share with me!

[AMcoffeeLover]

Do you ever get those days when you wake up and realise how little you really know/understand?
This was compounded when I was on the tube this morning and saw a charity poster highlighting women in the third world who have to suffer periods with no sanitary protection. Is so obvious! Why did I not think of that? (donation give of course)
Please share book recommendations and your knowledge with me. I feel I've become too lax with developing myself and need a push forward

Not just no sanitary protection but no underwear in many cases - you can also donate pants (unused).

And it's not just lack of protection, it often means missing school for girls.

I'm reading Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine which explores the concept of brain sex from a scientific and psychological perspective. I'm saving it for tube journeys so haven't gotten very far into it but it's very well written. It's also only £2.99 in kindle format.

I recently read a book called from outrage to courage, by Anna Firth Murray. Which discusses the inequalities women suffer in developing countries and what they're doing to overcome them. It's fascinating, if a bit raw in places.

One initiative I've heard about teaches women how to make washable sanitary wear from scrap material, both for themselves and to sell to others as a cottage industry.

I had some fascinating gender lectures which opened my eyes to the burden thats placed on women in developing countries, and how some development/charity projects backfired through not appreciating it. Later when working this was plain to see also. Most of my notes were paper but could try to find some online resources?

Thank you all, I've purchased the books mentioned

Anything else?

Kat Bayard's the equality delusion is good, as is wifework

I liked the guardians collection '40 years of feminism.'

A few months ago I read about breast ironing/flattening. The borough I lived in up until recently in is one of the parts of Britain that experts are worried it is practised in. The reasons for doing it are really sad.

Here's an explanation from Wikipedia for anyone who hasn't heard about it...

"Breast ironing (also known as breast flattening[1]) is the pounding and massaging of a pubescent girl's breasts, using hard or heated objects, to try to make them stop developing or disappear.[2][3] It is typically carried out by the girl's mother who will say she is trying to protect the girl from sexual harassment and rape,[3] to prevent early pregnancy that would tarnish the family name,[4] or to allow the girl to pursue education rather than be forced into early marriage.[2][4] It is mostly practiced in parts of Cameroon, where boys and men may think that girls whose breasts have begun to grow are ready for sex.[2] There are also fears that it has spread to the Cameroonian diaspora, for example to that in Britain."

Sorry should have linked!

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_ironing

I second Firth Murray's book. I would also go and look at all the resources available at UN women.

Firth Murray's book was the main text for her free online international women's health and human rights course.

I think that course has enrolment closed right now, but if you type the course title into YouTube, lots of the class videos of various international feminist speakers are available.

If the course starts enrolling again, I would advise anyone interested to join it. You don't have to do any assignments if you don't want to, and it guides you through the book by giving you other appropriate reading and videos week by week. And the forum you get access to has people posting from feminist groups all over the world.

Agree with almondcakes it's an extremely interesting and enlightening course. I lagged behind everyone else but it didn't matter