For the Love of Women: Uprooting and Healing Misogyny in America

by Dorothy Littell Greco

Misogyny is not a thing of the past. Despite undeniable progress for women and girls in the 20th and 21st centuries, misogyny persists in our culture--often in ways that are more subtle and more insidious than the outright sexism of the past, and in spaces that we overlook or excuse as normative. If we hope to disrupt and eventually heal from misogyny, we must first be able to identify and understand it.

Misogyny has shape-shifted through the generations while maintaining a consistent through-line. It blinds individuals and cultures from seeing women as equal image-bearers, fosters hierarchies rather than partnerships, disdains vulnerability, and prevents all of us from fully thriving. For the Love of Women relies on in-depth research, interviews, biblical concepts, and personal stories to explore how misogyny continues to impact six spheres of contemporary healthcare, legal and judicial, the workplace, media and entertainment, religious institutions, and intimate relationships.

While the #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements succeeded in raising consciousness and initiating important changes connected to misogynistic practices, we still have much work to do. Misogyny is not confined to the director's couch in Hollywood or certain old-boy networks. It's everywhere. And misogyny is neither morally neutral nor random. It's pernicious and calculated.

Like other deeply rooted, systemic injustices, we may never be able to eradicate misogyny this side of heaven. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try. For the Love of Women will educate, inspire, and empower women and men to affect real change for everyone's benefit.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christian, Gender, Womens, Religion

256 pages, Paperback

Published October 28, 2025

About the author

Dorothy Greco spends her days making photographs, exploring the connection between faith and contemporary culture, and whenever possible, being on or in the water. Her first book, Making Marriage Beautiful, was released in 2017. Marriage in the Middle was released by IVP in 2020. For the Love of Women: Uprooting and Healing Misogyny in America releases in the fall of 2025. Her writing has been published in Missio Alliance, Christianity Today, Relevant, MOPs, and more. You can find her words and images over at dorothygreco.com or sign up to receive her Substack posts: What's Faith Got to Do with It?

Reviews

[Dorothy Greco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my life work. As I wrote in chapter one, I've been gathering research on this topic my entire life. For the Love of Women explores how misogyny affects 6 sectors of American life, including healthcare, the government, and the church. Please check it out. You can get more information on the book at my website, Dorothy Greco .com.

[Jeff Bjorck · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advance copy of this book. In For the Love of Women, Dorothy Littell Greco brings her signature style to a critically important and tragically timely topic. I view this new book as required reading for our times, wherein the many significant signs of women’s progress can readily mask the fact that misogyny is still very much alive in our culture. Dorothy removes the mask.

As in her previous books, Ms. Littell Greco bravely and transparently shares her own journey, and she powerfully portrays the experiences of many other women. She also documents her research with scholarship worthy of academic praise (over 450 references), but she does so with the skill and passion of an accomplished storyteller—enabling the reader to experience the depth and scope of the relevant issues.

Misogyny literally means “hatred toward women.” However, Dorothy is careful to base her approach on a reasoned, comprehensive definition: “A persistent, insidious belief that men’s ideas, wants, needs, and experiences are more important than women’s and that legal, religious, and social systems, as well as intimate relationships, should uphold this principle. This belief system subsequently influences the laws, policies, practices, and ethos of a given culture.”

She then presents evidence for the validity of her perspective by exposing misogyny’s influence in healthcare, the workplace, the government, media and entertainment, sexual relationships, and—perhaps most appallingly—within the Church. Thereafter, she also offers constructive thoughts on healing these wounds and on eradicating this systemic evil against women—a daunting but absolutely essential task. In doing so, she offers genuine hope for a better tomorrow, for women and for men, who are both harmed by misogyny’s far-reaching effects. I pray that many will not only read this book but will also share it, and more importantly, act on it—for the love of women.

Jeff Bjorck, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of Psychology
Retired Licensed Psychologist (PSY13408 inactive)
Fuller Theological Seminary
School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy

[Camden Morgante · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly researched but also deeply personal book, Dorothy Littell Greco's For the Love of Women is a book I've been waiting for. Dorothy describes how misogyny is “the air we breathe” and details its prevalence and effects in six areas of life: healthcare, workplaces, government, media and entertainment, marriage and sexual relationships, and the Church. I especially related to the chapter on marriage and sex, since that is most relevant to the topics I write about and the therapy clients I serve. For the Love of Women is an important book to show that even in this post-#metoo era, "Misogyny isn’t a problem of the past; it’s a present-tense, ongoing reality, and it affects every aspect of our culture.”

[Maree Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd recommend this to everyone, both in and out of the church, but particularly anyone in church leadership. Dorothy describes very plainly how we can unintentionally treat women unfairly and exclude them from decision-making, yet this is not the example Jesus set for us.

