Recommendations based on "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?: 50th anniversary edition"

Based on your reading history, we think you will also enjoy the following books.

By Natalie Haynes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“Funny, sharp explications of what these sometimes not-very-nice women were up to, and how they sometimes made idiots of . . . but read on!”—Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's TaleThe national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships returns with a fascinating, eye-opening take on the remarkable women at the heart of classical stories Greek mythology from Helen of Troy to Pandora and the Amazons to Medea.The tellers of Greek myths—historically men—have routinely sidelined the female characters. When they do take a larger role, women are often portrayed as monstrous, vengeful or just plain evil—like Pandora, the woman of eternal scorn and damnation whose curiosity is tasked with causing all the world’s suffering and wickedness when she opened that forbidden box. But, as Natalie Haynes reveals, in ancient Greek myths there was no box. It was a jar . . . which is far more likely to tip over.In Pandora’s Jar, the broadcaster, writer, stand-up comedian, and passionate classicist turns the tables, putting the women of the Greek myths on an equal footing with the men. With wit, humor, and savvy, Haynes revolutionizes our understanding of epic poems, stories, and plays, resurrecting them from a woman’s perspective and tracing the origins of their mythic female characters. She looks at women such as Jocasta, Oedipus’ mother-turned-lover-and-wife (turned Freudian sticking point), at once the cleverest person in the story and yet often unnoticed. She considers Helen of Troy, whose marriage to Paris “caused” the Trojan war—a somewhat uneven response to her decision to leave her husband for another man. She demonstrates how the vilified Medea was like an ancient Beyonce—getting her revenge on the man who hurt and betrayed her, if by extreme measures. And she turns her eye to Medusa, the original monstered woman, whose stare turned men to stone, but who wasn’t always a monster, and had her hair turned to snakes as punishment for being raped.Pandora’s Jar brings nuance and care to the millennia-old myths and legends and asks the question: Why are we so quick to villainize these women in the first place—and so eager to accept the stories we’ve been told?

By Deborah Frances-White

***Coming in April 2025: Deborah Frances-White's new book SIX CONVERSATIONS WE'RE SCARED TO HAVE*** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Breathes life into conversations about feminism' PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE 'Very funny, very clever, very thoughtful and very relevant' DOLLY ALDERTON Why do we find it so hard to say 'No'? How can feminism be more inclusive? What can rom-coms tell us about taking charge? The Guilty Feminist will challenge you, reassure you and empower you to see the world differently. From inclusion to intersectionality, #MeToo to men's rights, rom-coms to pornography, Deborah Frances-White tackles urgent questions for the modern woman. Featuring interviews with activists, businesswomen and all-round inspirations, The Guilty Feminist examines how women can abandon their guilt, say No (when they mean it), say Yes (when they want to), and to change the world - and ourselves - for the better. Includes interviews with Jessamyn Stanley * Zoe Coombs Marr * Susan Wokoma * Phoebe Waller-Bridge * Hannah Gadsby * Reubs Walsh * Bisha K. Ali * Becca Bunce * Mo Mansfield * Leyla Hussein * Amika George 'Genius' Sunday Times 'Funny, fresh, thought-provoking' Observer 'Everything you wanted to know about feminism but were afraid to ask' EMMA THOMPSON 'Quite possibly the defining feminist of our generation' ELIZABETH DAY 'Encouraging every woman to say: "I get to be heard. I deserve to be seen" ' Daily Express 'A passionate and engaging manifesto, reminding readers that feminism isn't one-size-fits-all' I

By Lauren Windle

Is it possible to be a Christian and a feminist?The hot topic of feminism has been well documented and debated in mainstream media and yet, as Christians we come to the conversation from a slightly different vantage point. For starters, we have the benefit of a personal relationship with our creator plus the ultimate handbook in the Bible to work out what is right and just when it comes to equality. So why do many Christians feel the Bible presents a barrier rather than a boost when it comes to championing equality between the sexes?Lauren Windle draws upon her years as a journalist to weave together a wide range of voices on a subject that society has been wrestling with but, in the Church, few are brave enough to probe too deeply for fear of what they might find. This book isn't here to tell you what to think. The views it presents are intended to inform, not form, your opinion on key topics, including: defining feminism, the lessons we teach boys, female preachers, a woman's place in the household, beauty standards and #ChurchToo.Notes On Feminism features contributions from several high-profile women:- Writer and model Katie Piper on true beauty- Olympian Abigail Irozuru on women's bodies- Comedian Cassandra Maria on why people think women aren't funny- Author Tiffany Bluhm on why people don't believe women- Journalist Delphine Chui on why she isn't a feminist.If feminist stirrings feel like a barrier to your faith, let Notes on Feminism help you unpick the confusion and ongoing debate, while keeping God at the centre.

