A Feminist Manifesto For Education

The idea that gender equality in education has been achieved is now a staple of public debate. As a result, educational policies and practices often do not deal explicitly with gender issues, such as sexual abuse, harassment or violence. Exaggeration of neoliberalism’s successes in creating individual opportunity in education conceals ongoing problems and ignores the continuing need for a fair and equal education for all, regardless of gender or sexuality. In this manifesto for education, Miriam David rejects the notion that gender equality has been achieved in our age of neoliberalism. She puts the focus back onto issues such as changing patterns of women’s and girls’ participation in education across the globe, feminist strategies for policy and legal interventions around human rights, and violence against women and children. She discusses waves of feminism linked to school-teaching and pedagogies in higher education as well as an illuminating case study of an international educational programme to challenge gender-related violence. Revealing neoliberal education to be ‘misogyny masquerading as metrics’, Miriam David argues for changes in the patriarchal rules of the game, including questioning ‘gender norms’ and stereotypical binaries, and for making personal, social, health and sexuality education mainstream.

This book is a collection of 150 documents from feminist organizations and gatherings in over 50 countries over the course of three centuries. The manifestos are shown to contain feminist theory and recommend actions for change, and also to expand our very conceptions of feminist thought and activism. Covering issues from political participation, education, religion and work to reproduction, violence, racism and environmentalism, the manifestos challenge definitions of gender and feminist movements.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The award-winning author of We Should All Be Feminists and Americanah gives us this powerful statement about feminism today—written as a letter to a friend. A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a childhood friend, a new mother who wanted to know how to raise her baby girl to be a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichie’s letter of response: fifteen invaluable suggestions—direct, wryly funny, and perceptive—for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. Filled with compassionate guidance and advice, it gets right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century, and starts a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today. A Skimm Reads Pick ● An NPR Best Book of the Year

A vibrantly illustrated introduction to intersectional feminism for next-generation changemakers, this book is a must-read guide for young people seeking to understand the world around them. "Wilson’s optimistic view of feminism is based on the tenet of liberation for all, placing marginalized communities front and center... [A] foundational work." - NEW YORK TIMES What have you been taught about who has power and who makes the rules? Have you ever been lost for words at an old-school family friend’s ‘kind’ but sexist comments? Do you agree with equality and strive for justice, but want to learn more? Then read on. In this new feminist classic, the focus is intersectional from the beginning, not just as an add-on. Using the framework of ‘personal is political’, Jamia Wilson – former director of the Feminist Press – analyses her own experiences, before expanding outwards and drawing on stats as well as quotes from feminist firebrands and activists to inspire and encourage. Bold illustrations underpin this title, and each chapter ends with a ‘Call To Action’ box to encourage readers to reflect on and embrace their own interpretation of feminism and to acknowledge the connection between race, class, gender, disability and economic justice. Expand what feminism means to you, your community and society by examining these 15 themes: Feminism Identity Justice Education Money Power Health wellness freedom relationships media safety activism and movements innovation An interactive exploration of what feminism means to you. You will close the book with an understanding that history and culture play a role in shaping systems of power and of what we can do with our strengths, community and values to help change course when needed. You won’t have read a feminist tome like this before. Also available in theEmpower the Future series isThis Book is Anti-Racist,a powerful guide to how to incorporate anti-racist action into your life. Other inspiring books authored by Jamia Wilson are Young Gifted and Black, Step Into Your Powerand Big Ideas for Young Thinkers.

"A must-read, an antidote to powerlessness, a literary companion for the ages." –Michelle Tea, author of Against Memoir "Editors' Choice" –New York Times Book Review A comprehensive collection of feminist manifestos, chronicling rage and dreams from the nineteenth century to the present day A landmark collection spanning two centuries and four waves of feminist activism and writing, Burn It Down! is a testament to what is possible when women are driven to the edge. The manifesto—raging, demanding, quarreling and provocative—has always been central to feminism, and it’s the angry, brash feminism we need now. Collecting over seventy-five manifestos from around the world, Burn It Down! is a rallying cry and a call to action. Among this confrontational sisterhood, you’ll find the Dyke Manifesto by the Lesbian Avengers, The Ax Tampax Poem Feministo by the Bloodsisters Project, The Manifesto of Apocalyptic Witchcraft by Peter Grey, Simone de Beauvoir’s pro-abortion Manifesto of the 343, Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female by Frances M. Beal, and many more. Feminist academic and writer Breanne Fahs argues that we need manifestos in all their urgent rawness, for it is at the bleeding edge of rage and defiance that new ideas are born.

Outspoken critic Jessa Crispin delivers a searing rejection of contemporary feminism . . . and a bracing manifesto for revolution. Are you a feminist? Do you believe women are human beings and that they deserve to be treated as such? That women deserve all the same rights and liberties bestowed upon men? If so, then you are a feminist . . . or so the feminists keep insisting. But somewhere along the way, the movement for female liberation sacrificed meaning for acceptance, and left us with a banal, polite, ineffectual pose that barely challenges the status quo. In this bracing, fiercely intelligent manifesto, Jessa Crispin demands more. Why I Am Not A Feminist is a radical, fearless call for revolution. It accuses the feminist movement of obliviousness, irrelevance, and cowardice—and demands nothing less than the total dismantling of a system of oppression. Praise for Jessa Crispin, and The Dead Ladies Project "I'd follow Jessa Crispin to the ends of the earth." --Kathryn Davis, author of Duplex "Read with caution . . . Crispin is funny, sexy, self-lacerating, and politically attuned, with unique slants on literary criticism, travel writing, and female journeys. No one crosses genres, borders, and proprieties with more panache." --Laura Kipnis, author of Men: Notes from an Ongoing Investigation "Very, very funny. . . . The whole book is packed with delightfully offbeat prose . . . as raw as it is sophisticated, as quirky as it is intense." --The Chicago Tribune

Classic radical feminist statement from the woman who shot Andy Warhol “Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex.” Outrageous and violent, SCUM Manifesto was widely lambasted when it first appeared in 1968. Valerie Solanas, the woman who shot Andy Warhol, self-published the book just before she became a notorious household name and was confined to a mental institution. But for all its vitriol, it is impossible to dismiss as the mere rantings of a lesbian lunatic. In fact, the work has proved prescient, not only as a radical feminist analysis light years ahead of its time—predicting artificial insemination, ATMs, a feminist uprising against underrepresentation in the arts—but also as a stunning testament to the rage of an abused and destitute woman. In this edition, philosopher Avital Ronell’s introduction reconsiders the evocative exuberance of this infamous text.

A feminist manifesto exposing the everyday sexism that teenage girls face.