Today is International Women’s Day. And that’s not all that’s happening this week. Parents, carers, and educators around the world have also been pulling together creative (and not so creative) costumes for the school event of the year – World Book Day. (Disclaimer: I am in the not-creative camp. My child went to school in a store-bought unicorn onesie.)
Tying in with this week’s important themes of 1) celebrating books, creativity, and learning, and 2) recognising and honouring women and highlighting the gender inequalities that still exist, I wanted to share an excellent book, Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez, which kickstarted the idea for this blog.
Invisible Women uses data to demonstrate how this world is built by men for men, and highlights the unseen daily bias that impacts the professional and personal lives of women. From the use of dummies with male proportions to test car safety to the urban planning of cities being developed for men who don’t have to do the school run, this was an incredibly eye-opening read. I was amazed by how many things I had just accepted as ‘the way things were’, and it made me question these and start to push for better. It’s a great read to help you become more aware of how these invisible biases may show up in your own communities and workplaces, and to prompt discussions about how you can begin to level the playing field.
And it got me thinking, what other incredible books by women are out there that we should know about and that could change our ways of thinking and working?
So, in celebration of International Women’s Day and World Book Day, some of the Aspire team have shared their top book recommendations by women authors.