7 Best Books that Talk about Women’s Issues and Challenges
Feminist or women-centric literature is the best tool to look into the challenges and issues women face in their social perimeter. If you want to dig deeper and know what triggers the troubles in women’s lives, you must go through the recommended list of books.
- Seeing Like a Feminist by Nivedita Menon:
If ever there was a lucid and comprehensive primer to feminism, is it this book. Menon explains complex concepts with the kind of accessibility that is very rare in most academic works. This contains the zeitgeist of contemporary Indian women’s movements, and includes everything from discussions about reproductive choice, to the Pink Chaddi campaign, to queer politics.
2. Skeins by Richa Gupta:
Categorised as feminist literature, this novel consists of the stories of 16 women who connect during a trip to the Iberian Peninsula. Their stories of sorrow, joy, hope, secrecy and regrets will make you think about life and its purpose. It’s a great read and provides true but slightly uncomfortable insights into our society. However, these women are filled with zeal to turn the winds in their favour. They accept the loss, brave the patriarchal society and fight the odds…an amazing book with so many characters!
3. Why Loiter? by Shilpa Phadke:
This is a work of beautifully written non-fiction about contemporary urban public spaces, and gender. Its basic premise coincides with the central demand that emerged from the December 2012 protests in India, perhaps best articulated in the slogan “bekhauf azaadi” — freedom from fear. This book explores the ways in which women deserve to be able to loiter anywhere they want, and at any time.
4. My Story by Kamala Das:
The incandescent Kamala Das, eminent writer of prose and poetry in Malayalam and English and Nobel prize nominee, published the story of her life in 1973. In speaking lyrically and candidly of her struggles, and her loves, she offers her readers an important insight into many significant issues that continue to be central to the lives of women everywhere today.
5. A Life Less Ordinary by Baby Halder:
Baby Halder’s story is extraordinary precisely because domestic workers’ realities are so invisible in middle and upper-class peoples’ everyday consciousness. Halder battled enormous odds, including domestic violence and the murder of her sister, to arrive in New Delhi, a single mother of three, at the age of 25. Her autobiography, written alongside her job as a domestic worker, is a bestseller and has been translated into twenty-one languages.
6. Fragrance of Peace by Irom Sharmila:
What does a woman who has been on hunger strike for more than a decade think about? Irom Sharmila has been force-fed, been accused of trying to kill herself, and has been imprisoned, all for her peaceful protest against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. Her endurance of the longest hunger strike in the world is reflected in her fine poetry, tender, and determined all at once.
7. Dangerous Sex, Invisible Labour by Prabha Kotiswaran:
Kotiswaran, a professor of law, went to Kolkata and Tirupati for her research on sex work. The result is a compelling work that questions and ultimately overturns the most common assumptions made about sex workers and their lives. Considering the complex nature of the issue, and the sheer number of sex workers in India, this is definitely worth a read for anyone who wants to broaden their understanding before making judgments based on pre-conceived notions.
