Stella Project discussion

Hi guys,

Our second pick for October is The Misogyny Factor

I will pop back with an official post later, but I am curious if anyone has already read this?

Happy reading,
Em & Ely

I’m only going to be able to commit to one of the October reads here and have decided to go with this one.
Not sure how I haven’t read this one before, so glad the prompt is here with this group to give it a go.
I managed to borrow a copy from the local library and got started yesterday. It will be a fairly quick read and is so far equally parts interesting and frustrating.

Kylie wrote: "I’m only going to be able to commit to one of the October reads here and have decided to go with this one.
Not sure how I haven’t read this one before, so glad the prompt is here with this group t..."

I thought you would pick this one!! I'm planning to start soon, I just need to finish this mammoth historical romance I'm reading as well as Ruby Hamad's book :/ I can't believe I haven't read this either, its been on my shelf for YEARS. I even shipped it over from Perth when I moved here!

OFFICIAL DISCUSSION COMMENT:

In 2012 Anne Summers gave two landmark speeches about women in Australia, attracting more than 120,000 visits to her website. It was a year of rousing speeches by women, within weeks of Summers' speeches, Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s now infamous speech in Parliament about misogyny and sexism went viral and was celebrated around the world.

In The Misogyny Factor Summers makes the case that Australia, the land of the fair go, still hasn’t figured out how to make equality between men and women work. She shows how uncomfortable we are with the idea of women with political and financial power, let alone the reality. Summers dismisses the idea that we should celebrate progress for women as opposed to outright success. She shows what success will look like.

The Misogyny Factor was long listed for the 2014 prize.

Again, no discussion questions ahead of time because I haven't read this yet (unbelievable given my usual genre!) but I did find this little review from the guys at Readings:

https://www.readings.com.au/review/th...

And I am curious as you guys are reading, let me know if you think the world has changed for the better since the book was published?

Happy reading!
Em & Ely

Additional resources:

Anne Summers TEDxSouthBankWomen speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz47O...

Anne Summers & Julia Gillard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoCpH...

Transcript of The Misogyny Factor speech, delivered 2013: http://legacy.annesummers.com.au/spee...

Emily wrote: "Kylie wrote: "I’m only going to be able to commit to one of the October reads here and have decided to go with this one.
Not sure how I haven’t read this one before, so glad the prompt is here wit..."

I'm now about halfway through and have settled into the whole thing being more interesting rather than frustrating and am really quite enjoying it.
Great historical political and social narrative up to the time it was published, and I really like the way she frames the issues, and the language she uses to describe various scenarios.

The world definitely hasn't changed for the better since the book was published. In many ways it has taken the backward steps Anne Summers predicted (both here in Australia, and the world stage more broadly) because the progress made was token, and the temporary changes in behaviour have not been driven by a change in attitude and understanding, there has not been a change in culture. Sadly this is not just the case for the equality project, but for many social aspects of Australian life...

I wish I was a university student again reading this book. Would make for a great paper or three!

Only started today and only read the first Chapter. Preliminary thoughts are, this was written in 2013, when we had a female PM, a female Governor General, a female deputy leader in the Opposition and a female leader of The Greens. Since then we've had a mass exodus of female leaders in Parliament and I can't see the current Government invoking legislation that would help minimise the Misogyny Factor.
So how are we going to get more young women into Politics, or young men who are willing to drive policies and make the changes in legislation required?
Hoping Anne Summers gives some ideas as my reading progresses.

Kim wrote: "So how are we going to get more young women into Politics, or young men who are willing to drive policies and make the changes in legislation required?"

Emily's List is a great place to start. They need a bigger drive and more support in Australia though. Gillard is working with them now, so hopefully we start seeing the fruits of that labour soon.

Emily's List sounds fascinating, I'll look into that more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMILY%2...

I was also prompted to read this by this book club. Anne Summers is just so intelligent. It is interesting reading this years later, unfortunately I don’t think things have improved and have probably gone backwards. I was truly sickened by the descriptions of emails etc being circulated at the time. Now looking to read Emily Maguire’s new book This is What a Feminist Looks Like.