NCW Libraries

"A bold, essential account of how a fear of gender is fueling reactionary politics around the world"--

"In this stunning debut novel, Esi, a feisty Nigerian-Ghanaian girl growing up amid political upheaval in postcolonial Ghana, begins to question the hypocrisy of the patriarchal society that surrounds her, and the restrictions and unrealistic expectations placed on women"-- Late 1960s, Ghana. Young Esi Agyekum is as tight-lipped about her father's adultery as she is about her half-sisters' sex lives. After she is humiliated and punished for her own...

Anne Bronte's first novel, Agnes Grey, combines an astute dissection of middle-class social behavior and class attitudes with a wonderful study of Victorian responses to young children which has parallels with debates about education that continue to this day. In writing the novel, Bronte drew on her own experiences, and one can trace in the work many of the trials of the Victorian governess, often stranded far from home, and treated with little respect...

"The pathology of patriarchy, the idea that one group of people should control another--even own them, own even life itself--is at the core of today's crises. The End of Patriarchy asks one key question: What do we need to create and maintain stable, decent human communities that can remain in a sustainable relationship with the larger living world? Robert Jensen's answer is feminism and a critique of patriarchy. He calls for a radical feminist challenge...

"In her comic, scathing essay "Men Explain Things to Me," Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don't, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters. She ends on a serious note-- because the ultimate problem is the silencing of women who have something...

"In this project I propose at least two new lectionaries, a year "W," a women's readings year that can be added to the current Episcopal or Revised Common (RCL) Lectionaries, and a new three-year cycle. How would a lectionary centering women's stories, chosen with womanist and feminist commitments in mind frame the presentation of the scriptures for proclamation and teaching? More simply, what would it look like if women built a lectionary focusing...

"A brilliantly funny and razor-tongued debut which follows a writer lured to Los Angeles to adapt her feminist mermaid novel into a big-budget action film, who believes her heroine has come to life to take revenge for Hollywood's violations. Penelope Schleeman, a consistently broke Connecticut high school teacher, is as surprised as anyone when her sensitive debut novel, "American Mermaid"--the story of a wheelchair-bound scientist named Sylvia who...

"The picture of classical antiquity most of us learned in school is framed in certain ways -- glossing over misogyny while omitting the seeds of feminist resistance. Many of today's harmful practices, like school dress codes, exploitation of the environment, and rape culture, have their roots in the ancient world. But in Antigone Rising, classicist Helen Morales reminds us that the myths have subversive power because they are told -- and read -- in...

Eight Cousins (1875) is a novel by American author, feminist, and abolitionist Louisa May Alcott. Based on her experience of being raised by a father dedicated to education reform, and grounded in her radical beliefs on the role of women in society, Eight Cousins is a masterpiece of children's literature that explores themes of family, death, and perseverance. Rose Campbell is a young girl when her parents pass away. Orphaned, she is taken to the...