FemBookSoc goes from strength to strength

By Flo Jarvis, Year 13

In FemBookSoc this term, we’ve had a riotous old time – in more sense than one. Presentations, discussions, videos and reading – our little club has gone from strength to strength now that we can meet in person again (with the tragic exception of our last session of the term). Read on to find out about the ten fabulously fascinating sessions we’ve had so far.

We began with the basics. Debating questions over what feminism is, what feminism means, who feminism is for, and what feminism wants. Our first session was a series of discussions sparked from some statement slips. It was an initial session that served us well for future discussions. In our second session we talked about Shon Faye’s new book The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice, in particular the chapter titled ‘The Ugly Sister: Trans People in Feminism’. This book addresses questions that seem to keep hitting feminists and raised many more for FemBookSoc.

Next we heard about women under the Taliban – a brief history of their place within the regime and some discussion of where they will fit into the future of Afghanistan. Topical and deeply concerning, this presentation was an important dip into international feminisms and thinking beyond the UK.

We turned to literature for our fourth session of the term, which covered Carson McCullers, her classic work The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, her place within the development of theories of intersectionality, and critical interpretations of her work. Not considered a classic of feminist fiction by any stretch, investigating The Heart in this way was refreshing and intriguing. "The Left’s Problem with Women; Part 1: 1780-1830" was the session that wrapped up our first half term. It looked at the roots of some of the sexism and misogyny that today emerges in the British left wing and introduced us to works such as The Making of the English Working Class, by EP Thompson, and Anna Clark’s The Struggle for the Breeches.

For our first session back after half term we wanted to take time to reflect on some of the ideas and tensions we had begun to explore in the first half of term, so we had a good old fashioned chat. Our discussion was as varied and explorative as the fantastic sessions we’ve had. After that, we heard about the lesbian experience of womanhood, as discussed in Jane Traies’s Now You See Me. Grappling with what defines a woman and what characterises attraction to women allowed us to work through some nuanced issues that had come up repeatedly in preceding sessions.

The following session hit us with some thought-provoking statistics to illustrate some of the impacts of the ‘confidence gap’ between the genders. We thought about women in the workplace and some of the roots of this disparity of self-empowerment. Turning again to history, we looked next at the Greenham Common Peace Camp, sometimes known as a “women’s” peace camp, which sprung up in 1981 in Berkshire. We learnt about the role of traditionally female crafts such as knitting and cross stitching in this protest, as well as considering the particular urge it seemed women felt to stand for nuclear disarmament. This presentation sprung from Ann Pettitt’s Walking to Greenham.

Staying with the 1980s, our next session covered the role of women during the AIDS/HIV epidemic. We started with the historical context of the epidemic, before hearing about the place of women within the LGBTQ+ community and some of the feminist heroes who played active and very moving roles. Also this half term, FemBookSoc presented at the PIE Squared Conference Day. With sessions on ‘Feminism 101’ and ‘Women and the Climate Crisis’ run by our very own members, this offered an opportunity for outreach and to advance the feminist agenda! It also allowed us to explore yet more important and relevant issues facing 21st-century feminists. Speaking of which, Equal Pay Day fell on the 18th of November this year. This is the day where it is calculated that women, on average, stop earning for the year because of the gender pay gap. With such a packed schedule we did not devote a whole session to it this year, but we did dive into some fascinating resources on the Teams channel, and the gender pay gap is never entirely absent from a FemBookSoc session anyway.

We rounded off with what we are calling ‘The FemBookSoc Christmas Party: The Mother of all Parties’. Sadly, by this point, we had to dial in some members via Microsoft Teams, but the feminist spirit is not easily dampened! We had a Kahoot quiz to recap some of the brilliant things we’ve learnt this term and dissolved in to a healthy level of Christmas-related feminist rants. It concluded FemBookSoc’s most highly attended term to date and a storming return to the in-person society scene!

FemBookSoc wishes you a very happy holiday and would recommend you spend it reading any of the books mentioned above! See you next term!