A brilliant overview of the oppression all women face – the system of male domination – and how feminists have fought back against it. Sheila Jeffreys provides a sometimes startling, always incisive, picture of the struggles she and other radical feminists have faced to protect the rights of women and girls over decades of activism. As well as outlining the many recognisable forms of oppression faced by women today – including pornography, violence, reproductive slavery and domestic servitude – Jeffreys highlights others that are sometimes ignored, such as the subordination of women through the cultural imposition of femininity and sexual harassment. She dares to challenge the modern orthodoxy that 'equality' should be a goal of feminism. She points out how men's power and status is acquired from the subordination of women, and nothing less than a radical transformation of society is required for women to achieve liberation. Sheila Jeffreys takes on the men's sexual rights movement. She considers the new cult of gender ideology: the insult of transgenderism with its promotion of 'womanface' – the fetish of imitating and insulting women as comparable to blackface. She calls out the threat posed by men pretending to be women which risks reversing the hard-won gains made by feminists in the last 50 years. Jeffreys develops a lesbian feminist critique of queer politics and celebrates the glories of lesbian community, friendship, art, literature, culture and ethics. This four-pronged book – on feminist theory, on industries that exploit women like surrogacy and prostitution, on men's sexual rights movement, and on lesbian feminism – provides an essential handbook for every woman who dares to dream of a better future for women and girls. Read it in book clubs and consciousness-raising groups and discuss.
