"Women & Power" by Mary Beard

In "Women & Power: A Manifesto," Mary Beard ponders "just how deeply embedded in Western culture are the mechanisms that silence women, that refuse to take them seriously, and that sever them (sometimes quite literally, as we shall see) from the centres of power." (Preface, pp. x-xi)

Answer: very. "When it comes to silencing women, Western culture has had thousands of years of practice," Beard says. (3,000-plus, in fact, with the first recorded example found in Homer's Odyssey.)

Beard should know:  she is a classics professor at the University of Cambridge and a well-known television personality in the United Kingdom (whom I recognize from watching various programs on PBS and TVOntario). And, sadly, she's had her own experiences with men trying to silence and mansplain her, on Twitter and elsewhere. 

This is a small, slim little book -- a little more than 100 well-spaced pages (including a preface, afterword, references, acknowledgments, index -- and full-page illustrations!). It's really more of a long essay in two parts than a book, and it's actually based on two lectures Beard gave in 2014 and 2017.  (And yes, I will admit to deliberately going for a short book in an effort to reach my revised 2019 reading goal, lol.)

But Beard packs a lot into those pages, and provides much food for thought and further discussion. She shares examples from her extensive knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman history and literature, with connections to current events and personalities.

I found it interesting and thought-provoking -- a quick read, and worth the brief time it takes to read it. :)  I have only two quibbles (hence, my not-quite-perfect rating below): 

First (mild spoiler alert here): near the end, Beard asks, "Should we be optimistic about change when we think about what power is and what it can do, and women's engagement with it?"  She continues, "Maybe, we should a little."  (p. 87) But on the next page, she admits, "the picture overall is rather more gloomy."  Well, she's honest. I just wish she had reason to feel differently.

And,  in the afterword, Beard explains that she only did some "very light updating" to the two lectures she delivered.  "...I have resisted the temptation to make drastic changes, to introduce new themes or to develop at length some of the ideas that are merely floated here. I would like in the future to think harder about how exactly we might go about re-configuring those notions of  'power' that now exclude all but a very few women;  and I would like to try to pull apart the very idea of 'leadership' (usually male) that is now assumed to be the key to successful institutions, from schools and universities to businesses and government. But that is for another day." (pp. 93-94)  There's a part of me that wishes Beard hadn't resisted temptation and had tackled those ideas in a longer and more expansive book. I really hope she does so in the future! 

Four (4) stars on Goodreads.

This was book #47 that I have read in 2019 to date, bringing me to 196% (!) of my 2019 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 24 books.  I have completed my challenge for the year -- currently 23 books beyond my  goal -- and I have surpassed my reading total for 2018 by 20 books.  :) 

(Can I double my original goal and read one more book -- for a total of 48 -- in the two weeks before the end of the year??  How about going for 50??  Stay tuned...!)