The author examines six aspects of life that are affected by misogyny and lead to difficulties, and in many cases trauma: healthcare, the workplace, government, media/entertainment, sexual relationships and the church. As Dorothy explains, it is at its most damaging when found in religious spaces, where leaders claim to speak for God.

Women and men are both equal image-bearers of God — when we work together as equals it shows a more complete example of God's character. However, misogyny has been used to distort this. It is common for women's experiences and wisdom to be ignored, particularly if we are excluded from positions of leadership. Men are less likely to experience the same fears and abuses as women, and it's easy to dismiss experiences we haven't had ourselves.

Dorothy compares the repeated messaging of women being inadequate or incapable to "psychological warfare". When we are exposed repeatedly to comments such as, "women can't be lead pastors", "husbands must lead their wives", "women can't be in authority over men" or "women are incapable of properly interpreting scripture", we begin to believe we are inferior, and it makes us susceptible to abuse. Attitudes like this send a clear message that we can't trust our own intuition or that we should always rely on and defer to men, which creates power imbalances and therefore perfect environments for abuse to thrive.

But the author does not end on a sour note: she shares how this culture of control and subordination can be turned around. The last two chapters are crucial in understanding how to approach healing and to foster change. After reading, I feel hopeful that change for the better is possible.

[Corrie Haffly · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the Love of Women: Uprooting and Healing Misogyny in America addresses a heavy topic, as Dorothy Greco digs into how misogyny manifests in healthcare, the workplace, government, media and entertainment, sexual relationships, and the church. Written from her Christian viewpoint but drawing examples and experiences from many eras and walks of life, Greco clearly relates the horrific abuses, burdensome expectations, and oppressive structures that have crippled and sometimes destroyed half the human race in America — although she also makes a great case for how misogyny hurts men, too, and keeps us all from truly flourishing.

The book is heavy to read, but it is not without hope. Greco provides real-life examples and a list of insightful questions to help illuminate the reader’s relationship with misogyny. And the last chapter stirred my heart as Greco shared a vision for a new world:

A world where women can go for a walk or run alone without any fear of being harmed.
A world where male executives and senior pastors regularly seek input from female leaders. Where these same men act quickly and decisively to make amends and bring justice when men in their organizations disadvantage or harm women or children.
A world where men refuse to sexualize or objectify women and always respect a woman’s autonomy…

She continues this list for a full breathtaking page!

(I got an early copy of this book as part of the launch team.)

[Judy Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dorothy Littell Greco’s book, For the Love of Women, begins with a rather discouraging discussion of the impact of misogyny, but then she writes, “Where ignorance enables misogyny, knowledge and truth can be the beginning of freedom. Once we have a clear picture of what misogyny looks like and how it adversely affects us, we should be motivated to dismantle it and create cultures, institutions, and relationships where women and girls have ample opportunity to thrive and men and women collaborate as equal partners.”

The rest of the book does that effectively. Readers are given truth and knowledge about the dangers of misogyny to women and men and our flourishing. It is at times a heartbreaking and challenging read, but it is ultimately hopeful as Greco, in the final chapter, IMAGINE IF . . . Writing Misogyny Out of the Narrative, offers ideas for changing our families, neighborhoods, organizations and the church. It was my favorite chapter!

Highly recommended.

[Ashley Walkup · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched, personal, revealing, discouraging, and yet hopeful. I loved it!

[Jennifer Sweeney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book highlighting how misogyny is so engrained in Americans and in bed with Christianity. I learned a lot of new information too about birth and women’s health care in America versus other countries.

[April Yamasaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the Love of Women is a brave and broad look at misogyny, beginning with the author's careful definition and thoughtful review of history, to the wealth of statistics and personal stories that reflect great pain and loss inflicted on women, men, families, the church, and society at large. The "belief that men’s ideas, wants, needs, and experiences are more important than women’s" is contrary to the biblical vision of women and men as partners made in God's image. Read this book for an overview and for a healing and hope-filled way forward.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me a better man.

Dorothy writes on the tough topic of misogyny in an inviting way. Her stories of women’s plight are both well researched and heartbreaking, yet her vision for an equitable future is filled with hope. And the brilliance and strength of women are right at the center of it all.

I’m speaking to men here: Dorothy‘s wisdom will show you how much you have overlooked what women go through, and it will help you become part of the solution.

[April Bumgardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-researched book with bold challenges and a gospel centering that I honestly didn’t expect to find so clearly present. Undeniably, there are hard chapters to read but her clear voice is affirming.
Greco’s Eschatology of Hope at the book’s end left me with an imagination for a better world. Her encouraging words “Go do your best” pair well with Beth Alison Barr’s last words in The Making of Biblical Womanhood- “Be free.”

