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literatureeverafter's review against another edition
5.0
EVERY👏🏻GIRL👏🏻NEEDS👏🏻TO👏🏻READ👏🏻THIS
.
This made me understand myself so much better than those crappy talks you get from school telling you to ‘be ladylike’. We need to view these women as a role models in everyday life and this book has me fired up for life!
.
This made me understand myself so much better than those crappy talks you get from school telling you to ‘be ladylike’. We need to view these women as a role models in everyday life and this book has me fired up for life!
jesikasbookshelf's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
3.0
As a starting point for a history of remarkable women, this is great. It is clearly written for teenagers and it highlights the varied and incredible ways women across time and cultures have chosen to live on their own terms. Considering information about such women is unlikely to be the focus in most textbooks, this book is a great resource.
That said, this really is aimed at teenagers -the language is sometimes frustrating to the adult ear and many aspects of these women's lives are oversimplified. Yes the book does enough to indicate that there are complexities, but so many of them are dealt with at a surface level, leaving the indication that bad behaviour is fine if you're iconic. There's also a serious undertone of suggesting that real and longterm difficulties faced by modern women pale in comparison. In some ways that's true, bit modern problems are obviously different to historical ones for...everybody.
The book uses the biographies of 50 women to give readers an indication of the different ways in which traditionally feminine, ladylike behaviour should and can be ignored in favour of women being rightfully independent, intelligent leaders. Its just...it doesn't really offer any practical advice on how to actually do that which leaves the book title feeling slightly misleading.
Overall, this is a great starting point for younger readers that deserve to know that history ignores the lives of women in a deep way, but it absolutely is a starting point and not a book that offers a full or complex understanding of women's lives as a contextual arc through social progress.
That said, this really is aimed at teenagers -the language is sometimes frustrating to the adult ear and many aspects of these women's lives are oversimplified. Yes the book does enough to indicate that there are complexities, but so many of them are dealt with at a surface level, leaving the indication that bad behaviour is fine if you're iconic. There's also a serious undertone of suggesting that real and longterm difficulties faced by modern women pale in comparison. In some ways that's true, bit modern problems are obviously different to historical ones for...everybody.
The book uses the biographies of 50 women to give readers an indication of the different ways in which traditionally feminine, ladylike behaviour should and can be ignored in favour of women being rightfully independent, intelligent leaders. Its just...it doesn't really offer any practical advice on how to actually do that which leaves the book title feeling slightly misleading.
Overall, this is a great starting point for younger readers that deserve to know that history ignores the lives of women in a deep way, but it absolutely is a starting point and not a book that offers a full or complex understanding of women's lives as a contextual arc through social progress.
spiderhands's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this a lot - it was fun to pick up every now and then to read a couple of entries at a time. Each entry focuses on a different woman through history and a different trait that each had, and how it can inspire us in our everyday lives - entries like 'Clara Schumann and being savvy with your cash' or 'Josephine Baker and having it all'.
I liked that the writers made an effort to include a diverse range of cultures and ethnicities in this book (although white women still make up about 60% of the line-up) and I like that they didn't try to sugarcoat any of these ladies, simultaneously acknowledging their flaws, or in some cases, their involvement in hideous atrocities - like the fact that Coco Chanel was a Nazi, or Empress Cixi was a tyrant, or that Marie Stopes spent a while using her platform to promote eugenics... - while also explaining the role that these women played historically in laying down groundwork for future generations of women to excel.
One thing that I did find very weird is the tonal whiplash between, like, GIRL POWER! and Historical Violence, or whatever. It reminds me of that meme that's like "Do you think Margaret Thatcher had girl power? Do you think she utilized girl power effectively by funnelling money illegally into death squads?" Sometimes it felt like the writers were trying a little too hard to be relatable and modern and light-hearted, when it wasn't necessarily appropriate for the subject material.
