Tag Archives: women

Novelist Finds That #Books About #Women Don’t Win Major #Awards | Jezebel #sexism #genderequality

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We already knew that publishing is hard for women. VIDA’s annual count is a persistent reminder that, while the gender gap in publishing has begun to close, it’s still far from approaching equality.

But novelist Nicola Griffith had a feeling that it just wasn’t women writers that were underrepresented; books about women were absent as well. “I’ve been counting, subconsciously then consciously, for 20 years when I was first published and started to see how skewed the playing field was,” Griffith told Fusion. So Griffith gathered the data, and published it on her blog last week.

She found that regardless of the gender of the author, major awards overwhelming favored books about men and boys. READ MORE: Novelist Finds That Books About Women Don’t Win Major Awards | Jezebel

HuffPo: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on Young #Women and Likability + Roxane Gay: ‘We Demand Perfection Of #Feminists. We Do Not Need To Do That.’ #feminism

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Thinks It’s Bullsh*t That Young Women Have To Be ‘Likable’ | Huffington Post
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is here to remind young women that whoever likes you or doesn’t like you should have no effect on your self worth. On May 19, the Nigerian author was honored at the 2015 Girls Write Now Awards, where she gave a riveting speech directed at young women — reminding them that their stories and their voices matter. “I think it’s important to tell your story truthfully and I think that’s a difficult thing to do — to be truly truthful,” Adichie told the crowd in New York City.

She said that it’s hard for women to be truthful when telling their stories because we’re conditioned to be concerned about offending people. Adichie told the young women in the crowd to forget about being liked. “If you start off thinking about being likable you’re not going to tell your story honestly because you’re going to be so concerned with not offending and that’s going to ruin your story. Forget about likability,” she said.

Roxane Gay: ‘We Demand Perfection Of Feminists. We Do Not Need To Do That.’ | Huffington Post
Roxane Gay has become known as a ‘bad feminist.’ The label comes from her August 2014 book’s title, a collection of essays which challenged how we define and interact with feminism. In it, Gay discusses why she doesn’t live up to the label, all the ways she’s a contradiction and how feminism, in many ways, is broken.

She took the stage Thursday at TED Women in Monterey, Calif. to break down how identifying as a “bad feminist” — originally an inside joke she had with herself — became a thing. In her 11-minute talk, she was funny, self-deprecating and painfully honest. That raw honesty awarded her a standing ovation.

However, it was her moving story of how feminism saved her that brought the auditorium to a hush.

Note: The video of Roxane Gay’s TEDWomen 2015 speech is not yet available.

Genre Books by Women Authors | Flavorwire #books #women

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Eclectic list with some great recommendations!

Potboilers, fantasy lands, murders, noir triumphs, supernatural creatures, and the twisted, thrilling, and dark imaginations that devise them are hardly a male-only literary province. Since Mary Shelley imagined Frankenstein on a night in Switzerland, women have been creating genre fiction alongside men, playing with vampires, dragons, detectives, unreliable narrators, and denizens of outer space. So pack some of these classic genre novels by women in your canvas tote and enjoy reading them this summer at the beach, the pool, or just snuggled up to your air conditioning unit. READ MORE: Genre Books by Women Authors | Flavorwire.

It’s Not Women Who are the Problem in Tech Land | CNET #tech #sexism #genderequality

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We are hearing more and more about gender equality issues in the tech industry. I liked this particular article from CNET, as studies are referenced which provide evidence that the more diverse teams are, the more innovative and financially successful the company will be. Overt and subtle biases of sexism toward women and girls are also discussed.   

Silicon Valley’s male-dominated culture could cost the technology industry the thing it values most: innovation. READ MORE: It’s not women who are the problem in tech land | CNET.

You may also like: Women in tech don’t get the same respect as men, survey says | CNET

Must Read: New ‘Walk-In Comic Book’ Uses Augmented Reality to Show Sexual Assault Survivors as Heroes | Mashable #genderequality #comics #augmentedreality

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Watch the video!!

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When a young woman in New Delhi, India, was brutally gang-raped on a bus in December 2012, making international headlines, Ram Devineni wasn’t going to stay silent. The filmmaker and artist marched in the streets alongside other protesters, calling for swift justice and systemic change to the all-too-common violence against women that plagues the country.

When he asked a Delhi police officer what he thought about the young woman’s assault, the officer told him, “No good girl walks home alone at night,” implying that she either provoked the rape or, worse, deserved it. His words reflected the misguided, patriarchal view that permeates much of Indian society, silencing women even further with social stigma.

“I realized at that moment that this was not a legal issue, but a cultural problem,” Devineni tells Mashable. “As a filmmaker and as an artist, I wanted to really address this in a cultural context.”

