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Celebrating International Women鈥檚 Day 2023

8 March 2023

The Library Liberating the Collections Group have compiled a book list of your suggestions to celebrate International Women鈥檚 Day (8 March) and Women鈥檚 History Month (March).

A student reads a book in front of bookshelves in the Donaldson Reading Room

This year's theme for International Women鈥檚 Day is , recognising that equal opportunities aren't enough, and that equal isn't always fair.

  • Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities.聽
  • Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances, and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.聽

Alongside this theme, we also welcomed recommendations for books written by, for and about women, celebrating their achievements, and challenging inequities and inequalities in the UK and around the world.

Your recommended titles

Nominated twice

鈥淭his is a highly necessary book that exposes how the world is designed around men and men's bodies, often at a high cost to women - it explores issues such as urban design, how the fact women have different heart attack symptoms to men is not factored into health care, how the design of cars and PPE disadvantages women and many more.鈥

Jennifer Milligan

鈥淭he fact that women are missing from a lot of academic and scientific datasets that a lot of modern science and medicine are built upon is a fact that is not widely recognised, and is frankly terrifying.鈥

A Thousand Miles up the Nile by Amelia Edwards

Nominated twice

鈥淭he original version of this book was written by one of most important women associated with 果冻影院 in the late 19th century, author-journalist-feminist Amelia B. Edwards. This new reprint (with an聽introduction by Anna Garnett, Curator of the Petrie Museum, and Carl Graves, Director of the Egypt Exploration Society) celebrates Amelia's pioneering work, while also setting it in the context of increasing British political involvement and tensions in late 19th century Egypt鈥.

鈥淓gyptian antiquities and a financial sum to 果冻影院 resulted in the creation of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian & Sudanese Archaeology. Following a tour of Egypt in the winter of 1873-74 she became aware of increasing threats to Egypt's ancient monuments from tourism and modern development. She set out to hinder these through public awareness and scientific endeavour, becoming an advocate for research and preservation of them. As a result in 1882, she co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society) with Reginald Stuart Poole. Her book 'A Thousand Miles up the Nile' (1877) recounts her description of her Nile voyage鈥.

鈥淐himamanda Ngozi Adichie is always a powerful advocate for women and girls, especially her fellow African women and girls. She puts her feminism in the context of Nigerian Society鈥.

Jennifer Milligan

鈥淚 really enjoyed this accessible history of medieval women. It is interesting to see how their stories have been forgotten, misrepresented or appropriated in the intervening centuries. Janina Ramirez shows us that medieval women were active in all areas of society and far more diverse than previously presented鈥.

Sarah Burn

鈥淭his beautifully illustrated book celebrates 鈥榮trong, brave women across the centuries and around the world鈥. A good introduction to world history, especially but not just for kids鈥.

鈥淭he authors interviewed over a hundred successful women to discover what it takes for a woman to get to the top鈥.

鈥淚t鈥檚 absolutely vital that universities like 果冻影院 become more equitable organisations. This book argues that for women to enter into leadership positions, then sexism in all its forms must be acknowledged, attended to, and actively addressed鈥.

鈥淎n inspiring call for a reconstruction of a more inclusive feminism that centres women of colour. Urgent reading for all feminists.鈥

鈥淒id you know women filled 47% of all US jobs in 2015, but held only 24% of STEM jobs. This is an evidence-based, action-oriented response to the persistent, everyday inequity of academic workplaces which are sadly still the norm鈥.

鈥淎 classic. Lorde鈥檚 first and only novel. A stunning combination of myth, history, and biography detailing her childhood in New York City, and navigating life as a black lesbian in 1950s America鈥.

鈥淭he story of a young woman torn between the desire for education and the lure of illicit love鈥.

鈥淎 panoramic novel centring on a headstrong headmistress who has moved back to a semi-fictionalised town in South Yorkshire in the 1930s. It was published shortlu after Holtby鈥檚 untimely death. Holtby was closed friends with Vera Brittain and two lived together for a while in Doughty Street.鈥

鈥淧ublished in Arabic in 1977, this novel is based on Saadawi鈥檚 meeting with a female prisoner in Qanatir Prison. An unforgettable and unputdownable book鈥.

Love and Justice by Laetitia Ky

鈥淟aetitia Ky is an amazing artist from the Ivory Coast who creates hair sculptures that address African Identity and issues women and girls face around the world especially Africa.鈥

Jennifer Milligan

Hags by Victoria Smith

鈥淭here have always been significant issues with the way older women and both treated within society and portrayed. Older women have become particular targets for misogynistic abuse and silencing in the last few years and this book addresses this.鈥

Additional thanks to Helen Biggs and Beverley Hinton for sharing their book lists.

Feedback

Have you read them all? What are we missing? Join us on or and share your own recommendations.

We will buy any titles that we don't already own from the list above and will make these available shortly.

果冻影院 Library Liberating the Collections Group

Photo of Steps to Progress exhibit in 果冻影院 Main Library

This activity was organised through the Library Liberating the Collections Group. The purpose of this group is to identify and oversee progress with a strategic set of actions intended to enrich the collections, increasing visibility of, and access to, works by authors who have been marginalised (and thus less heard) because of factors such as race, sexuality, gender and disability.

Celebrating International Women鈥檚 Day at 果冻影院聽

Find out more about the different events taking place this year at 果冻影院 to celebrate International Women鈥檚 Day.