I am grateful for all the affirmation and encouragement in this book.

[Catherine Mullaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greco goes above and beyond in giving birth to a work that is overdue for a 21st century examination of this topic. This book, For The Love of Women (subtitled) Uprooting and Healing Misogyny in America is well researched, gives real world examples, draws one in, and forces many pauses in one’s reading. I took Greco’s advice, “...read slowly and pay attention to what your body may be telling you.” I chose which chapters to read. There are sections I skipped over at this time. To have read every page in one go would have required me to simply read with my head and not with my heart which would require a spiritual bypass. Defeating the purpose of reading and supporting this work.

It is well researched with over 35 pages of notes and dozens of references. Unfortunately misogyny is alive and well in these United States. Greco describes the water we are still swimming in but naming the issues and how it affects every area of our lives. The book is written for women who have experienced misogyny and to “give voice and validate our (women’s) experiences.” And I would add that it is a call to rise up with the spirit of Maya Angelo’s poem, “Still I Rise.” However, she goes on to say we women can’t do it alone and we need men to partner with us in order to eradicate misogyny.

Misogyny is a human problem. Greco does a great job of taking us through some of the major facets of our lives that are affected and infected with misogyny including healthcare, the workplace, government, media, and our relationships. There is a human solution. Greco concludes with the last 2 chapters full of hope for a brighter tomorrow and inviting us to be a part of the healing of our relationships and communities.

Throughout the book there are stories of both men and women and how misogyny has brought tremendous pain and even death into the lives of our fellow humans. We still have a long way to go - it requires humility & vulnerability which is the risk we must take to be overcomers.

Greco is shining the light on this subject. In the Chapter Naming our Needs and Broken Places she offers what I would call an assessment tool. It contains 2 sets of questions, one for women and one for men. After answering the questions Greco encourages us to share them with an empathetic witness. Some of us call it confession. This type of confession ought to be done regularly and as Greco says, “...helps us develop the habit of examining our thoughts and actions in light of the call toward Christ-likeness.” Even that being said, I know plenty of people who would not consider themselves Christian who benefit from the humbling act of admitting the nature of their wrong doings and faulty thinking.


Please read this book with great care, an open mind, and a tender heart.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who could possibly argue with the title of Dorothy Greco’s book on misogyny, For the Love of Women? Don’t we all, men and women alike, want to love women? This well-researched book, written by someone with an obvious pastor’s heart, focuses on women’s experiences in six major areas of life: government, healthcare, the workplace, media and entertainment, the church, and in intimate relationships. Surprisingly, despite the hard news and research, this is a hopeful book.

Greco offers challenging words and a perspective to compassionately broaden views with empathy. I was pleased to see her genuine concern and empathy for how misogyny affects both men and women with the deep and heartbreaking effects of misogyny. “Misogyny is a lose-lose system. No one wins, not even the men who are idolized and supposedly successful.”

She does delve deeply into sexual trauma, so anyone with a background of abuse should be forewarned as she writes about the effects of trauma on women’s bodies and how they live in a heightened state of arousal after abuse which wears out the immune system.

The book holds many, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” moments, especially in the “Behind the Screens” chapter. Reading this book for the heartbreaking section on porn alone is worth the cost of the book—and something deserving of all our concern.

For anyone who has experienced abuse, whether spiritual, emotional, or sexual, the author sees you. Through her writing, she calls everyone to a different and better way—a Holy way. Ultimately, this is a hope-filled book with so much wisdom for bringing about change. Share it with the men in your lives.

[Carlene Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of serious research I never saw before, and more than 50 pages of footnotes give you a head start on “doing your own research” if you want confirmation. Here’s just a couple fun facts from For the Love of Women:

• Crash test dummies all were made with male body types until the 1990s, when female-ish dummies were invented and tested … in the passenger seat. This may explain why women drivers are 47% more likely to sustain serious accident injuries than men in comparable accidents.
• Five times as many research studies have been done on ED as PMS, even though PMS affects 9 in 10 women and ED affects just a quarter of men.

I’m amazed that Dorothy Littell Greco was able to sit with these statistics and stories long enough to write them into a book. I’m even more amazed that this book is not a snarky compendium of all the reasons why women should retreat into our own world for the sake of our own safety and health. The author manages to conclude that “misogyny is evil [and] misogyny is not inevitable.” She offers specific pastoral recommendations for those—both female and male—who seek to overcome their own (probably unrecognized and unexamined) tendencies to despise and overlook women.

This book is challenging. You will frequently find yourself enraged and need to put it down. Read it slowly. Read it intermittently. But read it.

[Kaitlyn Drenckpohl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dorothy Greco’s For the Love of Women is a courageous, clear and compassionate exploration of the impact of misogyny on our society.

