I will refuse to change who I am to suit society but we will change society to suit us.
So. It’s that day again *groans loudly to fit in with society to not show that we care our rights for women*
AHAHAHAHAHAHA
As if….
Come on girls, hope aboard and get with the programme. We’re going to take over the world one way or another.
We might as well get started now.
We can’t expect the world to change if we sit back.
(But we can have a cuppa and read some of these just to get us started!)
[disclousure: there is a bit of bad language henceforth but sometimes a girls gotta do what a girl has got to do]
Fantastically Great Women who Changed the World & Fantastically Great Women who Made History.
Kate Pankhurst.
And yes, you are correct in thinking that she is in fact related to the late and great Emmeline Pankhurst (advocate of suffragette movement). These are actually children’s books but they feature all different types of women throughout history that have done something from starting political movements to being inventors to being medical and engineering marvels, women that have just sort of shot the Patriarchy the middle finger. From well-known figures such as Emmeline Pankhurst, Rosa Parks, Anne Frank, Coco Channel and Boudicca to lesser-known kick-ass ladies, for instance, Flora Drummond, Ada Lovelace and Agent Fifi to name a few.
But for little girls who are just discovering the world around them, these are great bedtime stories. Something to inspire them to knock down the barriers that they will no doubt face in coming years. An easy and digestible way for you to teach your girls that they can rule the world.
Moxie
Jennifer Mathieu
Here we have our main character, Vivian, in high school, a quiet and secluded individual, the complete opposite of her punk riot mum. But she eventually gets sick of everyone at school just ignoring all the sexism going on around her. So she inadvertently starts a revolution in her school by simply passing round anonymous notes, taking inspo from her mum’s younger years. and the movement grows to a few of her friends to the whole school until it really starts to shake up the hierarchy.
I particularly liked this book, I would have especially loved it when I was a teenager with its ability to totally engross the reader. Characters that fit everyone’s personality means you really feel like you are there in the story and can relate to at least one person, making it such a personal read.
Relating it back to simple sexist occurrences means that when reading you don’t feel as if it’s a million miles from the truth. It allows for the reader to truly believe in a cause that can join and be part of the uprising. Because as they say; “Moxie Girls, FIGHT BACK”.
The Spinster Club Series
Holly Bourne
So this series was just one I sort of came across after I read another of her books and quite liked it. It wasn’t until I was immersed in the first book that I realised how AMAZING these were. Dealing with issues such as mental health AS WELL, made the book 10 times better.
The first book (Am I Normal yet?) is about three girls who are just starting college and making new friends is hard for Evie having suffered from OCD for a number of years. She is trying to adjust to being a teenager, but when they ‘lads’ start getting a bit too ‘Laddish’ (that is the technical term of course) Evie and her new friends; Amber and Lottie decide to take matters into their own hands and set up the spinster club. Where they eat cheesy snacks and discuss feminism and how best to deal with misogyny. They also begin a revolution of sorts.
The second book (How hard can Love be?) focus’ on Amber’s struggling relationship with her mother, (their revolution continues, however) when she goes over to The States to work at a summer camp run by her mum and step-dad. When she meets the all-American dream boy she begins to question herself as a feminist which I think was such an inventive way to look at it and really allows the reader to understand what feminism is about. It shows how girls shouldn’t be shamed into caring about being a feminist but how men can also be part of it.
The final book (What’s a girl gotta do?) focus’ on Lottie. A natural-born leader, this is a prime example of taking over the world and showing everyone that a girl really can kick ass when she wants to. Lottie esentailly makes it her mission to educate the country and that she does. Her determination will only make you want to join the cause even more!
Overall the entire series deals with friendship, mental health and growing up, alongside feminism and Holly Bourne has been the first writer I have come across to do it with such integrity.
GIRL UP
Laura Bates
When Bates began the ‘Everyday Sexism Project’ in 2012 she gave girls all over the world a platform to share their experiences of sexism in the workplace, at school, in public or anywhere else it happened, and they did, millions of girls, and women shared what had happened, regardless of how big or small their experiences were. She has now published GIRL UP in 2016. A book not for the faint-hearted, it showcases all the bullshit that women have to put up with still in the 21st century all over the globe.
Dancing vaginas on the inside of the covers are my personal favourite. Colour-by-numbers genitalia is also a great laugh, but she also discusses sexual harassment/abuse, women in the workplace, social media, mental health, kicking ass and all things that would 10/10 order me to consider this as the feminism bible. OKAY. There I said it but its true. The witty banter throughout, the raw detail and just saying it how it is, with no censorship or bullshit makes the book really stand out.
The fact that Emma Watson writes the Praise paragraph at the beginning of the book makes it, hmmm…. about a million times better.
Bates’ TED Talk is amazing and worth a watch, just a general google search of her will leave you being like okay wow, this gal, she’s who I aspire to be like.
Trust me on this okay.
I hope that you will read all of these but if not at least one or at the very least, think about what they are saying and you’ll get that feeling in your tummy that makes you realise that you want to fight the cause as well. And you’ll realise that even though we have it really good here, there is still there is a lot of shit that women have to go through here in the UK and all the girls and women in the world, putting up with much worse than I am, but honestly, I’m going to just say it now that I refuse to apologise for being a woman.
“I raise up my voice—not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard…we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.”
―Malala Yousafzai
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