Women & Power: A Manifesto

Description

Why the popular resonance of 'mansplaining' (despite the intense dislike of the term felt by many men)? It hits home for us because it points straight to what it feels like not to be taken seriously: a bit like when I get lectured on Roman history on Twitter. Britain's best known classicist Mary Beard, is also a committed and vocal feminist. With wry wit she shows how history has treated powerful women. With examples ranging from Medusa and Athena to Theresa May and Elizabeth Warren, Beard explores the cultural underpinnings of misogyny, considering the public voice of women, how we look at women who exercise power, our cultural assumptions about women's relationship with power, and how powerful women resist being packaged into a male template. With personal reflections on her own experiences of sexism online and the gendered violence she has endured as a woman in the public eye, Mary asks: if women aren't perceived to be fully within the structures of power, isn't it power that we need to redefine?

Mary Beard is a professor of classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, and the Classics editor of the TLS. She has world-wide academic acclaim, and is a fellow of the British Academy and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her previous books include most recently SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, and the bestselling, Wolfson Prize-winning Pompeii, The Roman Triumph, also The Parthenon and Confronting the Classics. Her blog has been collected in the books It's a Don's Life and All in a Don's Day.

With clearsightedness and wry humour, this self-described 'gobby woman' proves public speech is no longer the preserve of maleness. More power to her. -- Laura Garmeson * FT * A modern feminist classic -- Rachel Cooke * The Observer * This book is a treasure, both as a fascinating read in itself and as a fine work of reference to correct our lazy misconceptions about an ancient world that still has much to instruct us today * Herald * An urgent feminist cri de coeur, spot-on in its utterly reasonable plea that a woman 'who dares to open her mouth in public' actually be given a hearing. * Kirkus Reviews * Brilliant. -- Jacqueline Rose * Guardian * Enlightening ... explains how misogyny works and why it is so resilient -- Elif Shafak * Guardian * A sparkling and forceful manifesto * New York Times * Clear, rich, subversive and witty * San Francisco Chronicle * Mary Beard has become something of a star when it comes to bringing classical history to life. She exposes the roots of today's expectations of how a woman should behave ... A small but wonderfully potent call to action. With references to mythological figures such as Perseus, Medusa, Philomela and Telemachus, she shows how often we've been told that "Speech will be the business of men" and that a woman who breaks this rule may risk having her tongue cut out. Time for change, she argues - and now! -- Jenni Murray * Guardian * An irresistible call for women to speak up, act and redefine their power * People Magazine * Praise for Mary Beard: 'She's pulled off that rare trick of becoming a don with a high media profile who hasn't sold out, who is absolutely respected by the academy for her scholarship ... what she says is always powerful and interesting * Guardian * An irrepressible enthusiast with a refreshing disregard for convention * FT * With such a champion as Beard to debunk and popularise, the future of the study of classics is assured * Daily Telegraph * Dynamically, wittily and authoritatively brings the ancient world to life -- Simon Sebag Montefiore Praise for SPQR: Fast-moving, exciting, psychologically acute, warmly sceptical -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times * Vastly engaging ... a tremendously enjoyable and scholarly read. -- Natalie Haynes * Observer * Sustaining the energy that such a topic demands for more than 600 pages, while providing a coherent answer to the question of why Rome expanded so spectacularly, is hugely ambitious. Beard succeeds triumphantly ... full of insights and delights ... SPQR is consistently enlivened by Beard's eye for detail and her excellent sense of humour. * Sunday Times * Masterful ... This is exemplary popular history, engaging but never dumbed down, providing both the grand sweep and the intimate details that bring the distant past vividly to life * Economist * Ground-breaking ... invigorating ... revolutionary ... a whole new approach to ancient history -- Thomas Hodgkinson * Spectator *