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A review by jude_holmes_
Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights by Helen Lewis
4.0
3.5ish A fairly comprehensive insight into the main arguments for why women have it worse, with a few things you might not have had evidence for beforehand and woven together in a messy/incomplete-but okay with it - narrative that revels in not having worked out al the answers yet. While I really enjoyed the style, I think a common criticism will be that it’s neither a “fact-upon-fact-in-your-face tome of non-fiction, nor a sedate story-like memoir-esque thing, but I think it does well somewhere in the middle - accessible with backup.
No book can address all the issues in one fell swoop, however I feel that the nods to intersectional issues of racism and ableism don’t quite do it justice when discussing the next waves. (For those interested, Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race is a good intro to racism and Disability Visibility is a fantastic collection of essays about many facets of living your life with disability). The same theme of neglect runs through discussions of trans people, where it sounds like she doesn’t actually know anyone who is trans, though I suppose there is a part of her that is trying to “stay in her lane” and only discuss things that she has personal authority over, but it’s left me conflicted, perhaps as a difficult woman should?
As is natural with all writings of this type, I found myself resonating with much of it while also reading sentences I disagree with - she states late in the book that feminism is for half the population, I happen to think it is for us all and would have phrased it differently, but I think that’s splitting hairs and overall I would love to hand this book directly to a specific colleague - let’s hope secret Santa is in my favour this year!
No book can address all the issues in one fell swoop, however I feel that the nods to intersectional issues of racism and ableism don’t quite do it justice when discussing the next waves. (For those interested, Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race is a good intro to racism and Disability Visibility is a fantastic collection of essays about many facets of living your life with disability). The same theme of neglect runs through discussions of trans people, where it sounds like she doesn’t actually know anyone who is trans, though I suppose there is a part of her that is trying to “stay in her lane” and only discuss things that she has personal authority over, but it’s left me conflicted, perhaps as a difficult woman should?
As is natural with all writings of this type, I found myself resonating with much of it while also reading sentences I disagree with - she states late in the book that feminism is for half the population, I happen to think it is for us all and would have phrased it differently, but I think that’s splitting hairs and overall I would love to hand this book directly to a specific colleague - let’s hope secret Santa is in my favour this year!