Gender Politics - Books

A chilling investigation into the 1990 murder of Keri Sullivan, exploring the cultural obsession with violence against women, the failures of the justice system, and the psychological toll on survivors and investigators.

Veteran financial journalist Josie Cox's groundbreaking work telling the story of how women have fought for financial freedom and the social and political hurdles that have kept them from equality. From WWII 'Rosies' to the investor who broke into the New York Stock Exchange boys' club, this work chronicles centuries of women's relentless struggle for money and power, while revealing challenges women still face today.

Emmy Award-winning journalist Elizabeth Flock's groundbreaking investigative work exploring what few dare to confront: the role and necessity of female-led violence when institutional protections completely fail. Through three immersive narratives of real women who fought back, this book challenges us to rethink what justice, self-defense, and women's safety truly mean.

Culture writer Marcie Bianco boldly argues that 'equality' is a racist, patriarchal ideal that perpetuates women's systemic oppression and limits the possibilities of feminism—with a plan to transform the movement.

Award-winning science journalist Angela Saini's groundbreaking exploration challenging assumptions that male dominance is natural to the human species. Through archaeology, scientific research, and global cultural histories, this book reveals how patriarchy emerged around 7,000 years ago, spread through colonialism, and why understanding this history is crucial for achieving genuine gender equality.

British journalist Louise Perry's controversial work, critiquing the sexual revolution from a feminist perspective and advocating for a return to more traditional sexual ethics to protect women's interests.

Oxford philosopher Amia Srinivasan's groundbreaking work, featuring six sharp essays exploring the most controversial feminist issues of the 21st century: from sex work to incels, from the politics of desire to professor-student relationships.

Virginie Despentes' 'King Kong Theory' is a punk-rock manifesto of modern feminism. Part memoir, part critical theory, it is a raw, angry, and undeniably powerful examination of gender, sexuality, and violence. Despentes writes from the margins—as a former sex worker, a rape survivor, and a punk artist—challenging the sanitized, respectable versions of feminism to embrace the 'ugly', the 'unfuckable', and the dangerous.

This groundbreaking work fundamentally redefined feminist theory's understanding of gender by introducing the theory of gender performativity. Butler challenges the notion that gender is a biological fact or fixed identity, arguing that gender is produced through repetitive performative acts—a theoretical framework that radically transformed feminist theory, queer theory, and gender studies.

This groundbreaking work challenges male-centric theories of moral development, proposing an alternative model of moral reasoning based on care, relationships, and responsibility. By listening to women's voices, Gilligan discovered the 'ethics of care' as a different moral voice, fundamentally transforming psychology's, ethics', and feminist theory's understanding of moral development.