Reading lists for older teen and young adult readers:
Feminism
Your Skirt’s Too Short
Emily Maguire
After many waves of feminism, where are we? Are young women really either sluts or helpless dolls? Your Skirt’s Too Short seeks to enable young women and men to understand the history of gender politics and what lies ahead of them.
I Am Malala
Malala Yousafzai
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. While riding the bus home from school, she was shot in the head at point-blank range and few expected her to survive. Malala’s miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley to the halls of the United Nations.
We Are the Rebels
Clare Wright
How would the oft-told stories about Eureka have been different if women had been included? Clare Wright interrogates this omission and brings women to the forefront in her powerful history book for young adults.
Wildlife
Fiona Wood
During a semester in the wilderness, 16-year-old Sib expects the tough outdoor education program and the horrors of dorm life, but friendship drama and love that gets complicated? That will take some navigating.
Shrill
Lindy West
Shrill is an uproarious memoir, a feminist rallying cry in a world that thinks gender politics are tedious and that women, especially feminists, can’t be funny. Coming of age in a culture that demands women be as small, quiet, and compliant as possible, writer and humourist Lindy West quickly discovered she was anything but.
No to Feminism
Rebecca Shaw
Feminism. It’s the scourge of modern society, ripping across the planet and leaving death and destruction in its wake. You don’t need it: Twitter knows best.
Not Just Lucky
Jamila Rizvi
Australian women are suffering from a crisis of confidence about work. Accustomed to being overlooked and undervalued, even when women do get to the top, they explain their success away as ‘luck’. But it’s not. Not Just Lucky exposes the structural and cultural disadvantages that rob women of their confidence.
I Call Myself a Feminist: The View from Twenty-Five Women Under Thirty
ed. Victoria Pepe et al
Is feminism still a dirty word? Is feminism still thought of as anti-men rather than pro-human? Twenty-five of the brightest, funniest, bravest young women explore what being a feminist means to them.
An Isolated Incident
Emily Maguire
When 25-year-old Bella Michaels is brutally murdered in the small town of Strathdee, the community is stunned. Unwillingly thrust into the eye of the storm is Bella’s beloved older sister, Chris, a barmaid at the local pub. Chris is plunged into despair and searches for answers, reasons, explanation – anything – that could make sense of Bella’s death. But as the days tick by with no arrest, Chris’s suspicion of those around her grows.
Yassmin’s Story
Yassmin Abdel-Magied
At 21, Yassmin found herself working on a remote Australian oil and gas rig; she was not only the only woman but a Muslim with a Sudanese-Egyptian-Australian background. This is the story of how she got there, where she’s going, and how she wants the world to change.
No Way! Okay, Fine.
Brodie Lancaster
From a small town in regional Australia to New York City and back again, Brodie has spent her life searching for bodies like hers, girls who loved each other, and women who didn’t follow the unspoken instructions to shrink or hide that they’ve received since birth.
One True Thing
Nicole Hayes
When is a secret not a secret? When your whole life is public. Frankie is used to being a politician’s daughter, but with her mum now running for Premier, life’s a whole lot crazier than usual.
Do we still need feminism? Who is feminism for? Does feminism have the ability to foster real and necessary change for women and others experiencing disadvantage, and the potential to create a fairer world?
These texts look at the place of feminism in the modern world as it relates to identity, sexuality, careers, relationships and more. From books exploring the basic principles of feminism to those imagining feminist futures in fiction, these works offer an alternative to the gender stereotypes that too often shape our choices and dominate our day-to-day lives.
Resources
- Everyday feminism
Intersectional feminism for your everyday life - Feminartsy
An online feminist literature and arts journal, showcasing some of the best writing and art talent in Australia and beyond - Feministing
An online community run by and for young feminists - Fitzroy High School Feminist Collective
Resources for young feminists by young feminists - Hot Chicks With Big Brains
Challenging the way women are pigeonholed, speaking with women about work, and interrogating the way women feel about themselves - Lip Magazine
An independent magazine for young women that provides intelligent, thoughtful content for our equally intelligent and thoughtful readers - Rosie Respect
Helping girls navigate life and the web
Thinking Points
- How would you have defined feminism before reading any of the texts on the list?
- How do the texts you read explore feminism?
- Did your understanding of feminism change during your reading?
- Who is feminism for? Is it relevant to you?
- For the women in the texts you read, how does feminism make an impact on their lives? Is it a positive or negative impact?
- Would you say these texts are important only for girls and women? What might boys or men learn from reading them?
- Is the feminism in these texts inclusive or exclusive? Do the ideas relate to boys and non-binary people or only to women? Do they take into account class and race?
- What stereotypes do you recognise in these texts? How are they dealt with in the story?
- How do characters’ understanding of gender stereotypes develop and evolve over time?
- Does the writer speak about or demonstrate that their awareness around gender has shifted over time? How is this explored in the text? How do the characters develop their understanding of gender and stereotypes? Has your own understanding of gender and feminism shifted over time?
- Whose voices are privileged or taken more seriously in the books you read from the list? How does this interact with your understanding or experience of gender? Were particular stories or stereotypes reinforced more than once in the texts you read?