Books to help you fight gender inequality

We all know there’s a gender pay gap (according to the World Economic Forum, it will take 135.6 years to close it) and that women take on the bulk of unpaid caring responsibilities (Carers UK says that 58% of carers are women), but just how far off is equality for women?

This Women’s Equality Day, these eight books will help you make sense of the history of gender inequality, get to grips with how class, race and more intersect to make the problem worse for some women, and will show you what can be done to make a change.

Inferior by Angela Saini (2018)

For centuries, we’ve been told by science – the ultimate in impartiality – that men and women are fundamentally different. But is that really true?

In Inferior, science journalist Angela Saini looks into the gender wars in biology, psychology and anthropology, tracing how the idea that men and women are different developed, and to what extent it’s correct.

Saini takes readers on a journey into how women are being “rediscovered” by science, creating an alternative view where women are included, and society is moving to becoming more equal.

Rage Becomes Her by Soraya Chemaly (2018)

Women’s anger is often seen as a negative trait, a sign that women are “too emotional”. Being calm in the face of inequality is seen as a positive, and for those that don’t comply, there are plenty of names that are bandied about. But, argues Soraya Chemaly in Rage Becomes Her, anger is a really useful tool for positive change, and in fact the most important resource women have.

Underpaid, overworked and often diminished in the workplace and in society at large, women have plenty of reasons to be angry. Chemaly analyses anger as it relates to a number of topics, including self-worth, objectification and pain, and looks at how repressing anger causes women harm.

Rage Becomes Her will make you feel inspired to make a change, and learn how to use anger in the battle for women’s equality.