Women & Power: A Manifesto - Mary Beard

Written by Mary Beard
Read by Mary Beard
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Release date: May 21, 2019
Duration: 01:35:38

From the internationally acclaimed classicist and New York Times best-selling author comes this timely manifesto on women and power.

At long last, Mary Beard addresses in one brave book the misogynists and trolls who mercilessly attack and demean women the world over, including, very often, Mary herself.

In Women & Power, she traces the origins of this misogyny to its ancient roots, examining the pitfalls of gender and the ways that history has mistreated strong women since time immemorial. As far back as Homer’s Odyssey, Beard shows, women have been prohibited from leadership roles in civic life, public speech being defined as inherently male. From Medusa to Philomela (whose tongue was cut out), from Hillary Clinton to Elizabeth Warren (who was told to sit down),

Beard draws illuminating parallels between our cultural assumptions about women’s relationship to power—and how powerful women provide a necessary example for all women who must resist being vacuumed into a male template. With personal reflections on her own online experiences with sexism, Beard asks: If women aren’t perceived to be within the structure of power, isn’t it power itself we need to redefine? And how many more centuries should we be expected to wait?

The author–who also narrates this audiobook–is a highly respected professor of classics at Cambridge University. With insight and humor, she makes a case for redefining how women should be perceived–and perceive themselves–if they are to coexist with those of other genders on equal terms. She argues that as women have the opportunity to assume more power, their models of behavior shouldn’t be based on male templates. One example she discusses is attitudes towards women’s voices, which are often considered by men–and women–to be inappropriate for public speaking. So women, whether Hillary Clinton or the late UK prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, are urged to take lessons to modify them. Whether schooled or not, the author has a deep, sonorous voice and a wonderful English accent…… � AudioFile 2019,