International Women’s Day, March 8, is a global day celebrating the achievements of all women.
Vision Australia Library has selected nine thought-provoking feminist books for, all recent additions to the Vision Australia Library catalogue, for you to sink your teeth into.
Not a member of the library? Not a member of the Vision Australia Library? Membership is free and available to anyone with a print disability. Find out more at the Vision Australia Library webpage or call 1300 654 656.
Women on the front line
Breaking the Mould: Taking a Hammer to Sexism in Sport by Angela Pippos.
According to the latest statistics, 81 per cent of sports media covers male-only sport, while just 8.7 per cent focuses on women. Horses got more attention than female athletes. Pick any sport and it’s easy to find examples of stark gender inequality and double standards so glaring that they’re almost laughable. But an extraordinary transformation is taking place, and nobody is better placed to call it than veteran sports journalist Angela Pippos.
Available in DAISY audio
Troll Hunting by Ginger Gorman.
Troll Hunting is an utterly engrossing, often frightening, but ultimately eye-opening and important window into the mindset of online trolls and how they reflect a real aspect of our modern society. It will also change the way you think about the internet, and what it means to be a human online.
Available in DAISY audio
Women at work
Lift As You Climb: Women and the Art of Ambition by Viv Groskop.
Part self-help guide, part master class in survival skills for life and work, this book examines what sisterhood looks like these days, asks what you can do to make things better for other women and considers how to do that without disadvantaging yourself.
Available in DAISY audio
Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons by Julia Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
A lively analysis of the influence of gender on women’s access to positions of leadership, the perceptions of them as leaders, the trajectory of their leadership and the circumstances in which it comes to an end, featuring Jacinda Ardern, Hillary Clinton, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Theresa May, Michelle Bachelet, Joyce Banda, Erna Solberg, Christine Lagarde and more.
Available in DAISY audio
And the fight goes on…
Accidental Feminists by Jane Caro.
Women over 55 weren't brought up much differently from the women who came before and rarely identified as feminists, This book explores how the world with the pill and a regular pay cheque-transformed this generation revolutionise the world. It is a celebration of grit, adaptability, energy and persistence. It is also a plea for future generations to keep agitating for a better, fairer world.
Available in DAISY audio.
Beauty by Bri Lee.
Bri Lee explores our obsession with thinness and asks how an intrinsically unattainable standard of physical 'perfection' has become so crucial to so many. What happens if you try to reach that impossible goal? Bri did try, and Beauty is what she learned from that battle: a gripping and intelligent rejection of an ideal that diminishes us all.
Available in DAISY audio
Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter.
A straight-talking, passionate and important book that makes us look afresh at women and girls, at sexism and femininity, today.
Available in DAISY audio
Women in media
Brave by Rose McGowan.
Rose McGowan was born in one cult and came of age in another, more visible cult: Hollywood. The Hollywood machine packaged her as a sexualized bombshell, hijacking her image and identity and marketing them for profit. Hollywood expected Rose to be silent and cooperative and to stay the path. Instead, she rebelled and asserted her true identity and voice. She reemerged unscripted, courageous, victorious, angry, smart, fierce and unapologetic.
Available in DAISY audio
Fixed It: Violence and the Representation of Women in the Media by Jane Gilmore.
On average, at least one woman is murdered by a current or former partner every week in Australia. Only rarely do these women capture the attention of the media and the public. Fixed It demonstrates the myths that we’re unconsciously sold about violence against women, and undercuts them in a clear and compelling way.
Available in Braille
Not a member of the library? Not a member of the Vision Australia Library? Membership is free and available to anyone with a print disability. Find out more at the Vision Australia Library webpage or call 1300 654 656.