Feminist Book Society Anti-Patriarchal Reads Book Box

We are so excited to be collaborating with the Feminist Book Society to choose some essential feminist reads. They have chosen a selection of contemporary and classic non-fiction for you to jump into, to help you understand the issues, get angry and inspired and work out what exactly to do with that energy!

A great gift for the feminist in your life.

Rosie and Eli from FBS tell us more about their choices below:

Fix The System, Not The Women by Laura Bates

Laura Bates is one of our heroes, and one of the most impactful feminist activists at

work today. It’s hard to choose which of her ground-breaking books to celebrate

here, but Fix The System, Not The Women shines a forensic spotlight on the

misogyny that society was built and thrives upon.

It lays out the damaging, horribly effective ways in which this system protects and

normalises itself – both illicitly and blatantly – by prioritising a culture of victim-

blaming, demanding emotional labour of those most disenfranchised in order to raise

a challenge to it and demonising those who succeed in taking a stand. 

And it wouldn’t be a Laura Bates book if it didn’t expertly present tangible actions for 

how to dismantle this system, balancing her lived daily experience with the shocking

and powerful stories of people at the frontline. All this while delivering the clearest

message yet: that this is not our mess to clean up.

all about love by bell hooks

We have asked every single panellist at our events: ‘What is the feminist book that

made you?’. Over the past five years, this book is rightly one of a few titles that have

been chosen many times…

This is one of those books you wish you read sooner and are so grateful to spend

time with. It is the first of bell hooks’ works we read, but sat on our bookshelf for too

long due to a misplaced sense of feeling intimidated by her wisdom, and an incorrect

assumption that this was a polemic solely on romantic love. Accessible, warm, and

vibrating with soft power, each chapter explores different forms of love – and

demonstrates how interconnected each is, and should be, with our lives and wider

society. Crucially, it will make every reader even more compassionate for having

read it. It has been an important book for over twenty years, but is more vital now

than ever.

Do Something: Activism for Everyone by Kajal Odedra

Kajal is a phenomenal activist, and at the time of writing was CEO of Change.org,

which is how we first came across her. With this book, she sets out in practical and

empowering terms how to build activism into your life – from a local community issue

to campaigning for a change to the law. She generously shares her wisdom and

communications acumen, inferring her experience with a confident humility. Kajal 

has taken care that her writing is accessible to teenagers as well as adults, and her

style is that of your smartest friend sitting you down with a notebook and a cup of tea

and saying, ‘Ok, so here’s what you do…’

In the short time since its 2019 publication, the need for campaigning has

proliferated, and it can feel overwhelming to take up a mantle of any scale.  But with

candour and wit, Kajal’s step-by-step guide is a true toolkit for how to make change,

and the impact of doing so on your own sense of self and achievement.