This page lists books that are directly relevant to Gender Identity politics and the feminist Gender Critical viewpoint. Other pages linked from the menu list books on the wider Feminist movement.
Most books can be ordered online at News from Nowhere Radical and Community Bookshop, which is run by a women’s cooperative. When available we have linked to NFN and otherwise to bookshop.org. Other booksellers are available.
Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism by Kathleen Stock [9780349726625]
A timely and trenchant critique of the influential theory that we all have an inner feeling known as a gender identity, and that this feeling is more socially significant than our biological sex. Looks at biological sex in a range of important contexts, including women-only spaces and resources, healthcare, epidemiology, political organization and data collection.
Why is feminism the only social justice movement in the world that is expected to prioritise every other issue before pursuing its own objective of women’s liberation? Why does the movement appear to be moving backwards, accommodating the rights and feelings of men and leaving women in the cold?
Transgender Body Politics by Heather Brunskell-Evans [9781925950229]
At a time when supposedly enlightened attitudes are championed by the mainstream, philosopher and activist Heather Brunskell-Evans shows how, in plain view under the guise of liberalism, a regressive men’s rights movement is posing a massive threat to the human rights of women and children everywhere.
Unfair Play: The Battle for Women’s Sports by Sharron Davies & Craig Lord [9781800752801]
Biological males are being allowed to compete directly against women under the guise of trans ‘self-ID’, a development that could destroy the integrity of female sport. This callous indifference towards women in sport, argue the authors, is merely the latest stage in a decades-long history of sexism on the part of sport’s higher-ups.
Gender-Critical Feminism by Holly Lawford-Smith [9780198863885]
Introduces and defends gender-critical feminism, a theory and movement that reclaims the sex/gender distinction, insists upon the reality and importance of sex, and continues to understand gender as a way that men and women are made to be, rather than a way they really are.
Transpositions: Personal Journeys into Gender Criticism ed by Sarah Phillimore & Al Peters [9798362927219]
A collection of narratives from women and men about how they first became aware of the brewing conflict around ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ and how they decided to make their voices heard.
A Feminist View of Gender Identity Politics by Rosemary Goude
Gender is what feminism has critiqued for decades, so the recent concept of gender identity as something to be chosen and celebrated is a strange one for feminists. Available by emailing: nfn@newsfromnowhere.org.uk or on Ebay
Defending Women’s Spaces by Karen Ingala Smith [9781509554447]
This trenchant critique argues that we cannot ignore the wealth of evidence which shows that people of the female sex have a unique set of needs which are often not met by mixed-sex spaces. Drawing on her 30 years of experience the author outlines how certain spaces, including refuges, benefit from remaining single sex – and what they stand to lose.
Detransition: Beyond Before and After by Max Robinson [9781925950403]
“Trying to prevent myself from committing suicide by becoming less recognizably female was an attempt at resistance that, politically, functioned in many ways as a form of capitulation.” A far-reaching discussion of women’s struggles to survive under patriarchy, which draws upon a legacy of radical and lesbian feminist ideas.
Hags: the Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women by Victoria Smith [9780349726960]
As identity politics have taken hold, middle-aged women have found themselves talked and written about as morally inferior beings: the face of bigotry, entitlement and selfishness, to be ignored, pitied or abused. Care work, beauty, violence, political organization and sex are explored in relation to middle-aged women’s beliefs, bodies, histories and choices.