book reveals how science has been misinterpreted and misused to ask the wrong questions.
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognised or valued. Invisible Women shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. It exposes the gender data gap a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women, and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women’s lives.
I Know a Woman by Kate Hodges
Behind every great woman… is another great woman. Here, the extraordinary achievements, relationships and secret histories of 84 pioneering women are revealed in inspirational stories which together show the indomitable strength of womankind. From ground-breaking scientist Marie Curie to political activist Malala Yousafzai, from feminist author Virginia Woolf to the game-changing Billie Jean King; I Know a Woman creates a gigantic web of womanhood which celebrates the relationships between the world’s most inspirational and influential women.
So Here I Am by Anna Russell
Discover the first dedicated collection of seminal speeches by women from around the world, So Here I Am is about women at the forefront of change – within politics, science, human rights and media; discussing everything from free love, anti-war, scientific discoveries, race, gender and women’s rights. From Emmeline Pankhurst’s ‘Freedom or Death’ speech and Marie Curie’s trailblazing Nobel lecture, to Michelle Obama speaking on parenthood in politics, the words collected are empowering, engaging and inspiring.
Men Explain Things to Me: And Other Essays by Rebecca Solnit
This number one Sunday Times bestseller is a painfully funny and relatable story of Johanna Morrigan, who decides to kill her old persona and replace it with something new: the confident Dolly Wilde. The trouble is, reinventing yourself is harder than it seems and it doesn’t exactly go to plan. Hilarious and heartfelt, this is an unforgettable story of feeling stuck and making a change – for better or worse.
