Historical Context
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89 · Historical Context
Books
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Books · Nov 2025
Girls Play Dead: A Murder, a Memoir
Jen PercyA 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.
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Books · Mar 2024
Women Money Power: The Rise and Fall of Economic Equality
Josie CoxVeteran 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.
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Books · Feb 2024
All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us about Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today
Elizabeth ComenMemorial Sloan Kettering oncologist and medical historian Dr. Elizabeth Comen unveils the collective medical history of women, exploring how medicine has long misunderstood women's bodies and how these historical oversights continue to affect women's health today.
04
Books · Nov 2023
Normal Women
Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making HistoryPhilippa GregoryNew York Times bestselling historical novelist Philippa Gregory's magnum opus - a groundbreaking feminist nonfiction milestone that radically redefines the extraordinary role ordinary women played in British history. Did you know there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the 1381 Peasants' Revolt was a tax protest started by women? That Darwin believed women would evolve to become inferior? For the first time, placing women - 50% of the population - at center stage of 900 years of English history.
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Books · May 2023
Naked Feminism: Breaking the Cult of Female Modesty
Victoria BatemanA radical work by Cambridge economist Victoria Bateman, who has appeared naked on TV, stage, art and protests, using body and brain to deliver her message. Questions: Despite feminism's promises, why do women's bodies remain at mercy of state, society and religion? Are sexy and smart mutually exclusive? Traces bodily modesty pendulum from ancient Egypt to present, calling feminists to unite against female body repression.
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Books · Feb 2023
The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality
Angela SainiAward-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.
Films
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Films · Sep 2022
The Woman King
Gina Prince-BythewoodA historical action epic directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, starring Viola Davis. Set against the backdrop of the 19th-century West African Kingdom of Dahomey's all-female warrior regiment, the Agojie, following General Nanisca as she trains a new generation of female warriors to defend the kingdom. The film explores important themes of Black female power, African historical narrative, decolonialism, and women's military leadership.
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Films · Sep 2021
Happening
L'ÉvénementAudrey DiwanAdapted from Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux's autobiographical novel, following a 23-year-old French university student's desperate and dangerous journey seeking abortion in 1960s France when it was illegal. Directed by Audrey Diwan, this award-winning film deeply explores reproductive autonomy, body politics, class inequality, and women's predicament in patriarchal society, becoming a powerful testimony to contemporary women's rights struggles.
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Films · Feb 2020
Emma.
Autumn de WildeAn adaptation of Jane Austen's novel directed by Autumn de Wilde, starring Anya Taylor-Joy. The film follows wealthy young woman Emma Woodhouse in Regency-era England as she enthusiastically matchmakes for others, discovering her own true emotions in the process. The director reinterprets this classic literary work with exquisite visual aesthetics and a modern feminist perspective, deeply exploring important themes including female independence, class consciousness, marriage choices, and coming-of-age awakening.
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Films · May 2019
The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão
A Vida Invisível de Eurídice GusmãoKarim AïnouzA tropical melodrama about two sisters separated by patriarchal deception, revealing how women’s ambitions, labor, sexuality, and kinship are made invisible in mid-century Brazil.
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Films · Aug 2018
Roma
Alfonso CuarónWriter and director Alfonso Cuarón has described Roma as a love letter to all the women who raised him. It's a beautiful rumination on all the 'hoods' women go through: girlhood, womanhood, motherhood. A domestic drama about a maid and the middle-class family she cares for in Mexico City, the story is told in crisp black-and-white, but it doesn't take long to see that a woman's work never ventures far out of the gray area.
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Films · Aug 2018
The Favourite
Yorgos LanthimosSet in 18th-century British court, the power game between Queen Anne and two women - Sarah Churchill and Abigail Hill. This dark comedy explores complex themes of female power, gender politics, female friendship and competition through gorgeous visual style and sharp satire, challenging traditional gender role expectations.
Videos
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Videos · Dec 2018
A 101 on the Feminist Movement in India
Japleen PasrichaFeminism in India founder Japleen Pasricha offers an accessible movement history while arguing that contemporary feminism must confront caste, class, sexuality, religion, and digital power together.
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Videos · Nov 2014
She's Beautiful When She's Angry
Mary DoreThe first documentary film to comprehensively cover feminism's second wave, this groundbreaking 2014 work chronicles the women's liberation movement from 1966-1971. Through archival footage and contemporary interviews, the film brings to life the activists who fought for employment equality, reproductive rights, and sexual liberation, while honestly addressing the movement's struggles with race, class, and homophobia.
Articles
View allArticles · Feb 2026
Women, Power, and the New Governance Landscape in West and Central Africa
UN Women AfricaThis 2026 analysis moves beyond counting women in office to examine the colonial and institutional structures that continue to restrict political authority in West and Central Africa.
02Articles · Dec 2017
What Is African Feminism, Actually?
Minna SalamiMinna Salami maps African feminism as a dynamic intellectual and movement tradition, resisting both Western universalism and the claim that feminism is alien to African histories.
Papers
View allPapers · Dec 2006
Eroticism, Sensuality and ‘Women’s Secrets’ Among the Baganda
Sylvia TamaleSylvia Tamale examines Baganda women’s erotic knowledge as a contested archive shaped by female instruction, colonial morality, religion, commodification, and feminist struggles over pleasure.
02Papers · Apr 1993
Conceptualising Brahmanical Patriarchy in Early India: Gender, Caste, Class and State
Uma ChakravartiUma Chakravarti's classic essay develops the concept of Brahmanical patriarchy, showing how caste order is reproduced through control over women's sexuality, marriage, inheritance, and kinship. It is essential for understanding Indian gender history, caste violence, and anti-caste feminism.