Reading list International Women's day Compiled by Erasmus University Library

8 March is International Women’s day. This is a day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women, but to also recognize that change is still needed to advance the position of women. To mark this occasion, the University Library has compiled a reading list honoring the advances of women, and shedding light on the change that still needs to happen.

The following reading list contains titles that either celebrate accomplishments, highlight issues, or guide the way forward.

This book showcases pioneering city mayors, key voices in the environmental and feminist movements, and academics. The essays collectively demonstrate both the need for women's empowerment for climate action and the powerful change it can bring.

Available at: https://eur.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1021147074

How can women's rights be seen as a universal value rather than a Western value imposed upon the rest of the world? Addressing this question, Eileen Hunt Botting offers the first comparative study of writings by Mary Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill. Although Wollstonecraft and Mill were the primary philosophical architects of the view that women's rights are human rights, Botting shows how non-Western thinkers have revised and internationalized their original theories since the nineteenth century.

Available at: https://eur.on.worldcat.org/oclc/923562121

Feminism is a hot topic. The battle for gender equality is being fought by everybody from politicians to indie social media campaigners, celebrities to school girls. But how did we get here and who paved the way for today’s badass women? 'Fight Like a Girl' profiles 50 fearless women – both the historical icons and the unsung heroes – such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Frida Kahlo and Roxane Gay. Each extraordinary life story is accompanied by a stunning portrait, along with eye-opening sidebars on their hard-fought causes and iconic quotes.

Available at: https://eur.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1129201877

What science has gotten so shamefully wrong about women, and the fight, by both female and male scientists, to rewrite what we thought we knew. For hundreds of years it was common sense: women were the inferior sex. Their bodies were weaker, their minds feebler, their role subservient. No less a scientist than Charles Darwin asserted that women were at a lower stage of evolution, and for decades, scientists--primarily men--claimed to find evidence to support this. From intelligence to emotion, cognition to behavior, science has continued to tell us that men and women are fundamentally different. Biologists claim that women are better suited to raising families or, more gently, uniquely empathetic. Men, on the other hand, continue to be described as excelling at tasks that require logic, spatial reasoning, and motor skills. But a huge wave of research is now revealing an alternative version of what we thought we knew.

Available at: https://eur.on.worldcat.org/oclc/960834774

When Nina Jankowicz's first book on online disinformation was profiled in The New Yorker last year, she expected attention but not an avalanche of abuse and harassment, predominantly from men, online. All women in politics, journalism and academia now face untold levels of harassment and abuse in online spaces. Together with the world's leading extremism researchers, Jankowicz wrote one of the definitive reports on this troubling phenomenon. Drawing on rigorous research into the treatment of Kamala Harris - the first woman vice-president - and other political and public figures, Nina also uses on her own experiences to provide a step-by-step plan for dealing with harassment, abuse, doxing and disinformation in online spaces.

Available at: https://eur.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1274200776

Little known but no less influential, Jo van Gogh-Bonger was sister-in-law of Vincent van Gogh, wife of his brother, Theo. When the brothers died soon after each other, she took charge of Van Gogh's artistic legacy and devoted the rest of her life to disseminating his work. Despite being widowed with a young son, Jo successfully navigated the male-dominated world of the art market--publishing Van Gogh's letters, organizing exhibitions in the Netherlands and throughout the world, and making strategic sales to private individuals and influential dealers--ultimately establishing Van Gogh's reputation as one of the finest artists of his generation. In doing so, she fundamentally changed how we view the relationship between the artist and his work. She also lived a rich and fascinating life--not only was she friends with eminent writers and artists, but she also was active within the Social Democratic Labour Party and closely involved in emerging women's movements. Using rich source material, including unseen diaries, documents and letters, this book charts the multi-faceted life of this visionary woman with the drive to shake the art world to its core.

Available at: https://eur.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1350488167