feminist books
You should definitely read these 6 works
© Andriy Kobrin / Shutterstock
Where are women still disadvantaged these days? Why is that? These six feminist books raise awareness of gender (in)justice and show what needs to be done to make things change.
Gender equality is one of the major social issues of our time, because women are still paid less, have fewer opportunities for advancement and take on a large part of the tasks related to child rearing and household chores. Everyone should engage with feminism, so that one day we can live in a fairer world, or as Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie put it in her famous TED Talk: “We Should All Be Feminists”. But which books are a good place to start?
Feminist Books: Our Favorites
The choice of feminist reading is huge. There are non-fiction books, essays, novels and biographies that deal critically with the role of women in our society deal with them, including classics that are well worth reading and exciting books by young women authors. Where is the best place to start reading? We’ve selected six feminist books by amazing women that are awareness-raising and absolutely worth it.
1. Virginia Woolf: A room to yourself
One of the classics of the women’s movement par excellence: In “A room to yourself” Virginia Woolf draws attention to the lack of equal opportunities. She calls for financial independence and more freedom for women, for example to be able to develop artistically. Fortunately, a lot has changed since the essay appeared in 1929, but some questions and demands remain red-hot and make the combat speech worth reading again and again.
Citation:“A woman needs money and a room to herself if she wants to write books.”
2. Simone de Beauvoir: The Second Sex
The book “The Opposite Sex” by the French philosopher is another milestone in the women’s movement and sparked heated controversy when it was published. De Beauvoir discusses the social structures that force women to play a role and make them dependent on men and points out ways to achieve greater equality. In particular, the passages on the compatibility of work and family and equal pay for equal work are (unfortunately) still relevant 70 years after publication.
Citation:“One is not born a woman, one becomes one.”
3. Julia Korbik: Oh, Simone
If you are not yet ready to read the original, you can with Julia Korbiks “Oh Simone” start to approach Simone de Beauvoir. The book takes a fresh look at the French feminist, her thinking, her environment and her everyday life. For example, did you know that Simone de Beauvoir was in an open relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre for over 50 years? The book makes complicated theories understandable, inspires and makes you want to learn more about the icon of the women’s movement.
Citation: “Simone realizes that the only one who can get her out of this situation is herself. There is no use waiting for something, an event, a salvation. The woman is herself!”
4. Caroline Criado-Perez: Invisible Women
Unfair but true: in many areas of life we still live in a world made by men for men. Author Caroline Criado-Perez shows this in her book “Invisible Women”. For example, did you know that drugs are mainly tested on men? Or that heart attacks in women are recognized less often because they have atypical – i.e. non-male – symptoms? The author provides a multitude of data and facts from different areas of life and presents them in plain, understandable language. Insightful, effective and strongly recommended.
Citation: “For millennia, medicine has followed the assumption that the male body represents the human body itself. The result is a huge, long-standing data gap regarding the female body.”
5. Margarethe Stokowski: Free underneath
In this very personal book, the author and Spiegel columnist Margarethe Stokowski describes what it is like to grow up as a girl in Germany. She reports on inadequate sex education classes, experiences of violence, sex and love and puts her experiences in an overall social context. “Free downstairs” is a loud and haunting book about the current status of gender equality that shows: we are not there yet.
Citation: “The car rental company that lets a young man lasciviously nibble on a bonnet for advertising purposes has yet to be established.”
6. Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie: More Feminism!
The author caused a stir with her TED Talk “We Should All Be Feminists”: Millions of people watched it Clip at YouTube on, the manifesto “We Should All Be Feminists” ended up on a Dior T-shirt, with which various stars were photographed and Beyoncé Knowles sampled some passages from the speech into her song “Flawless”. In addition to the TED talk translated into German, the book also contains “More Feminism” four more short stories by the Nigerian writer dealing with role expectations, guilt, shame and sexuality. A fast-read, humorous and great essay about feminism in the 21st century that creates new awareness and hope for a fairer world.
Citation:“If we only see men as company directors, at some point it seems ‘natural’ that only men should be company directors.”