No More Nice Girls
Gender, Power, and Why It’s Time to Stop Playing by the Rules
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A groundbreaking, insightful book about women and power from award-winning journalist Lauren McKeon, which shows how women are disrupting the standard (very male) vision of power, ditching convention, and building a more equitable world for everyone.
In the age of girl bosses, Beyoncé, and Black Widow, we like to tell our little girls they can be anything they want when they grow up, except they’ll have to work twice as hard, be told to “play nice,” and face countless double standards that curb their personal, political, and economic power. Women today remain a surprisingly, depressingly long way from gender and racial equality. It’s worth asking: Why do we keep playing a game we were never meant to win?
Award-winning journalist and author of F-Bomb: Dispatches from the War on Feminism, Lauren McKeon examines the many ways in which our institutions are designed to keep women and other marginalized genders at a disadvantage. In doing so, she reveals why we need more than parity, visible diversity, and lone female CEOs to change this power game. She talks to people doing power differently in a variety of sectors and uncovers new models of power. And as the toxic, divisive, and hyper-masculine style of leadership gains ground, she underscores why it’s time to stop playing by the rules of a rigged game.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Lauren McKeon isn’t here to explain how women and girls can get a seat at the big boys’ table—she’s here to argue forcefully in favour of restructuring the concept of power itself. The Canadian essayist has little time for either “girl boss” platitudes or simple “Nevertheless, she persisted” cheerleading. Her reports from the front lines of 21st-century intersectional feminism include a thorough examination of #MeToo, in which she focuses not just on the movement’s positive effects, but also on the ensuing backlash (as seen in the nomination hearings of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh) and the way factional disputes between nominal allies have sapped some of the moment’s potential. McKeon uses historical examples and statistical data to back up her provocative ideas—the numbers on gendered threats of violence by social-media trolls, in particular, turned our stomachs. Though she doesn’t offer easy step-by-step answers for the feminist movement, her passionate voice will inspire readers and fuel their determination to continue the fight.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Canadian journalist McKeon follows F-Bomb: Dispatches from the War on Feminism with a trenchant assessment of modern feminism's successes and failures. Asserting that true equality will only come from women and minorities working to create it outside of patriarchal systems, McKeon critiques the "power gap" that prevents female politicians and corporate executives from acquiring real authority or escaping gendered harassment, the "infantilizing drivel" of a #GirlBoss confidence industry that tells young women they can overcome structural iniquity by trying harder, and women's workspaces that cater to the white and affluent. Promoting "a new vision of power that values qualities such as collaboration and consensus building," and an end to the idea that women should be beneficiaries rather than agents of change, McKeon praises N.Y.C.'s Feminist Camp and 18-year-old Zambian activist Natasha Mwansa's unapologetic demand for more youth and female involvement in policy decisions. McKeon is most enlightening on subjects matching her specific background, including Canadian gender politics and the power dynamics of the internet, but her plea for women to build "oppositional power" will resonate with feminists of all backgrounds. This witty and uncompromising call to action pushes the right buttons.