By Gail Collins

Gail Collins, New York Times columnist and bestselling author, recounts the astounding revolution in women's lives over the past 50 years, with her usual "sly wit and unfussy style" (People).When Everything Changed begins in 1960, when most American women had to get their husbands' permission to apply for a credit card. It ends in 2008 with Hillary Clinton's historic presidential campaign. This was a time of cataclysmic change, when, after four hundred years, expectations about the lives of American women were smashed in just a generation.A comprehensive mix of oral history and Gail Collins's keen research -- covering politics, fashion, popular culture, economics, sex, families, and work -- When Everything Changed is the definitive book on five crucial decades of progress. The enormous strides made since 1960 include the advent of the birth control pill, the end of "Help Wanted -- Male" and "Help Wanted -- Female" ads, and the lifting of quotas for women in admission to medical and law schools. Gail Collins describes what has happened in every realm of women's lives, partly through the testimonies of both those who made history and those who simply made their way.Picking up where her highly lauded book America's Women left off, When Everything Changed is a dynamic story, told with the down-to-earth, amusing, and agenda-free tone for which this beloved New York Times columnist is known.Older readers, men and women alike, will be startled as they are reminded of what their lives once were -- Father Knows Best and My Little Margie on TV; daily weigh-ins for stewardesses; few female professors; no women in the Boston marathon, in combat zones, or in the police department. Younger readers will see their history in a rich new way. It has been an era packed with drama and dreams -- some dashed and others realized beyond anyone's imagining.

By Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A passionate call to arms against our era’s most pervasive human rights violation—the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. From the bestselling authors of Tightrope,two of our most fiercely moral voicesWith Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on the breadth of their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately, hope.They show how a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad. That Cambodian girl eventually escaped from her brothel and, with assistance from an aid group, built a thriving retail business that supports her family. The Ethiopian woman had her injuries repaired and in time became a surgeon. A Zimbabwean mother of five, counseled to return to school, earned her doctorate and became an expert on AIDS.Through these stories, Kristof and WuDunn help us see that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women’s potential. They make clear how so many people have helped to do just that, and how we can each do our part. Throughout much of the world, the greatest unexploited economic resource is the female half of the population. Countries such as China have prospered precisely because they emancipated women and brought them into the formal economy. Unleashing that process globally is not only the right thing to do; it’s also the best strategy for fighting poverty.Deeply felt, pragmatic, and inspirational, Half the Sky is essential reading for every global citizen.

By Maira Kalman

From the critically acclaimed artist, designer, and author of the bestsellers The Principles of Uncertainty and My Favorite Things comes a wondrous collection of words and paintings that is a moving meditation on the beauty and complexity of women’s lives and roles, revealed in the things they hold.“What do women hold? The home and the family. And the children and the food. The friendships. The work. The work of the world. And the work of being human. The memories. And the troubles. And the sorrows and the triumphs. And the love.”In the spring of 2021, Maira and Alex Kalman created a small, limited-edition booklet “Women Holding Things,” which featured select recent paintings by Maira, accompanied by her insightful and deeply personal commentary. The booklet quickly sold out. Now, the Kalmans have expanded that original publication into this extraordinary visual compendium.Women Holding Things includes the bright, bold images featured in the booklet as well as an additional sixty-seven new paintings highlighted by thoughtful and intimate anecdotes, recollections, and ruminations. Most are portraits of women, both ordinary and famous, including Virginia Woolf, Sally Hemings, Hortense Cezanne, Gertrude Stein, as well as Kalman’s family members and other real-life people. These women hold a range of objects, from the mundane—balloons, a cup, a whisk, a chicken, a hat—to the abstract—dreams and disappointments, sorrow and regret, joy and love.Kalman considers the many things that fit physically and metaphorically between women’s hands: We see a woman hold a book, hold shears, hold children, hold a grudge, hold up, hold her own. In visually telling their stories, Kalman lays bare the essence of women’s lives—their tenacity, courage, vulnerability, hope, and pain. Ultimately, she reveals that many of the things we hold dear—as well as those that burden or haunt us—remain constant and connect us from generation to generation.Here, too, are pictures of a few men holding things, such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Anton Chekhov, as well as objects holding other objects that invite us to ponder their intimate relationships to one another.Women Holding Things explores the significance of the objects we carry—in our hands, hearts, and minds—and speaks to, and for, all of us. Maira Kalman’s unique work is a celebration of life, of the act and the art of living, offering an original way of examining and understanding all that is important in our world—and ultimately within ourselves.

