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Women & Power: A Manifesto
by
An updated edition of the Sunday Times Bestseller
Britain's best-known classicist Mary Beard, is also a committed and vocal feminist. With wry wit, she revisits the gender agenda and shows how history has treated powerful women. Her examples range from the classical world to the modern day, from Medusa and Athena to Theresa May and Hillary Clinton. Beard explores the cultur ...more
Britain's best-known classicist Mary Beard, is also a committed and vocal feminist. With wry wit, she revisits the gender agenda and shows how history has treated powerful women. Her examples range from the classical world to the modern day, from Medusa and Athena to Theresa May and Hillary Clinton. Beard explores the cultur ...more
Paperback, 144 pages
Published
November 1st 2018
by Profile Books
(first published November 2nd 2017)
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I question the intelligence and moral integrity of any man who does not consider himself a feminist, and I also question the fact that I am the only male in my friend’s list to read this book. Books like this are so vitally important, important for both men and women. So go read it! I’m not trying to shame my male friends, but merely point out the imbalance in the readers of this book, at least, here on goodreads.
Why is this I wonder?
Mary argues that ever since the ancient Greeks women have be ...more
Why is this I wonder?
Mary argues that ever since the ancient Greeks women have be ...more

“But my basic premise is that our mental, cultural template for a powerful person remains resolutely male."
I read this text because I thought it might be useful to my investigation of our treatment of instapoets. Adapted from two speeches that Beard made in 2014 and 2017, she tracks what women's relationship with power has been, from ancient myths to current twitter discourse. I personally think a third essay was missing - it would have been great to have an essay of conclusions and solutions. I ...more
I read this text because I thought it might be useful to my investigation of our treatment of instapoets. Adapted from two speeches that Beard made in 2014 and 2017, she tracks what women's relationship with power has been, from ancient myths to current twitter discourse. I personally think a third essay was missing - it would have been great to have an essay of conclusions and solutions. I ...more

It is a shame for women to be loud
I don’t know who told me this this stupid wisdom and I don’t remember
Maybe in my school or maybe in my house but nevertheless I feel guilty for believing it.
Why some men or most of traditional men are scared of women talking loudly, what about women doest those feel irritated by it ?
Lack of public speaking to group of people was curse that befell on women for most of time and still now that right to speak in public place ( usually men’s areas ) .
For many centur ...more
I don’t know who told me this this stupid wisdom and I don’t remember
Maybe in my school or maybe in my house but nevertheless I feel guilty for believing it.
Why some men or most of traditional men are scared of women talking loudly, what about women doest those feel irritated by it ?
Lack of public speaking to group of people was curse that befell on women for most of time and still now that right to speak in public place ( usually men’s areas ) .
For many centur ...more

May 23, 2018
Lisa
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
persuasive,
nonfiction
We've come a long way.
If we compare our lives today with any earlier time and our place here in Northern Europe with any other place, we should celebrate. And there is nothing wrong with celebrating either, for example by reading an entertaining volume on the voice and power of women - written by one of the many women who have used the luck of time and place well - to become a professor with a clear and loud, and female voice.
So, let's celebrate.
But... there is still so much to do.
How often i ...more
If we compare our lives today with any earlier time and our place here in Northern Europe with any other place, we should celebrate. And there is nothing wrong with celebrating either, for example by reading an entertaining volume on the voice and power of women - written by one of the many women who have used the luck of time and place well - to become a professor with a clear and loud, and female voice.
So, let's celebrate.
But... there is still so much to do.
How often i ...more

This is a very thought-provoking read, as long as you understand what it is - the texts of two speeches Mary Beard has given in the 21st century. Honestly, I do wish she'd used them as a starting point and written a much longer book about the topic, because I think she is drawing some connections I have not seen before - between classical imagery and modern politics, the cultural precedents for the oppression of women in the oldest literature, etc. She completely blew my mind about incorrect inf
...more

So short, I had not quite intended to read it, when I did, but having in idleness picked it up and read a few pages nonchalantly, I found I was near enough half way through. There are two lectures padded out with illustrations (perhaps Beard had slides for her lectures) in the book, I felt these talks were her in conversation with Virginia Woolf's A Room of one's Own. Both naturally very revealing about their authors. Woolf the novelist deals in pictures: Woman excluded from public places, woman
...more

A splendid start to the discussion about the silencing of women and how patriarchy precludes them from gaining power. Mary Beard traces the roots of this hatred against women back to Greek and Roman mythology, and she connects these historical examples to the modern-day mistreatment of women like Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton. My favorite part of this book: how Beard argues that instead of trying to make women powerful like men, we should change the structure of power to value more tradit
...more

