Are you new to the feminist movement and don’t know where to start? Are you already a feminist and want to read under-rated books on feminism? Then this article is all for you! Here, I discuss 4 non-fiction books that are excellent at educating people about feminism.
People have countless misconceptions and prejudices against feminism due to factors like media sensationalism and lack of proper information.
But feminism is actually quite simple. It’s the belief that there should be political, economic, and social equality between the sexes. Anyone can be a feminist too! The only requirement is that you believe men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. That’s it. Contrary to popular belief, however, society is still so far away from achieving these goals and the following books illustrate why.
The following are not explicitly empowerment books; these are educational, explanation-based, and research-based. These are not the “feminist canon” per se, but I’ve read a lot of books on feminism and these are the most accessible and thought-provoking ones. I listed these books down in the order in which I think you should read them.
UNLEARNING GENDER ROLES
“Teach her that if you criticize X in women but do not criticize X in men, then you do not have a problem with X, you have a problem with women.”
This is the perfect book to start out with because it’s only 63 pages long but is already jam-packed with eye-opening ideas. One of Adichie’s friends recently became a mother and asked Adichie for advice on how to raise her baby girl as a feminist. This book is Adichie’s letter of response as she gives 15 practical suggestions.
While this book is aimed at raising girls, the suggestions here also apply to raising boys as feminists. And this book is definitely not for parents only. By exposing the many ways in which we raise children according to gender roles, Dear Ijeawele also reveals the many things we have to unlearn about gender roles that we’ve retained from our childhoods. Unlearning is so hard, but Dear Ijeawele makes it a little bit easier.
This book is a great starting point because it illustrates how sexism affects us all personally. It’s more difficult to care about a cause that doesn’t directly affect you, right? And you may feel like sexism doesn’t affect you. But through an exploration of parenthood, child-rearing, marriage, language, and likeability, among others, Adichie embeds feminist issues deeply into our personal lives.
This is perfect for beginners because Adichie explains feminism in a conversational and compassionate tone using simple words. She’s so easy to understand and never condescends. For example, she explains feminism with, “Your feminist premise should be: I matter. I matter equally. Not ‘if only’. Not ‘as long as’. I matter equally. Full stop.” These are statements I remind myself everyday.
Reading Dear Ijeawele as a woman was honestly like a warm loving embrace. “Instead of teaching Chizalum to be likeable, teach her to be honest. And kind. And brave. Encourage her to speak her mind, to say what she really thinks, to speak truthfully.” No one has ever taught me these things when I was younger, and I really wish someone had. In fact, I was taught the exact opposite–that I have to package myself to be likeable, agreeable, and nice. I’m sure other women have similar experiences.
Hence, reading Adichie’s words was so powerful and moving. Dear Ijeawele definitely made me feel more comfortable and assertive in being a woman. Other articles on the internet recommend starting out with Adichie’s other work, We Should All Be Feminists, but Dear Ijeawele was way more impactful, insightful, and helpful to me.
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IT SHOULDN’T BE A MAN’S WORLD
“Because male data makes up the majority of what we know, what is male comes to be seen as universal. It leads to the positioning of women, half the global population, as a minority.”
A Goodreads user wrote, “Do not read this if you are suffering from high blood pressure, because it is absolutely rage inducing.” And oh girl, do I agree. People who think we’ve already reached total sex equality should really read this book, because it perfectly illustrates how we’re still so far away from that ideal.
We often say we live in a man’s world like it’s okay–like it’s how the world naturally works. But things that get normalized do not make them automatically okay. Through research, statistics, and case studies, Invisible Women demonstrates how women lose time, money, freedom, and even their lives because of society’s failure to consider sex differences in data collection and design. As a result, everything–from public transit to workplace safety to development initiatives–are developed with men in mind.
This is because of The Default Male, which is a concept that describes how we see men as the default human. For instance, “gender neutral” almost always is male-biased because we see the male body as the default–neutral, even–while we see the female body as niche even though we’re literally half the population. This is not trivial, but fatal.
Car seats, for example, are designed after the anatomy of a 155-pound man, which is why more women die from car crashes than men. Clinical trials also overwhelmingly use male participants, because women’s hormones are considered too complicated to take into account. Hence, we get drugs and treatments designed for men being given to women despite significant differences in their anatomies. This is how we get instruments that are supposed to diagnose patients with chest pain to fail diagnosing it in women.
Again and again, it is women who are expected to contort themselves to fit a male-biased world rather than remedying a male-biased world to adjust to women’s needs and anatomies.
