Mary Beard’s Women and Power is a slim volume comprising two of her most famous lectures about the roots of sexism and misogyny from ancient times until now. This little tome has been called “a modern feminist classic,” befitting Beard, a scholar of the Greeks and Romans who has also become something of a social media sensation in Britain. The book begins with the story of Telemachus trying to forcefully silence his mother, Penelope, and moves on to other historical precedents for attitudes and biases against women that persist today. Beard’s smart, lively, and persuasive case for women raising their voices (and fists) offers an intellectual and historical foundation for the women’s resistance, from marches, to #MeToo, to the droves of female candidates running for political office this year. Onward!
