I do love my feminist non-fiction. Of late though, I have felt that the books have often felt harder to get through. There is a lot to be said about feminism and there is a lot to still be angry about. The Gender Bias was refreshing in that after I read it, I felt lighter. Yes, Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton talked about some of the bigger issues that still haunt women but she also was very fair in her assessments. She was balanced in her argument and used real life examples of micro aggressions without being aggressively angry.

The Gender Bias is one of the better feminist texts I have read lately and I would thrust this into the hands of any newly burgeoning feminists.

The Gender Bias – The Barriers That Hold Women Back, and How to Break Them by Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton.

Great non fiction, very important in today’s world!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my review.

This. Book. Is. Everything.
I loved it so so so much, and enjoyed every page of it! This is the book I am going to recommend to every feminist I know, in fact, I will be recommending it to every woman I know. And then a few men too.
I loved the way the author tells about herself. I loved the way the author tells about her work experience. I loved the way every little thing that was mentioned in the book, was well-researched. I loved how it covers various topics. I. Just. Loved. Everything. About. This. Book.

This was really excellent, well researched and thoroughly referenced, well laid out and stonkingly interesting to read. I'm no stranger to feminist literature, and this stands among the best of them. I bought a copy of it shortly after I finished the Galley, and have been recommending it to everyone I run into, including random strangers I've never met before. It's a bit odd, but if someone does buy it, probably worth it!

“I hadn’t yet appreciated that failing doesn’t make you a failure.”

This book is so well written and researched and I highly recommend everyone read it!

Sabrina is a firefighter and so we get real life experiences from her and well researched data and statistics about the bias that we have in all areas of society andhow that is detrimental to both women and men and our society as a whole.

She speaks about women in positions of power and how they are viewed and whether they are “feminine” enough and discusses capability vs likability.
She discusses the glass cliff (highly recommend everyone read up on this) and how women are often put in leadership positions only once the place is already failing and that means they are more likely to fail and how then that failure is blamed on the woman and her lack of leadership ability.

How socio economic factors are affecting women and how living in poverty means that they cannot think about progressing when they have to worry about paying bills.
How our society is just not set up to support parents especially mothers in managing a work life balance and often the mother is struggling without much help. How there needs to be more support and flexibility to allow parents to manage their daily lives.

How jobs that are considered a mans job are often places where women aren’t welcome and it is much harder to succeed in that area. How even safety features could only be designed with men in mind and so not work for women.
She touches on how being a woman of colour or of a different religious background will make things even harder for women already facing barriers and fighting biases.

It was interesting to read how these biases and barriers are not just men but also women are perpetuating the same thing. From asking mothers if that job (for her it’s firefighting) is something they should be doing because what about their kids but being in awe of the father for doing something that is so selfless.

I was well and truly hooked and even though it made me feel so much rage it was also hopeful and I especially loved that at the end of each section she discussed ways in which we can actually make changes to reduce their biases and barriers. We all need to look at our own biases and actively remind ourselves when we start to fall into it.