Like:
"Your frenemy is in an annoyingly cute floral head-dress and post sun-drenched festival pics on IG; your best friend is humblebragging about how 'feisty' her gorgeous baby is on Facebook [...] Venturing onto social media can sometimes feel like having a thousand turmeric lattes thrown in your face. Everyone everywhere else seems to be having such a fabulous time - #seizetheday #yolo #treatyoself - so it's no surprise that we all occasionally from fear of missing out. FOMO can lead you to do things you don't actually care about and swiftly suck you into a whirlwind of triviality. Iconic poet and recluse Emily Dickinson was not immune to social angst: she worried a lot about her friendships and frequently wrote about loneliness in her work..."
Whiplash.
BUT I did love reading this book and I like the idea of flipping back through every now and then to remind myself of cool powerful ladies that I might not have ever been made aware of before.
I liked that the writers made an effort to include a diverse range of cultures and ethnicities in this book (although white women still make up about 60% of the line-up) and I like that they didn't try to sugarcoat any of these ladies, simultaneously acknowledging their flaws, or in some cases, their involvement in hideous atrocities - like the fact that Coco Chanel was a Nazi, or Empress Cixi was a tyrant, or that Marie Stopes spent a while using her platform to promote eugenics... - while also explaining the role that these women played historically in laying down groundwork for future generations of women to excel.
One thing that I did find very weird is the tonal whiplash between, like, GIRL POWER! and Historical Violence, or whatever. It reminds me of that meme that's like "Do you think Margaret Thatcher had girl power? Do you think she utilized girl power effectively by funnelling money illegally into death squads?" Sometimes it felt like the writers were trying a little too hard to be relatable and modern and light-hearted, when it wasn't necessarily appropriate for the subject material.
Like:
"Your frenemy is in an annoyingly cute floral head-dress and post sun-drenched festival pics on IG; your best friend is humblebragging about how 'feisty' her gorgeous baby is on Facebook [...] Venturing onto social media can sometimes feel like having a thousand turmeric lattes thrown in your face. Everyone everywhere else seems to be having such a fabulous time - #seizetheday #yolo #treatyoself - so it's no surprise that we all occasionally from fear of missing out. FOMO can lead you to do things you don't actually care about and swiftly suck you into a whirlwind of triviality. Iconic poet and recluse Emily Dickinson was not immune to social angst: she worried a lot about her friendships and frequently wrote about loneliness in her work..."
Whiplash.
BUT I did love reading this book and I like the idea of flipping back through every now and then to remind myself of cool powerful ladies that I might not have ever been made aware of before.
therealmcflurry's review against another edition
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
3.0
wordshaker12's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5
Enjoyed the mix of women’s stories included, especially ones I’d never heard of, but the writing made me cringe a lot.
Enjoyed the mix of women’s stories included, especially ones I’d never heard of, but the writing made me cringe a lot.
zoeholman's review against another edition
3.0
Entry level feminism. I loved the idea behind the book, but the reliance of pop culture and modern day slang cheapened the whole thing for me; those relations will be irrelevant and dated in 5 years. Feels like a book designed for young teens who maybe haven't been introduced to the concept of intersectional feminism. Don't love the idea of someone into eugenics being hailed as a #girlboss!!!! And didn't love the slightly judgey tone the book took overall towards modern women. Some parts interesting but thoroughly meh.
miamia1's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
Interesting overview of 50 strong women in history. Lighthearted and also funny
sarahvernall's review against another edition
3.0
Charming mini bios of forty-nine exceptional women (and Nazi collaborator Coco Chanel. Which. Dodgy choice there). Similar to Jason Porath's Rejected Princesses canon but falls a bit short of those masterpieces.
itsneverbecky's review
4.0
This struck me as a great book for teenage girls but it’s a great read for anyone looking for awesome female role models. I particularly liked that it didn’t skirt around the less than savoury (or feminist) aspects of the women it portrays - holding women, & our past, to a standard higher than that expected of men isn’t feminism. And these awesome authors don’t beat around the bush. I felt much more educated & galvanised to be unapologetically me after reading this.