What should the next prime minister read
Here is a more diverse reading list!
Hello,
I know it has been a while since I was here. No excuses. Just that I needed to take time off from here. Parenting and work- as always - is a struggle, and that the only way that I get through this somehow is by prioritising things (I am writing this while sitting next to the tennis courts while shouting occasional encouraging words to my 6-year olds). No one can do it all. No one can have it all. I have stopped trying to!
In the last few weeks I have been completing proof reads and copyedits of my upcoming book HYSTERICAL that is out on 1 September. It has now gone to print, and out of my hands. Fingers crossed.
Recently I was invited to do two sessions on bias and prejudice for the Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Center in Atlanta.
I have been writing more short-form articles while mulling over book ideas. I wrote about people-pleasing here recently. And about how the stereotypes of masculinity and femininity that creates the impression that all girls do not enjoy physics (and leads to the STEM gap in education and industry). More of this in Hysterical.
One of my creative non-fiction essay about grief and nature was published in the Issue 5 of Extra Teeth magazine. You should definitely try and read this issue because the other essays and stories in it are truly excellent.
Today I want to talk about the recent article ‘A reading list for the next Prime Minister’ in The Times. There are no women authors on this list. There are no trans writers on this list as far as I can tell. How do we create an equitable government if we keep reading only one kind of author? How do we break the status bias that men have the authority and competence to write about serious subjects or books that matter, and are worth reading? (More of this in my books Sway and Hysterical).
There is entrenched gender bias in publishing, especially in non-fiction writing, and recently we had an extended discussion about the need for a Women’s Prize for non-fiction writing, and that all Sunday Times bestselling books were by men.
I do not think that books can always change people’s minds, or that they would become a better prime minister just by reading books reading by women. There are far bigger problems with their politics. We know that many of their values and ethos are grounded in privilege and power, and dismissal of societal and historic legacies of oppression. But, at the same time, reading books by a diverse group of people can provide people an insight into world views they might not have encountered. We are aware of how misogyny underpins so much of our governmental institutions and their policies. So it is important that any party leader become more cognisant of the ways women are disadvantaged, and the intersectionalities of these discriminatory forces.
BOOKS THAT THE NEXT PRIME MINISTER (AND ALL POLITICIANS) SHOULD READ
So here is my alternative reading list of books that I think the next prime minister should definitely read:
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth
My Fourth Time, We Drowned by Sally Hayden
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff
The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment by Amelia Gentleman
Women and Power: A manifesto by Mary Beard
The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye
Pregnant Then Screwed: The Truth About the Motherhood Penalty and How to Fix It by Joeli Brearley
Fix the system, Not the women by Laura Bates
The Authority Gap by Mary Ann Sieghart
Women and Leadership: Lessons from some of the world’s most powerful women by Julia Gillard
Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit
What works: Gender Equality by Design by Iris Bohnet
Invisible Kingdom by Meghan O’Rourke
And my own:
Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias
(M)otherhood: On the choices of being a woman
Hysterical: Exploding the myth of gendered emotions
(All three books deal with the role power and privilege play in who gets ahead, and have extended discussions of women in politics)
Enough: The Violence Against Women and How to End It by Harriet Johnson
How to stay sane in an age of division by Elif Shafak
How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship by Ece Temelkuran
Everything is True: A junior doctor's story of life, death and grief in a time of pandemic by Roopa Farooki
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
The Mermaid and the Minotaur by Dorothy Dinnerstein
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future, by Elizabeth Kolbert
I have added links to these books in my Bookshop.org shop.
These are just some of the books written by women fairly recently that capture what it means to live in today’s world, how the world is changing, and what we can do about it.
This is just a start. I would love for you to add your recommendations here in comments. Please do.
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My book HYSTERICAL: EXPLODING THE MYTH OF GENDERED EMOTIONS is now available to pre-order.
As you already probably know, pre-orders make a huge difference to authors signalling to publishers and booksellers (and media) that this book has readers, that it matters. As a writer with no connections in the industry, one who is brown woman writing non-fiction, it is tricky to be seen and acknowledged. I would love it if you pre-order, and share with anyone who might enjoy it. I also think that men should read this book because as we know feminism and gender equality would benefit men as much as women. So, here is something for a Christmas wish-list/gift for any men in your life!