This book is two lectures modified and dispensing the understanding of a classicist with regard to “The Public Role of Women,” the very title of the first lecture. My markers are all in the second lecture, delivered in March 2017 and titled “Women in Power.” Mary Beard applies her knowledge of ancient languages and civilizations to uncover for us the origins of our notions of sexuality and power. It is not all she knows. It is merely her opinion of what she knows.
As though in a long, amusing co ...more
As though in a long, amusing co ...more

4 1/2
the author
Beard, born in 1955, is the author of the popular SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (2015 finalist National Book Critics Award for non-fiction), and is Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge and the Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement. She makes frequent media appearances, gives many public lectures, and is active on social media. The Wiki article about Beard ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Be... ) references many of the controversial statements she ...more
the author
Beard, born in 1955, is the author of the popular SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (2015 finalist National Book Critics Award for non-fiction), and is Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge and the Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement. She makes frequent media appearances, gives many public lectures, and is active on social media. The Wiki article about Beard ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Be... ) references many of the controversial statements she ...more

I don’t have all that much too say about this book which is why my review will be rather on the short side (quite like the book). This book collects two speeches Mary Beard has given, one called “The Public Voice Of Women” and one “Women & Power” and as speeches I am sure this worked wonderfully. As a book however, it really fell a bit short for me. I might not be the target audience and this might work better as an introduction to feminist thinking but for me, while I agreed with Mary Beard and
...more

There are few books like this anymore. We're used to long scholarly treatises and we're used to little soundbites that say everything and almost nothing at all.
What we've been missing is a call to arms. That's what a manifesto is. A mixed mission statement and an outrage. A rallying call and a hot pinprick of a single idea meant to sear itself into your brain.
That's what a manifesto is supposed to be. A wake-up call.
But what is this one in particular?
It's about the nature of power and misogyny, ...more
What we've been missing is a call to arms. That's what a manifesto is. A mixed mission statement and an outrage. A rallying call and a hot pinprick of a single idea meant to sear itself into your brain.
That's what a manifesto is supposed to be. A wake-up call.
But what is this one in particular?
It's about the nature of power and misogyny, ...more

I'm reminded of this lovely George R.R. Martin interview

As a (male) scholar of women & power in history, I've always found it both important and interesting not to see women primarily as mere silent victims of patriarchal oppression (although that certainly happens in most historical periods), but as individuals with their own motives, agency and stories to tell. That is the change that is needed in our collective perception of the past. Scrutiny and victimisation are two sides of the same coin. ...more

As a (male) scholar of women & power in history, I've always found it both important and interesting not to see women primarily as mere silent victims of patriarchal oppression (although that certainly happens in most historical periods), but as individuals with their own motives, agency and stories to tell. That is the change that is needed in our collective perception of the past. Scrutiny and victimisation are two sides of the same coin. ...more

"When it comes to silencing women, Western culture has had thousands of years of practice." -Mary Beard
Beard’s Women & Power is a collection of two lectures that she gave in 2014 and 2017 both on the subject on how women are treated and perceived in the public sphere and the historical roots of this treatment. Beard shows through her lectures that the silencing of women as well as the way we view women in power has its roots in Greek and Roman mythology. In many ways this book reminded me of a b ...more
Beard’s Women & Power is a collection of two lectures that she gave in 2014 and 2017 both on the subject on how women are treated and perceived in the public sphere and the historical roots of this treatment. Beard shows through her lectures that the silencing of women as well as the way we view women in power has its roots in Greek and Roman mythology. In many ways this book reminded me of a b ...more

4.5 stars rounded up
This brief book is based on two lectures, one from 2014 and one from 2017 by Mary Beard. Beard is a classicist and historian, a very good one. The primary subject is female voice and silence and is very much concerned with misogyny and links to the abuse Beard and others have experienced on social media. Given the recent revelations relating to Harvey Weinstein and the current social media landscape it is a much needed wake up call.
Beard looks at the origins of misogyny and ...more
This brief book is based on two lectures, one from 2014 and one from 2017 by Mary Beard. Beard is a classicist and historian, a very good one. The primary subject is female voice and silence and is very much concerned with misogyny and links to the abuse Beard and others have experienced on social media. Given the recent revelations relating to Harvey Weinstein and the current social media landscape it is a much needed wake up call.
Beard looks at the origins of misogyny and ...more

Feb 08, 2018
Julie Ehlers
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
feminism-and-gender,
free-library
There have been a lot of tiny feminist books published recently, and there's not much point in comparing them—just read them all; they all have worthwhile things to say. Nevertheless, I thought Women & Power was more fun to read than Rebecca Solnit's small volumes and had more depth than Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie's. I liked the look at the classical world (something I haven't thought about much since my university days), and I thought she made some interesting and timely arguments. Of course, the
...more

