Happy International Women’s Day!!
In the spirit of today, here are the books that have improved me as a Feminist:
- A Room Of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf. Woolf argues that female writers need to have a room of their own before they can have the complete freedom to achieve their creative, although the same principle can be applied for most educated, middle-class woman; women need to have the freedom to pursue financial independence before they can achieve true independence.
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. It makes me nervous that Atwood is so insistent that it’s categorised as Speculatie Fiction, on the basis that it can happen, but nevertheless I am so excited for the mini-series.
- Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. The play that ‘My Fair Lady’ was based off, Shaw wrote Pygmalion to show that moulding a woman to your ideas of perfection will backfire. He even wrote a long essay explaining why Higgins is a douchebag and Eliza would never have married him (which I can get behind).
- The Wife Drought by Annabel Crabb. Just read it and I still love it. Anyone who wants an early lesson on how Feminism can be applied to everyday life needs to read this book.
- Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. I know everyone criticises it for being catered towards middle-class, professional women but let’s face it, that is what Sandberg is, and she can only write what she knows. This book gave me the confidence to believe I deserve a place at the meeting and to speak up so I’m very grateful to this book.
And as I was writing up my list, I realised that I actually didn’t have as many feminist readings in my artillery as I thought. I read a lot of essays and think pieces but not a lot of books, fiction or non-fiction so here are the books I want to read:
- Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay. I try to live a life that’s principled and keeps to my beliefs, so I can get pretty worked up when I do something I think I shouldn’t, for example, when I devote hours of my time looking at clothes and fussing over my appearance, so I think Gay’s collectionn of essaya might remedy this.
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I think I’m at the perfect point in my life to read this. There’s all these things I want to do but I feel constricted and limited and I think Plath’s novel will help me get through this. If I can’t find a secomd hand copy soon, I’ll just buy it new.
- The Fictional Woman by Tara Moss. I saw her on a panel at the Sydney Opera House and her articulate thoughts on women’s right just blew me away. I would be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t read one of her works.
What are your recommendations?
A Bookkeeper's Notes 