Book Review: Women & Power: A manifesto by Mary Beard

I’m writing this at an unsettling time in the history of womankind. In parts of the USA reproductive rights are being scaled back through a new “heartbeat law”, whilst the global #MeToo movement continues to powerfully call out the awful way that people have and still use their power to control others. Women & Power* may seem like an unusual title to include in a personal development book club; but I feel it’s essential reading to understand the cultural, political and historical backdrop to what we are experiencing now, and to be aware of what may happen in the future.

Vocal feminist, Mary Beard, is better known through her writing and work of the classical era but has compiled a book that combines history with the very necessary gender agenda. She describes how women have been treated in the past, especially powerful women, and how history underpins the power struggle we experience and witness today.

The two parts to this book (a quick but powerful read at 128 pages) “The Public Voice of Women” and “Women in Power” are based on two separate lectures, delivered in 2014 and 2017; don’t let this put you off. There are no preaching or dry academic teaching but an engaging and detailed description of how life has been; sometimes exciting, sometimes exasperating and often tinged with misogyny. It’s unapologetically feminist but NOT man bashing (I feel like I have to add this in; there is still so much misunderstood about the equality and parity for all that drives feminism).

It turns the lens on how, at times women are complicit in holding each other back, and the ongoing (and often denied) issues of “mansplaining” and “women’s issues” being the only agenda that women ‘should’ follow. Once upon a time woman were actively silenced. Now we have a stronger voice, there is still a massive cultural and societal divide about how to best use it.

Now, I am going to do something a little different this time as part of the book club. I’m not going to include any of my thoughts or lessons learned. As women, as the book so clearly shows, we have had generations upon generations of being told what we can and can’t do. How to speak, what to think, how to behave and where to exist. It seems disingenuous to be championing the book, then telling you what you need to think about it.
Instead, I am going to tell you this. READ IT. It will be uncomfortable in parts but read it. You leave the manifesto with more questions than answers, but that is what we need. The chance to understand how we, as humankind, are where we are now. That whilst the triumphs and challenges in our lives are our lived experiences, they aren’t in a vacuum. They exist within history and a legacy. Let’s question assumptions, habits, and behaviours to make what we are going through now, just a short, quick section in the history books.
 
Have you read Women & Power? Let me know your thoughts!

Want to learn about the other book club books? Find them here.

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