That’s why, two years later, he created and directed the transmedia comic book Priya’s Shakti — a story about the titular Priya, a gang-rape survivor-turned-superhero who partners with a Hindu goddess to fight sexual violence and challenge the patriarchy.

Co-written by Vikas K. Menon with artwork by Dan Goldman, the comic book is the first of its kind to use augmented reality and image recognition, using various media to tell the story of fighting back against sexual assault.

READ MORE: New ‘walk-in comic book’ uses augmented reality to show sexual assault survivors as heroes | Mashable

21 Books From The Last 5 Years That Every Woman Should Read | HuffPo #books #women

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The one struggle of being a woman who reads is that you want to read everything. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by bestseller lists , because there just isn’t enough time in the day to read every hot new book. Between near-constant recommendations of amazing memoirs, new sequels and a terrifyingly long list of bookmarked Internet longreads, it can be stressful to choose what you should pick up next. Knowing which classics you’re missing from your reading repertoire is easy — it’s a little harder to remember what you’ve missed from three years ago.

We’ve done a little bit of the hard work for you (or maybe just increased your book stress… sorry) by pulling together a list of incredible titles from the past few years that you should add to the pile on your bedside table. These books by women are just a few of the incredible titles published recently — an exhaustive list would be hundreds of books longer. Those listed here are some of the most-discussed, thought-provoking and life-changing books from a diverse group of women writers. They make you rethink what being a feminist means, offer life advice to women of all ages, and reinforce your long-held belief that Tina and Amy should be your best friends and life coaches forever. The novels are some of the finest writing from woman authors. From lighthearted memoirs to harrowing thrillers, there’s a genre here for everyone.

Here are 21 books published in the past 5 years that all women should read. READ MORE: 21 Books From The Last 5 Years That Every Woman Should Read | Huffington Post

An Ambitious List of 1400 Films Made by Female Filmmakers | Open Culture

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It’s a truism to say that Hollywood is a boy’s club but Dr. Stacy L. Smith of the University of Southern California put this saying into stark, empirical terms: a mere 4.4% of the top 100 box-office releases in the USA were directed by women. That’s it. It’s a percentage that should be used to describe the amount of cream in whole milk, not half the human race.

The truth is that the film industry in general, not just Hollywood, is dominated by men. In books on cinema and classes on film history, female directors frequently get overlooked.

Over at MUBI, someone aptly named Ally the Listmaker has taken great pains to counter that. She has compiled an exhaustive collection of movies by women. Ally’s list contains over 1400 movie titles, mostly films made within the past 20 years.

READ MORE: An Ambitious List of 1400 Films Made by Female Filmmakers | Open Culture.

Female Scientists Told to Get a Man to Help Them With Their Paper | Jezebel

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This just in from the land of great sexism: two female scientists had a manuscript rejected by a peer-reviewed journal because they didn’t ask a man for help. An unnamed peer reviewer for the journal PLoS One suggested that Drs. Fiona Ingleby and Megan Head find male co-authors—any men at all—for a paper they’d written, in order to make sure they weren’t leaping to “ideologically biased assumptions.” READ MORE: Female Scientists Told to Get a Man to Help Them With Their Paper | Jezebel

Debugging The Gender Gap: This Movie With A Mission Seeks To Inspire Women In Tech | Fast Company #gender #women

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CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap Theatrical Trailer from Finish Line Features, LLC on Vimeo.

[P]erhaps it’s no surprise that just 0.5% of the college degrees awarded each year in the United States go to women majoring in computer science. After they graduate and enter the workforce, women’s representation in technology declines even further.

That dismal state of affairs was news to documentary film director Robin Hauser Reynolds. She started her career in finance, a firsthand witness to harassment and grabby hands on the floor of the London stock exchange. Reynolds knew little about the gender imbalances in Silicon Valley. But as she began to interview women technologists, starting in February of last year, their stories resonated with her. The result is captured in her new film, CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap.

READ MORE: Debugging The Gender Gap: This Movie With A Mission Seeks To Inspire Women In Tech | Fast Company | Business + Innovation.

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  • The Representation Project: The Representation Project inspires individuals and communities to challenge and overcome limiting stereotypes so that everyone, regardless of gender, race, class, age, sexual orientation or circumstance can fulfill their human potential. About the Miss Representation film.

Hey, Book World: Sexism is Way Bigger Than the Hugos | WIRED @WIRED @VIDA_lit #sexism #women #writers

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Interesting comment on sexism in the literary world specific to representation of women in the literary arts.

I am a novelist. I also have a Master’s degree from MIT. So numbers appeal to me, especially numbers that provide clear data on thorny issues, like, oh, sexism and racism in literature. READ MORE: Hey, Book World: Sexism is Way Bigger Than the Hugos | WIRED.

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