By Jane Cholmeley

A Waterstones Best Memoir of 2024An Independent and Stylist Best Non-Fiction Book for 2024 The captivating true story of an underdog business – a feminist bookshop founded in Thatcher’s Britain – from a woman at the heart of the women’s liberation movement.

By Joni Seager

The most up-to-date global perspective on how women are living today across continents and culturesIn this completely revised and updated fifth edition of her groundbreaking atlas, Joni Seager provides comprehensive and accessible analysis of up-to-the-minute global data on the key issues facing women today: equality, motherhood, feminism, the culture of beauty, women at work, women in the global economy, changing households, domestic violence, lesbian rights, women in government, and more. The result is an invaluable resource on the status of women around the world today.

By Annabelle Williams

Feel empowered with your finances and discover the route to economic equality in this astonishing dissection of the gender wealth gap'Uncovers the realities of money in the modern world' Stylist'This book will open your eyes' 5***** Reader Review'Goes beyond talks of glass ceilings and gender pay gaps' Dazed'Shocking and brilliant' 5***** Reader Review________Did you know?Nearly 70% of Britain's homeless are women.There are more men called Dave running the UK's top 100 companies than there are women altogether.Women outperform men educationally at every level from high school to PhD - but still get paid less.In this astonishing dissection of the gender wealth gap, financial journalist Annabelle Williams explains why so few women rank among the super-rich and why women are the majority of those in poverty.From the personal - feeling financially confident and liberated - to the political - demanding systemic support and representation - this ground-breaking exposé will empower your financial decisions and arm you with the knowledge needed to demand equality.________'It is refreshing to see Williams challenge well-worn sexist myths' i'Annabelle Williams uncovers the realities of money in the modern world, and what exactly we can do about the fact that women are poorer than men' Stylist'Goes beyond talks of glass ceilings and gender pay gaps to a more nuanced look at the institutional oppression faced by women on a daily basis' Dazed

By Sandra M. Gilbert, Susan Gubar

An analysis of Victorian women writers, this pathbreaking book of feminist literary criticism is now reissued with a substantial new introduction by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar that reveals the origins of their revolutionary realization in the 1970s that "the personal was the political, the sexual was the textual.""The classic argument for a women’s literary tradition."—Scott Heller, Chronicle of Higher Education"The authors force us to take a new look at the grandes dames of English literature, and the result is that they will never seem quite the same again."—Le Anne Schreiber, New York Times Book Review"Imperative reading."—Carolyn G. Heilbrun, Washington Post Book World"A masterpiece."—Carolyn See, Los Angeles Times Book Review"The Madwoman in the Attic, The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century, originally published in 1979, has long since become a classic, one of the most important works of literary criticism of the 20th century. This new edition contains an introduction titled 'The Madwoman in the Academy' that is, quite simply, a delight to read, warmly witty, provocative, informative and illuminating."—Joyce Carol Oates, Princeton University"A groundbreaking study of women writers. . . . The book brought the concerns of feminism to the study of female writers and presented the case for the existence of a distinctly feminine imagination."—Martin Arnold, The New York Times"The authors are brilliant academics but they wear their erudition lightly. It remains imperative reading for those who want to understand better the grandes dames of English literature, and is still one of the most powerful pieces of writing from a feminist point of view. Argumentative, polemical, witty and thought-provoking, this is a book which will make the reader return to the original texts." —Yorkshire Post (Leeds)"A feminist classic and still one of the best books on the female Victorian writers."—Judith Shulevitz, New York Times Book Review