Difficult Women

'All the history you need to understand why you're so furious, angry and still hopeful about being a woman now' Caitlin Moran

Well-behaved women don't make history- difficult women do.

Feminism's success is down to complicated, contradictory, imperfect women, who fought each other as well as fighting for equal rights. Helen Lewis argues that too many of these pioneers have been whitewashed or forgotten in our modern search for feel-good, inspirational heroines. It's time to reclaim the history of feminism as a history of difficult women.

In this book, you'll meet the working-class suffragettes who advocated bombings and arson; the princess who discovered why so many women were having bad sex; the 'striker in a sari' who terrified Margaret Thatcher; and the lesbian politician who outraged the country. Taking the story up to the present with the twenty-first-century campaign for abortion services, Helen Lewis reveals the unvarnished - and unfinished - history of women's rights.

Drawing on archival research and interviews, Difficult Women is a funny, fearless and sometimes shocking narrative history, which shows why the feminist movement has succeeded - and what it should do next. The battle is difficult, and we must be difficult too.

'This is the antidote to saccharine you-go-girl fluff. Effortlessly erudite and funny' Caroline Criado-Perez 'Compulsive, rigorous, unforgettable, hilarious and devastating' Hadley Freeman

*A NEW STATESMAN BOOK TO READ IN 2020 AND OBSERVER NON-FICTION BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2020

“Whoever said feminists lack a sense of humour has not read enough Lewis... A funny, sparky, wide-ranging account... Her book isn't at all a conventional history. It's a collection of powerful personal essays on the gnarly issues that women continue to face... I read Difficult Women with gratitude. It's an authoritative benchmark of modern feminism, written by someone on top of her game... Hooray for a great book by a clever, clear-sighted, straight-talking, difficult young woman.”

[Difficult Women is] written in a feistily accessible style...so it's easy to engage with the actual substance. -- Melanie McDonagh Evening Standard An extremely important and timely book that shows why sometimes it pays to be a "difficult woman". -- Konnie Huq I loved Difficult Women. Helen Lewis writes with a devilish wit and a clear eye about the harder edges of meaningful progress. Engaging, moving, witty and sobering - Difficult Women is a book for all humans who value all humans, as difficult as they may be. -- Stephen McGann A witty and wise corrective to the whitewashed heroines of the "rebel girls" and "awesome women" industry. -- Tom Gatti New Statesman Some names you will recognise, others will be new. All deserve your respect. In a world where equality still feels like an uphill struggle, it is wonderful to celebrate eleven epic and ultimately victorious battles. -- Anita Anand Helen Lewis is one of the very few journalists whose every word I will read. Her debut book...makes the very solid point that the acquisition of rights for women has not always come from those who one would necessarily like. -- Adam Rutherford The Week Well-behaved women may not make history but brilliant women certainly write it. Helen Lewis's glorious history of feminists, feminism, and female causes is a rallying cry for women to take up intelligent action and fight - fight for those rights! -- Amanda Foreman Through her telling of the fascinating histories of Difficult Women, Lewis gifts us with a fresh, whip-smart and compassionate perspective on contemporary feminism. A brilliant and inspiring book. -- Cordelia Fine Difficult Women has real bite and is brimming with the kind of sharp wit that renders it unsuitable reading on public transport lest you start cackling. -- Gillian Furmage The Times A great manifesto for all those women who have never been very good at being well-behaved. -- Mary Beard All the history you need to understand why you're so furious, angry and still hopeful about being a woman now. A book that is part intellectual weapon in your handbag, part cocktail with a friend. -- Caitlin Moran Brilliant, from one of the brightest journalists in Britain today. Compulsive, rigorous, unforgettable, hilarious and devastating. Everything but difficult, ironically enough. -- Hadley Freeman This is the antidote to saccharine you-go-girl fluff. Effortlessly erudite and funny, Helen Lewis tackles the great unacknowledged truth of feminist history: no one ever changed the world by being nice. A landmark in modern feminist scholarship, it manages to be important, irreverent and a joy to read. -- Caroline Criado Perez This sensible, forthright personal history of the women who fought for the vote, for equal pay, for women to have control over their bodies, is a breath of fresh air in a feminist climate too often bogged down in petty spats over ideas of privilege and virtue signalling... Lewis's trenchant, witty voice steers the reader to focus on the details that matter. -- Claire Allfree Metro Difficult Women is a well-researched, lively overview of the history of modern feminism... An important resource on the ongoing fight for equal rights. -- Mia Levitin Spectator Inspiriting and energetic...searching, and bracing...clever and compelling... This is a capacious book... I liked this roominess: it speaks of open-mindedness and warmth. But what I loved most of all is her clear respect for those who went before us. -- Rachel Cooke Observer Difficult Women is fully of vivid detail, jam-packed with research and fizzing its provocation. -- Christina Patterson Sunday Times Difficult Women is smart, thoughtful and rich in detail... Lewis proves an excellent storyteller who seamlessly blends scholarly inquiry and journalistic investigation with autobiographical titbits and flashes of caustic wit (her footnotes are a hoot). -- Fiona Sturges Guardian Difficult Women was a joy to read... I learned so many delicious facts about women whom I thought I knew. In fact, reading Difficult Women felt like sitting down with a friend and gossiping about other women in our circle... It has some howl-out-loud funny moments... Helen Lewis does more than just tell their stories - she allows them to be complicated, something that women are so rarely permitted to be. -- Jess Phillips New Statesman -- Melanie Reid The Times

Helen Lewis is a staff writer at the Atlantic, and a former deputy editor of the New Statesman. She has written for the Guardian, Sunday Times, New York Times and Vogue. She is a regular host of BBC Radio 4's Week in Westminster, a regular panellist on the News Quiz and Saturday Review, and a paper reviewer on The Andrew Marr Show. She was the 2018/19 Women in the Humanities Honorary Writing Fellow at Oxford University. She tweets at @helenlewis

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.