A report by New Philanthropy Capital warns that violence against women is costing British society £40bn a year, but charities which help victims are grossly underfunded. NPC's report concluded that the expense to public services, lost economic output and knock-on effects of violence against women in all its forms costs the country more than the annual defence budget. (Express, 23 Apr 2008, p33; Independent, 23 Apr 2008, p16) 

   Feminist Book Group

 

 

This women-only feminist book group is run by members of the London Feminist Network and pro-feminist women are welcome to join us. We meet from 7pm to about 9pm usually on the third Tuesday of the month in central London. For information about how to get involved, see our Join Us page or email lfnbookgroup @ yahoo.co.uk (remove spaces).

 

We aim to work out the list of books well in advance in order to give time to obtain and then read them. (Scroll down for ideas about how to get the books if you are having difficulty.) From time to time we discuss what books to add to the list and everyone is free to make suggestions.

 

 

Dates and books

  

21 September

Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour by Maria Mies

19 October

 

Black British Feminism: A Reader by Heidi Safia Mirza

16 November

The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality, 1880-1930 by Sheila Jeffreys

21 December

Self-made Man: My Year Disguised as a Man by Norah Vincent

18 January 2011

Beyond God the Father by Daly Mary

15 February 2011

From Homebreakers to Jailbreakers: Southall Black Sisters
by Helena Kennedy (Foreword) and Rahila Gupta (Editor)

15 March 2011

Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter

 

19 April 2011

Suffragettes: A Story of Three Women by Gertrude Colmore

17 May 2011

The Equality Illusion: The Truth About Women and Men Today by Kat Banyard

21 June 2011

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women by Naomi Wolf

19 July 2011

Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present by Lillian Faderman

16 August 2011

One Dimensional Woman by Nina Power

20 September 2011

What Do Women Want? by Luise Eichenbaum and Susie Orbach

18 October 2011

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

15 November 2012

Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions by Gloria Steinem

 

Getting hold of the books

 

If you are having difficulty obtaining the books, you may want to try ordering them online. The ethical solution is to use an independent bookseller like Housman's Online Bookshop or AbeBooks.

 

Another solution is to buy secondhand through Amazon. What I generally do is to go to http://www.amazon.co.uk/ and search for the book there. Once I've found it, I click the "Used" link. This lists independent book sellers who are selling the book second hand, often very cheaply, although there's postage and packing on top. Generally I choose sellers who are based in the UK and who say they can despatch within a couple of days.

 

Alternatively, you could try your local library, if necessary ordering it. Sometimes they will buy the book for you and after you  have finished with it, it will go back on the shelves to be enjoyed by other women. Ordering a book from the library sometimes takes some time, which is one of the reasons we work out the list of books well in advance.

 

Also highly recommended is The Owl Bookshop, 209 Kentish Town Road, London,  NW5 2JU (020 7485 7793). They are open 9.30-6pm Monday-Saturday and noon-4.30pm on Sundays. If they don't have the book in stock, they will try and get it secondhand for an admin charge of about £3, plus postage.

 

 

Books we've read

 

 

Small Expectations: Society's Betrayal of Older Women by Leah Cohen

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga 

Virgin: The Untouched History by Hanne Blank

Provoked by Kiranjit Ahluwalia and Rahila Gupta 

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

The Myth of Women's Masochism by Paula Caplan

Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West by Sheila Jeffrey

The Johns: Sex for Sale and the Men Who Buy It by  Victor Malarek

Ireland's Hidden Diaspora: The 'abortion Trail' and the Making of a London-Irish Underground, 1980-2000 by Ann Rossiter

Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy edited by Barbara Ehrenreich

The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth About Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood, and Marriage edited by Cathi Hanauer

Bodies by Susie Orbach

The Industrial Vagina by Sheila Jeffreys

Back off! How to Confront and Stop Sexual Harassment and Harassers by Martha J. Langelan

The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner

Women as Revolutionary Agents of Change by Shere Hite

Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing by Jill Radford and Diana E.H. Russell

Herland and the Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Women of Ideas And What Men Have Done to Them by Dale Spender

That Takes Ovaries! Bold Females and Their Brazen Acts by Rivka Solomon

Encounters with Strangers: Feminism and Disability by Jenny Morris

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde 

The Politics of Reality by Marilyn Frye

Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier

Right Wing Women: The Politics of Domesticated Females by Andrea Dworkin

Walk to the End of the World and Motherlines (The Holdfast Chronicles, Books 1 & 2 - also known as The Slave and The Free) by Suzy McKee Charnas

From Where We Stand: War, Women's Activism and Feminist Analysis by Cynthia Cockburn

Not for Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography edited by C. Stark and Rebecca Whisnant

The Idea of Prostitution by Sheila Jeffreys

Femininity by Susan Brownmiller

The SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas

The Female Man by Joanna Russ

Intercourse by Andrea Dworkin

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Creation of Feminist Consciousness from the Middle Ages to Eighteen-Seventy by Gerda Lerner

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi

My Mother My Self by Nancy Friday

Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women by Susan Faludi

Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy

The Women's Room by Marilyn French

Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues by Catharine A MacKinnon

 

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