Everyday Sexism

Despite its cheerful cover, Everyday Sexism is a difficult, but necessary read. It’s a compilation of stories from the Everyday Sexism Project, a website where readers can write and submit accounts of the sexism and gender inequality they have experienced in their own lives. From street harassment and sexist dress codes, to workplace discrimination and harrowing accounts of rape and assault, the stories anthologized here detail countless painful incidents experienced by real men and women. Laura Bates, a journalist and the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, has grouped the stories into twelve different chapters according to their subject matter, adding her own research and interviews as commentary pieces accompanying each chapter. The result is a comprehensive portrait of gender inequality in the United States and the United Kingdom, where most of the project’s entries were submitted. It is disheartening that books being published in 2016 still have to seek to prove that sexism exists, but the stories provided in Everyday Sexism make it clear that such books need to be written. Everyday Sexism should be required reading for all men and women.