I’m looking for a good nonfiction feminist book if anyone has some suggestions 🙂
I’m intrigued with Andrea Dwordkin’s work but I’ve heard conflicting opinions about her stuff and also wouldn’t know where to start.
also I know theory is going to probably play a big role in any book but i’m hoping to find a book with a bigger focus on solid facts and statistics if that makes sense
But really any book recommendations at all would be super appreciated, ty!
by 222serious
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*Feminism for the 99%* by Cinzia Arruzza et al
Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger – Rebecca Traister
Have you read de Beauvoir yet? The Second Sex is still heavily cited in feminist research today.
Sister Outsider
The Ascent of Women by Sally Armstrong
bell hooks Feminism Is for Everyone is a good place to start.
Mothers: an essay on love and cruelty by Jacqueline Rose is a philosophical look at being a mother and a woman and society assumptions about both.
Plenty of references to data and news reports and current events.
I don’t know that it’s considered “feminist” , which might be why I liked it b it read as though the author were mulling over the topic and trying to make sense of it, rather than building a “feminist text” that supports a broader goal, so to speak.
(I am a woman and a mother and found it illuminating).
Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women by Kate Manne
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
The Missing Thread: A Women’s History of the Ancient World by Daisy Dunn
The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler
Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis
– Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez
– We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
– Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot by Mikki Kendall
– Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
– Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay
– The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
– Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard
– Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power by Lola Olufemi
– Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks
– A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
– Ain’t I a Woman? by bell hooks
– Women, Race and Class by Angela Davis
– Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
– The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women by Naomi Wolf
– Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde
– Meat Market: Female Flesh Under Capitalism by Laurie Penny
– Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution by Laurie Penny
– Bitch Doctrine: Essays for Dissenting Adults by Laurie Penny
– Sexual Revolution: Modern Fascism and the Feminist Fightback by Laurie Penny
Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange by Judith Butler et al
Mary Beard, Women & Power: a manifesto, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, We Should All Be Feminists are both short, clear, focused, interesting reads. Also Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez, about how the world is built around male needs, from crash test dummies to medicine.
I’m a huge Rebecca Solnit fan. I’m a guy – an old guy – and she’s def helped me see the world in a different way. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by her that I didn’t get something worthwhile out of.
Not sure if this counts, but I got a lot out of **Unfinished Business: Women, Men, Work, Family** by Anne-Marie Slaughter. The author was the chief of staff to Hillary Clinton when Clinton was Secretary of State. And she sort of uses her own experiences as a commuting mother who did not have a lot of time for her kids (and that put a strain on her relationship w them and her husband) to open up a broader discussion (with many practical/real data, tips, and interviews) on how difficult it still is for women to have high paying jobs.
Long story short, a professor suggested I read it for an assignment we had, and I thought it had some great, practical, “this is how it really is” information and advice. Unfortunately the book is very much geared towards women who have spouses or very serious SO’s, and I am a single mom, so it didn’t give me a lot of advice for my demo. But still, I think it’s a great book if you’re younger (and even if you don’t have an SO now, if you plan to have one and raise a family) because it doesn’t sugarcoat some of the stuff you’ll be up against, and the important convos you should have with an SO about family/careers before either of you get locked into an untenable situation.
Anyway, not feminism specifically, but more of a field guide to try to take advantage of some of the feminist ideals that have opened more doors for women, but are still too often blocked by baby gates.
Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell.
Andrea Dworkin was fantastic (and scared the bejeezus out of people who deserved it, hence the mixed opinions). *Right Wing Women* was horrifyingly prescient. Read it now before they start burning it.