To be clear, men aren’t consciously conspiring against women. Because our whole world is built after their needs and bodies, men have come to see their experiences as universal and therefore naturally neglect to consider how women’s needs might differ from their own. Hence, majority of studies and research are not sex-segregated, predisposing our data to male bias.
Invisible Women truly changed how I see the world. Before, I saw the world as a man’s world that I have to adapt to. But now, I see it as a world that fails to account for women.
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POWER
“Any woman, or member of another equity-seeking group, who stands where white, straight, cisgender men usually do is certain to face violent backlash.”
While the first two books are about gender roles and data respectively, No More Nice Girls is all about power. Our definition of power, intellect, and success are still based on men. When we say scientist, president, doctor, CEO, professor, or leader, for example, it’s usually men that pop up into our heads. Hence, so much of feminism is about challenging power structures, and this is exactly what McKeon writes about with so much nuance in her book.
Yes, women do occupy positions of power right now. But McKeon questions whether this is even true equality. Women still need to work thrice as hard, emulate a hyper-masculine style of leadership, and play extra-nice to even achieve a position of power. And when the rare woman does get to the top, things are just as bad or even worse. Male subordinates don’t take them seriously–some even harass them–and they’re shamed for putting their careers first instead of their households. When women in power are assertive, they get called “bitchy,” “calculating,” and “cold” while their male counterparts are applauded for the same assertiveness. Women in positions of power are set up to fail. There’s no winning. Is this the equality we’ve been fighting for?
Clearly, there has to be better ways to achieve and wield power. So McKeon interviews women from different sectors on how they do power on their own terms. Some women established businesses that cater to women or aim for social betterment rather than for mere corporate profit; some created women-only spaces that ensure safety for women in the workplace; and some head workshops that teach girls how to feel comfortable saying “no,” among others. Instead of forcing themselves to play within a patriarchal society designed for them to lose, they just made their own spaces.
No More Nice Girls is very informative and covers a lot of ground. The book also discusses why diversity initiatives fail; the intersection between racism, sexism, and homophobia; Trudeau’s strategic but problematic brand of feminism; incels and misogynistic trolls; toxic masculinity; sexual violence and the #MeToo movement; and the motherhood penalty in the workplace; among others. Power erupts everywhere.
McKeon essentially asks us, “Do women want a place in the boys’ club, or should we just create a club of our own?” This book taught me that both are equally important and are complementary to each other in advancing women’s rights. There truly are so many ways to do feminism. And for all the bleak things No More Nice Girls reports on, this book still fills me with so much hope for the future because it gave me possibilities that I’ve never thought of before.
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INTERSECTIONAL FEMINISM
“What does it mean for the rest of us that white women can be in control of almost all of the weapons belonging to the world’s most powerful country and still claim to be an oppressed group on the same level as other women?”
Sexism is not a singular experience. Different women experience sexism differently because of other identity markers such as race, sexual orientation, class, ability, and age. But because middle-class straight white women often have the loudest voices within feminist circles, feminism has a tendency to be white-leaning. So, we have to make sure that our feminism includes all kinds of women. No More Nice Girls engages with the intersection between racism and sexism, but White Tears/Brown Scars makes this the center of discussion.
In this book, Hamad argues how white women strategically lean into their white privilege to silence women of color. They strategically oscillate between their gender and their race, between being the oppressed and the oppressor, depending on the power dynamics of a situation. “There is no sisterhood,” Hamad declares, as mainstream feminism continues to empower white women at the expense of women of color for the benefit of white society.
Hamad details how when challenged by a woman of color, white women often accuse the other woman of bullying her–of creating a threatening and hostile workplace–even, of racism (reverse-racism, by the way, is not a thing). And her accusations are effective because of white women’s historical status as damsels in distress. This is why we must be wary of white feminism.
White Tears/Brown Scars goes very in-depth into the history and legacy of colonialism to illustrate how these shape the contemporary moment, including mainstream feminism. The book also discusses how white women appropriate black and brown women’s work; how imperialism is a feminist issue; how white women are not absolved of racism; and how representation has real world consequences, among others.
White Tears/Brown Scars is an important book to read because it reminds us that we must take all kinds of women into account when advancing women’s rights. A win for one kind of woman may not be a win for all women; and white women’s experiences should definitely not be taken as the universal female experience.
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That concludes my Feminism Starter Pack. I hope you give these books a read because they’ve informed my feminism, and actually my life, in profound ways. You don’t get a lot of good role models when you’re a woman, but these books provided me with a lot.
And if I haven’t made it clear enough yet, I’m a woman and a feminist, and proud of being both. Thanks for reading!