One aspect that stands out is how Greco exposes the broad nature of misogyny across multiple sectors, from healthcare to workplaces, to churches, and government, without resorting to despair. Her writing invites honest reflection rather than defensiveness. I especially appreciated the thoughtful questions she poses in Chapter 8 - guiding readers to consider how misogyny has affected them personally.

Near the end of the book when describing the healing power of grief, lament and confession Greco states how these tools help us become “tender-hearted truth tellers who live in reality’. It’s evident Dorothy has done this work in her own life, and I feel deeply grateful for her honest truth telling and vulnerability, which invites us to do the same. She diagnoses the problem with precision, and offers a path towards healing and hope that addresses areas of deep pain while remaining profoundly practical.

I look forward to using this book as a tool to spark important and necessary conversations in my own circles. For the Love of Women is an essential read for anyone who desires to move towards a more just, loving, and whole community.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. This was both a hard book to read (heavy topic! hard truths! 40ish pages of references!) and an easy book to read, meaning despite all the research it was not too academic, nor too depressing to keep going. It actually felt like a whirlwind tour through misogyny's impact in healthcare, the workplace, government, media, relationships, and the church. I was grateful the author ended on a hopeful note, calling our attention to Jesus and his Kingdom. Definitely worth reading, especially for men! Since even though they don't have to live daily aware of the dynamics the book unpacks, they too are harmed by them.

[Carole Duff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written, broad-spectrum examination of misogyny in America. Greco is both clear-eyed and compassionate as she makes her case “for the love of women” rooted in Gospel values. She ends with actionable suggestions—and best of all, with hope. Highly recommended encouragement for us to name it, heal and love.

[Gina Dalfonzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review here: https://dearstrangethings.substack.co...

[Nan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ebook makes you want to scream! Keep fighting

[Amanda Ilg · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the Love of Women brings us on a discovering journey, examining America's misogynistic history to find out how we got here, and envisioning a concrete way toward true equality between women and men.

As I read each chapter, I experienced two things: heartbreak at the sober reality of the mistreatment of women in this country, AND optimistic, determined hope that we CAN and WILL make a better tomorrow. The way things are is not the way things will always be!

As in all her books, Greco writes inclusively, with candor, nuance, compassion, and grit. With those same qualities, she shares a pragmatic vision for healing and progress.

For the Love of Women will leave you with the inner knowing that IF we dare to accept the call and do the work, we WILL see the day where women and men flourish equally, together.

"Where ignorance enables misogyny, knowledge and truth can be the beginning of freedom. Once we have a clear picture of what misogyny looks like and how it adversely affects us, we should be motivated to dismantle it and create cultures, institutions, and relationships where women and girls have ample opportunity to thrive and men and women collaborate as equal partners. Such goals are ambitious but by no means unattainable. If God is making all things new, then misogyny will not have the final word."
-DLG, For the Love of Women

[Gunnar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dorothy Greco offers an honest look at how misogyny shapes our culture and faith communities. For the Love of Women combines solid research with a pastoral tone, making it both challenging and hopeful. As a man, I found it prompted useful self-reflection without shaming or oversimplifying. It’s an important conversation starter and a good resource for groups or individuals who want to understand and change the patterns that harm women—and men too.

[Ginny Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot recommend For the Love of Women emphatically enough. It was not only the best book I read, it was the most universal book I read. I want everybody EVERYBODY to read this book.

For women, this book is validating. So validating. Dorothy Greco details what we already know, if not in our heads, by what we experience. She explores misogyny in healthcare, the workplace, government, media and entertainment, sexual relationships, and the church. Ah, yes, the church. (Confession: I read that chapter first and it did not disappoint.)

For men, you may not see misogyny. It is the water you swim in. The air you breathe as well. Dorothy Greco pulls back the curtain and exposes what you may never have noticed. But she does more than that. She explains how misogyny actually harms men as well as women.

What is, for me at least, beautiful, and perhaps for some, shocking, is that she comes at all of this with a deep understanding of the heart of God. Dorothy Greco could never be accused of being an atheist or some “radical leftist scum,” (though that may be a badge of honor these days), she comes from firmly within the bounds of orthodox Christianity. And that makes this book so important. She’s an insider seeing what so many within the church, at least the conservative wing of it, absolutely refuse to see. She sees the implications of an ideology that Jesus tore down and that the church-at-large has erected over and over again throughout the ages and she shouts, “NO!”

But the book isn’t all doom and gloom. She offers a path forward of validating women and valuing their experiences and gifts and wisdom. She paints a picture of what a dismantling of misogyny would do for everyone: an “enlarged capacity to care” and greater human flourishing for both women and men.