Advice for Books or Resources on Feminism for an 11 year old Girl

[SeditiousLibeller]

I'm a married father (aged 36) to two daughters, one of whom is starting at a girls grammar school in year 7 in a couple of weeks' time.

I am looking for resources to encourage my daughter into thinking about modern feminism.

I am really looking for British sources as I have seen a lot of stuff is from the USA, and it's quite often a lot of pop psychology and trendy phraseology.

I want something that will help her to deal with the world as she becomes a young woman, and also to stand up to the fashionable belief that her sex doesn't matter, and that gender is the be all and end all.

Happy to be corrected on anything I've said. I just want the best for her and want her to be able to develop and then elucidate her own views.

We have always discussed issues of inequality between sexes at home, and have tried to encourage her to be herself (whoever that turns out to be,) but I need resources from others more literate than myself on the current issues.

‘We Should All Be Feminists’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a very short but easy to understand book (based on a TED talk which might still be online to view) and also reflects the expectations society has of women outside of the West.

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge

www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/27/the-lie-tree-frances-hardinge-review-teenage-fiction

amp.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/26/frances-hardinges-the-lie-tree-wins-costa-book-of-the-year-2015

Girl Up by Laura Bates

Laura Bates is TWAW

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (although she may be a little young for it at 11)
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez

Girl Up sounds exactly what I'm looking for and I have just ordered it. Seems perfect actually.

The Lie Tree can be her second summer read and thats in the basket now. She loved a book called Bearmouth recently and enjoys writing short horror stories and loves mystery so I'm sure she'll love it.

Will check out ChimamandaNgozi Adichie as I recall the name from a twitter spat with a teans activist I think I recall? If an essay it may be manageable for her still.

Will put Caitlin Moran on the back-burner for now due to your comments about age, and see how we get on with these two books first.

Thank you all. Greatly appreciated.

Following!

Be great to find a broad overview of feminist movements from a UK standpoint.

@Ereshkigalangcleg

Laura Bates is TWAW

Apologies as I've just re-resd the comments and had to look up this acronym.

Do you know if this view is prominent in the book Girl Up? Or is it that the author has expressed these views in other materials?

I know unpopular and unfashionable but I don't think the experiences of biological females are the same as people who declare themselves to he such.

My daughter found invisible women really interesting, but she is a few years older.
I think at her age, conversation is really important. Talk to her about the ways in which female people of all ages might be disadvantaged, and whether it is possible to not experience this by declaring oneself a boy ?
Talk to her about why so many girls might want to opt out of womanhood.
I think my teenage daughters are having a harder time than I had, and both my elder dd and a friend’s younger teen, have said that they wish they were teenagers in our era, not in this one. 😢

I definitely wouldn’t want my daughters reading ‘How to be a woman’ at age 11, the content is far too adult in my opinion. I believe Caitlyn Moran is another who recites the credo of gender identity- TWAW, TMAM, NBIAV although I am not sure that is reflected in the book, I can’t remember it well enough, it was a while ago!

I heard Milli Hill on the Filia podcast talking about her new book My Period. I think she said that her aim was to write a book for girls on menstruation from a feminist perspective just as she had done with Give Birth Like a Feminist. It might be worth a look from a feminism point of view and it is aimed at girls around the age of your daughter OP.

I highly recommend "The Girl Guide" by Marawa Ibrahim. My daughter loved it at age 12 or so and still goes back to it at 14. It's a very positive take on growing up.

Books on the suffragettes (there will be lots for young readers). Learning about them and the struggle for votes for women at a young age was definitely part of my feminist awakening.

I've read Girl Up although it was a while ago, but I don't think it would be suitable for an 11/12 year old. There's quite a lot shown in the Look Inside option if you check on Amazon. More suitable for mid-teens.

My 13 year old is just reading Irreversible Damage. Might be something for a year or two down the line.
She is going to read Helen Joyce's, Trans, next. Good introductory chapters. She can't grow up in a feminst way if there is no definition of woman or girl. Woman and girls can't defend themselves and their rights if we can't define ourselves. So starting with these books will help her understand that. Woman: adult human female. Girl: young human female.
Invisible Women may be a harder read at 11 but my friend and her daughter of that age are listening to the audio version together. That book really does make you think about how women have to fit in a man's world.
I think also introducing her to the issues women and girls face in other countries is a good way to start discussions about inequalities.
Also recent history in the UK. Things like women couldn't really have their own mortgage until the late 1970s(?) or that rape was still legal in marriage until 1995(?).

Also I believe every young girl should read "Living with the Dominator". It's a quick read but lists all the types of coercive and abusive behaviour men use against women in relationships. It also gives the flip side: what a healthy relationship looks like. Again you may feel she is too young for this yet, but one to buy and put to one side.

And for a body positive puberty book this one is great. The girl guide.www.<a class="break-all" href="https://amazon.co.uk/Girl-Guide-Marawa-Ibrahim/dp/1847809480/ref=asc_df_1847809480/?hvlocphy=1006964&linkCode=df0&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=311233467079&th=1&hvdev=m&hvtargid=pla-519040422644&hvrand=17376844665049943176&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-womens-rights-4326167-Advice-for-Books-or-Resources-on-Feminism-for-an-11-year-old-Girl" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">amazon.co.uk/Girl-Guide-Marawa-Ibrahim/dp/1847809480/ref=asc_df_1847809480/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=311233467079&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17376844665049943176&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006964&hvtargid=pla-519040422644&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

Thank you all for further suggestions. She is genuinely very bright and we've never tried to censor TV, films or books even those with difficult subjects. She is "academically mature" if not emotionally mature, so her mum and I will be discussing the books as she reads them.

I added a few books to the basket yesterday and told her to check them out on the family amazon account and read up about them to see if she'd want them. Funnily enough, Girl Up was the one she seemed most keen on, and she (unprompted) sent me a Huffington Post review/author interview on the book via WhatsApp, saying it seemed really interesting. So I definitely think she's desperate to engage with some of the more adult issues.

Regarding more issues, we have discussed things like marital rape in the past. And the current situation on Afghanistan has been a big talking point over the last few days in the house with both the girls discussing girls losing the right to education and child marriage.

Girl Up arrives today and I'm hoping it piques her interest enough to want to tackle more difficult reads afterwards.