Women are having a moment—though this aged cynic believes it will last only a moment. And into this moment steps Mary Beard, a British classical scholar who has taken more than her share of abuse, mostly via the Internet, to speak truth to power (or at least truth to trolls). In response to the haters she published two essays in the London Review of Books, in 2014 and 2017; and this slim volume is a reissue of those essays, with some emendations and updates.
The packaging is charming—high-quality ...more
The packaging is charming—high-quality ...more

The London Review of Books commissioned Cambridge Professor of Classics Mary Beard to present two lectures at the British Museum, "Oh Do Shut Up Dear" in 2014 and "Women in Power" in 2017; this book publishes revised versions of the two lectures, with the first retitled "The Public Voice of Women".
As I write this review in March 2020, it has just been reported that Beard's nomination to the Board of Trustees of the British Museum was vetoed by the Prime Minister's office for the offense of holdi ...more
As I write this review in March 2020, it has just been reported that Beard's nomination to the Board of Trustees of the British Museum was vetoed by the Prime Minister's office for the offense of holdi ...more

I would probably give this a 3.5.
This book offers a wealth of history on the treatment of women, particularly in regards to their attempts at having an accepted public voice. As others stated, where this book falls short is in its offering of any strong solutions to the problem. Granted, when I stopped to really think about it, I had a difficult time coming up with any solutions either. How do we go about correcting a problem that has been so deeply ingrained in our society?
I did very much appr ...more
This book offers a wealth of history on the treatment of women, particularly in regards to their attempts at having an accepted public voice. As others stated, where this book falls short is in its offering of any strong solutions to the problem. Granted, when I stopped to really think about it, I had a difficult time coming up with any solutions either. How do we go about correcting a problem that has been so deeply ingrained in our society?
I did very much appr ...more

Feb 22, 2018
Alice Lippart
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-in-2018,
non-fiction
Very interesting, especially liked how Beard draws parallels to ancient history.

I AM ANGRY.

A gem. Crisp, erudite writing on women and power. Especially interesting about women’s voices and how they are silenced, ignored or worse. Up to the minute but draws on the classics (Mary Beard’s specialty). Beard says we should redefine power so women can participate in different ways. Lightly written but much food for thought. My first of her books but won’t be the last.

At the beginning itself Beard mentions that this is mainly about Women vis-a-vis Power wrt to "the western civilization". Drawing examples from Classical Graeco-Roman times and creating parallels with contemporary incidents/events makes this quite an engaging read. The arguments and issues that Beard throws up surely will resonate with most of us in some way or the other.
I wish there were similar studies, (there very well might be and am ignorant of their existence) if not on India in particular ...more
I wish there were similar studies, (there very well might be and am ignorant of their existence) if not on India in particular ...more

Read in one late-train-journey gulp and very much enjoyed. There isn’t a lot new here from a feminist theory perspective but I really appreciated how Mary Beard foregrounds the impact of speech and speech imagery. It’s engaging, thoughtful and so inventive in the connections made between the classical and the contemporary world. I just wish it was longer, with more space to expand.

This is a repackaging of two essays written for the London Review of Books in 2014 ("The Public Voice of Women") and 2017 (Women In Power).
As a classical scholar, she has some illuminating comments about long running cultural constraints on the voices of women in the public sphere. ...more
As a classical scholar, she has some illuminating comments about long running cultural constraints on the voices of women in the public sphere. ...more

"If we want to give women as a gender—and not just in the shape of a few determined individuals—their place inside the structures of power, we have to think harder about how and why we think as we do. If there is a cultural template, which works to disempower women, what exactly is it and where do we get it from?" (58)...more

And here I thought I’d read pretty much everything on feminism...NOT!
Beard took me back to Greek and Roman mythology. How the silencing of women in these myths translate to the present. She uses examples of modern day women such as Hillary Clinton, and Elizabeth Warren to really drive home her point. I was amazed at just how relevant these early myths are. What a fascinating and short read!
Beard took me back to Greek and Roman mythology. How the silencing of women in these myths translate to the present. She uses examples of modern day women such as Hillary Clinton, and Elizabeth Warren to really drive home her point. I was amazed at just how relevant these early myths are. What a fascinating and short read!
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Read Women: Women & Power by Mary Beard | 12 | 45 | May 22, 2018 03:11AM | |
Girls Against Boo...: January- Women & Power | 2 | 13 | Jan 13, 2018 10:43AM |
Winifred Mary Beard (born 1 January 1955) is Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge and is a fellow of Newnham College. She is the Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement, and author of the blog "A Don's Life", which appears on The Times as a regular column. Her frequent media appearances and sometimes controversial public statements have led to her being described as "Brita
...more
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