(Portobello, £12.99)
Caroline Criado-Perez is the feminist writer best known for her 2013 campaign to have at least one woman among the historical figures depicted on British banknotes. The campaign she was involved with was successful—but she received a storm of misogynistic abuse for her efforts.
A regular commentator in the media, her first book is centred on a series of interviews with women who have achieved great things, either in male-dominated fields—from a British Antarctic explorer to an Afghan helicopter pilot—or in tackling the many injustices faced by women around the world. The profiles are a useful way of illustrating the kinds of barriers women come up against and how—though the manifestations vary in severity in different countries and regions—the underlying themes are often the same.
The book covers a wide range of issues—domestic violence in Afghanistan, sexual assault in the US military, abortion rights in El Salvador, educational discrimination in China, online trolling, sex trafficking in India. The result is a compelling account of the ubiquitousness of violence and discrimination against women.
She touches eloquently on much of the gender theory behind the stories she describes. But the sheer range of subjects covered makes it difficult to explore anything in real depth. Her overarching argument is that many of the prejudices held against women across the world are false and that the women she speaks to are evidence of that, providing a new narrative about what it means to be a woman. It’s a book full of fascinating stories and facts, but a narrower focus would have allowed her to say more.
Caroline Criado-Perez is the feminist writer best known for her 2013 campaign to have at least one woman among the historical figures depicted on British banknotes. The campaign she was involved with was successful—but she received a storm of misogynistic abuse for her efforts.
A regular commentator in the media, her first book is centred on a series of interviews with women who have achieved great things, either in male-dominated fields—from a British Antarctic explorer to an Afghan helicopter pilot—or in tackling the many injustices faced by women around the world. The profiles are a useful way of illustrating the kinds of barriers women come up against and how—though the manifestations vary in severity in different countries and regions—the underlying themes are often the same.
The book covers a wide range of issues—domestic violence in Afghanistan, sexual assault in the US military, abortion rights in El Salvador, educational discrimination in China, online trolling, sex trafficking in India. The result is a compelling account of the ubiquitousness of violence and discrimination against women.
She touches eloquently on much of the gender theory behind the stories she describes. But the sheer range of subjects covered makes it difficult to explore anything in real depth. Her overarching argument is that many of the prejudices held against women across the world are false and that the women she speaks to are evidence of that, providing a new narrative about what it means to be a woman. It’s a book full of fascinating stories and facts, but a narrower focus would have allowed her to say more.
