Feminism

„Soweit ich mich erinnern kann, war ich im Bunker.“ Eine junge Frau wird gemeinsam mit neununddreißig anderen Frauen unter der Erde in einem Käfig festgehalten, bewacht von bewaffneten Männern, die nie sprechen; an ihre Verbrechen erinnert sie sich nicht … falls es überhaupt Verbrechen gab. Als Jüngste von vierzig – ein Kind ohne Namen und ohne Vergangenheit – überlebt sie zu einem längst vergessenen Zweck in einer verwüsteten und ausgezehrten Welt. In dieser Realität, in der Nähe verboten ist – in der unerbittlichen Gleichförmigkeit künstlicher Tage und Nächte –, weiß sie nichts von Büchern und Zeit, von Bedürfnissen und Gefühlen. Dann verändert sich alles … und nichts verändert sich. Eine junge Frau, die Männer nie gekannt hat – ein Kind, das keine Geschichte vor den Gittern und Fesseln kennt – muss sich nun Stück für Stück neu erfinden, an einem Ort, an dem sie nie gewesen ist … und angesichts des herausforderndsten und erschreckendsten aller Unbekannten: der Freiheit.

From one of our most important scholars and civil rights activist icon, a powerful study of the women’s liberation movement and the tangled knot of oppression facing Black women. "Angela Davis is herself a woman of undeniable courage. She should be heard." —The New York Times Angela Davis provides a powerful history of the social and political influence of whiteness and elitism in feminism, from abolitionist days to the present, and demonstrates how the racist and classist biases of its leaders inevitably hampered any collective ambitions. While Black women were aided by some activists like Sarah and Angelina Grimke and the suffrage cause found unwavering support in Frederick Douglass, many women played on the fears of white supremacists for political gain rather than take an intersectional approach to liberation. Here, Davis not only contextualizes the legacy and pitfalls of civil and women's rights activists, but also discusses Communist women, the murder of Emmitt Till, and Margaret Sanger's racism. Davis shows readers how the inequalities between Black and white women influence the contemporary issues of rape, reproductive freedom, housework and child care in this bold and indispensable work.

What does “feminism” mean today? That is the question at the heart of We Should All Be Feminists, a personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from her much-viewed TEDx talk of the same name—by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun. With humor and levity, here Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century—one rooted in inclusion and awareness. She shines a light not only on blatant discrimination, but also the more insidious, institutional behaviors that marginalize women around the world, in order to help readers of all walks of life better understand the often masked realities of sexual politics. Throughout, she draws extensively on her own experiences—in the U.S., in her native Nigeria, and abroad—offering an artfully nuanced explanation of why the gender divide is harmful for women and men, alike. Argued in the same observant, witty and clever prose that has made Adichie a bestselling novelist, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman today—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.

A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on the 24th of October, 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928. While this extended essay in fact employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers and characters in fiction, the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures, titled Women and Fiction, and hence the essay, are considered nonfiction. The essay is seen as a feminist text, and is noted in its argument for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy.