Books
This section lists books that are directly relevant to Gender Identity politics and the feminist Gender Critical viewpoint. Other sections below feature books on the wider Feminist movement.
Most books can be ordered online at News from Nowhere Radical and Community Bookshop, which is run by a women’s cooperative. When available we have linked to NFN and otherwise to bookshop.org. Other booksellers are available.
Trans: Gender Identity and the New Battle for Women’s Rights by Helen Joyce
Biological sex is no longer accepted as a basic fact of life. It is forbidden to admit that female people sometimes need protection and privacy from male ones. In an analysis that is at once expert, sympathetic and urgent, Helen Joyce offers an antidote to the chaos and cancelling
Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism by Kathleen Stock
A timely and trenchant critique of the influential theory that we all have an inner feeling known as a gender identity, and that this feeling is more socially significant than our biological sex. Looks at biological sex in a range of important contexts, including women-only spaces and resources, healthcare, epidemiology, political organization and data collection
Feminism for Women: The Real Route to Liberation by Julie Bindel
Why is feminism the only social justice movement in the world that is expected to prioritise every other issue before pursuing its own objective of women’s liberation? Why does the movement appear to be moving backwards, accommodating the rights and feelings of men and leaving women in the cold
Transgender Body Politics by Heather Brunskell-Evans
At a time when supposedly enlightened attitudes are championed by the mainstream, philosopher and activist Heather Brunskell-Evans shows how, in plain view under the guise of liberalism, a regressive men’s rights movement is posing a massive threat to the human rights of women and children everywhere
Unfair Play: The Battle for Women’s Sports by Sharron Davies & Craig Lord
Biological males are being allowed to compete directly against women under the guise of trans ‘self-ID’, a development that could destroy the integrity of female sport. This callous indifference towards women in sport, argue the authors, is merely the latest stage in a decades-long history of sexism on the part of sport’s higher-ups
Gender-Critical Feminism by Holly Lawford-Smith
Introduces and defends gender-critical feminism, a theory and movement that reclaims the sex/gender distinction, insists upon the reality and importance of sex, and continues to understand gender as a way that men and women are made to be, rather than a way they really are
Transpositions: Personal Journeys into Gender Criticism ed by Sarah Phillimore & Al Peters
A collection of narratives from women and men about how they first became aware of the brewing conflict around ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ and how they decided to make their voices heard.
A Feminist View of Gender Identity Politics by Rosemary Goude
Gender is what feminism has critiqued for decades, so the recent concept of gender identity as something to be chosen and celebrated is a strange one for feminists. Available by emailing: nfn@newsfromnowhere.org.uk or on Ebay
Defending Women’s Spaces by Karen Ingala Smith
This trenchant critique argues that we cannot ignore the wealth of evidence which shows that people of the female sex have a unique set of needs which are often not met by mixed-sex spaces. Drawing on her 30 years of experience the author outlines how certain spaces, including refuges, benefit from remaining single sex – and what they stand to lose.
Detransition: Beyond Before and After by Max Robinson
“Trying to prevent myself from committing suicide by becoming less recognizably female was an attempt at resistance that, politically, functioned in many ways as a form of capitulation.” A far-reaching discussion of women’s struggles to survive under patriarchy, which draws upon a legacy of radical and lesbian feminist ideas.
Hags: the Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women by Victoria Smith
As identity politics have taken hold, middle-aged women have found themselves talked and written about as morally inferior beings: the face of bigotry, entitlement and selfishness, to be ignored, pitied or abused. Care work, beauty, violence, political organization and sex are explored in relation to middle-aged women’s beliefs, bodies, histories and choices.Most books can be ordered online at News from Nowhere Radical and Community Bookshop, which is run by a women’s cooperative. When available we have linked to NFN and otherwise to bookshop.org. Other booksellers are available.
Identity Politics
The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World by Andrew Doyle
Leading a cultural revolution driven by identity politics and so-called ‘social justice’, the new puritanism movement is best understood as a religion – one that makes grand claims to moral purity and tolerates no dissent. Its disciples even have their own language, rituals and a determination to root out sinners through what has become known as ‘cancel culture’
The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity by Douglas Murray
One of the few writers who dares to counter the prevailing view and question the dramatic changes in our society – from gender reassignment for children to the impact of transgender rights on women – Murray’s penetrating book clears a path of sanity through the fog of our modern predicament
The End of the World is Flat by Simon Edge
Can Mel and her fellow heretics – vilified as ‘True-Earth Rejecting Globularists’ (Tergs) – thwart Orange Peel before insanity takes over? Might the solution to the problem lie in the 15th century? Using his trademark mix of history and satire to poke fun at modern foibles, Simon Edge is at his razor-sharp best in a caper that may be more relevant than you think
Feminism
End of Equality by Beatrix Campbell
Among liberal thinkers, there is an optimistic belief that men and women are on a cultural journey toward equality. But observation and evidence tell us that in many ways this progress has stopped – and in some cases even reversed. Beatrix Campbell, argues that even as the patriarchy has lost some of its legitimacy, new inequalities are emerging in our culture.
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
From government policy and medical research, to technology, workplaces, and the media. Invisible Women reveals how in a world built for and by men we are systematically ignoring half of the population, often with disastrous consequences
Do It Like a Woman … and Change the World by Caroline Criado-Perez
Doing anything ‘like a woman’ used to be an insult. Now, as the women in this book show, it means being brave, speaking out, and taking risks, changing the world one step at a time
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman now – an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists
The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer
Drawing liberally from history, literature and popular culture, past and present, Germaine Greer’s searing examination of women’s oppression is at once an important social commentary and a passionately argued masterpiece of polemic.
Sexual Politics by Kate Millett
Identifying patriarchy as a socially conditioned belief system masquerading as nature, Millett demonstrates in detail how its attitudes and systems penetrate literature, philosophy, psychology, and politics. A new introduction to this edition draws attention to some of the forms patriarchy has taken recently in consolidating its oppressive and dangerous control.
Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates
‘From being harassed and wolf-whistled at on the street, to discrimination in the workplace and serious sexual assault, it is clear that sexism had become normalised. But Bates inspires women to lead a real change and writes this ‘extremely powerful book that could, and should, win hearts and minds right across the spectrum’ (Financial Times)
Fix the System, Not the Women by Laura Bates
Too often, we blame women. For walking home alone at night. For not demanding a seat at the table. For not overcoming the odds that are stacked against them. This distracts us from the real problem: the failings and biases of a society that was not built for women
Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism by Mary Daly
Mary Daly’s Intergalactic Introduction explores her process as a Crafty Pirate on the Journey of Writing Gyn/Ecology and reveals the autobiographical context of this “Thunderbolt of Rage” that she first hurled against the patriarchs in 1979 and hurled again in the Re-Surging Movement of Radical Feminism in the Be-Dazzling Nineties.
Not Dead Yet: Feminism, Passion and Women’s Liberation ed by Renate Klein & Susan Hawthorne [9781925950328]
Fifty-six women who participated in the Women’s Liberation Movement from the 1960s onwards describe how they have contributed in multitudinous ways across politics, the arts, health, education, environmentalism, economics and science and created wonderfully rebellious activism.
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
This book exposed the hazards of the pesticide DDT, eloquently questioned humanity’s faith in technological progress and helped set the stage for the environmental movement. Carson, a renowned nature author and a former marine biologist was uniquely equipped to create so startling and inflammatory a book.
Eco-Feminism & Environmentalism
Climate Justice: A Man-Made Problem With a Feminist Solution by Mary Robinson
Powerful and deeply humane, Climate Justice is a stirring manifesto on one of the most pressing humanitarian issues of our time, and a lucid, affirmative, and well-argued case for hope
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
This book exposed the hazards of the pesticide DDT, eloquently questioned humanity’s faith in technological progress and helped set the stage for the environmental movement. Carson, a renowned nature author and a former marine biologist was uniquely equipped to create so startling and inflammatory a book
Unbowed: My Autobiography by Wangari Maathai
in 1977, tMaathai established the Green Belt Movement, which spread from Kenya across Africa, and which helps restore indigenous forests while assisting rural women by paying them to plant trees in their villages. Eventually her achievement was internationally recognized in the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in recognition of her ‘contribution to sustainable development, human rights, and peace’.
Pornography, Prostitution, Sexual Exploitation, VAWG
Deep Deception: The story of the spycop network, by the women who uncovered the shocking truth by Alison, Belinda, Helen Steel, Lisa, Naomi
Groomed. Gaslighted. Ghosted. They thought they’d found their soulmate. They had no idea he was spying on them. This is the story of five women whose lives were stolen by state-sponsored spies, and who, one by one, uncovered the shocking truth.
Pornography: Men Possessing Women by Andrea Dworkin.
This strongly argued feminist case against pornography stirred tremendous controversy when published in 1979, and has lost none of its bite. Dworkin lobbies for municipal statutes declaring pornography a violation of women’s civil rights, insists that pornography links sex and violence by incorporating violent domination of women as a key element of sexual fantasy
Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating: The Case for Resistance by Caitlin Roper
Exposes the inherent misogyny in the trade. From doll owners enacting violence and torture on their dolls, men choosing their dolls over their wives, dolls made in the likeness of specific women and the production of child sex abuse dolls, sex dolls and robots pose a serious threat to the status of women and girls.
Cut: FGM in Britain Today by Hibo Wardere
FGM in the UK has gone undocumented for too long and now that’s going to change. Devastating, empowering and informative, this book brings to life a clash of cultures at the heart of contemporary society and shows how female genital mutilation is a very British problem
Pimp State: Sex, Money and the Future of Equality by Kat Banyard
Prostitution is just work, porn is fantasy, demand is inevitable; so fully legalise the sex trade and it can be made safe. Kat Banyard contends that these are profoundly dangerous myths. Sexual consent is not a commodity, objectification and abuse are inherent to prostitution, and the sex trade poses a grave threat to the struggle for women’s equality..
Men Who Hate Women: From incels to pickup artists, the truth about extreme misogyny and how it affects us all by Laura Bates
Imagine a world in which a vast network of incels and other misogynists are able to operate, virtually undetected. These extremists commit deliberate terrorist acts against women. Vulnerable teenage boys are groomed and radicalised. You don’t have to imagine that world. You already live in it
“He Chose Porn over Me”: Women Harmed by Men Who Use Porn by Melinda Tankard Reist
Shattering the popular myth that porn is harmless, the personal accounts of 25 brave women in He Chose Porn over Me reveal the real-life trauma experienced by women at the hands of their porn-consuming partners; men who were supposed to care for them.
Children & Young People
Irreversible Damage: Teenage Girls and the Transgender Craze by Abigail Shrier
Groups of female friends in schools across the world are coming out as ‘transgender’. Most have never expressed any discomfort in their biological sex until they hear a coming out story from a speaker at a school assembly or discover the internet community of trans influencers. ‘Gender-affirming’ therapists now recommend medical interventions for them.
Time to Think: the Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children by Hannah Barnes
In the last decade more than a thousand children have been referred for medication to block their puberty. At the same time the profile of the patients has changed from largely pre-pubescent boys to mostly adolescent girls. In the words of some former staff, there has been a serious medical scandal, in which ideological concerns took priority over clinical practice.
My Body is Me! by Rachel Rooney & Jessica Ahlberg
Beautiful rhyming children’s book celebrating that our bodies are just perfect as they are.