A Manifesto

The most renowned classicist in Britain, Mary Beard, is also a passionate and outspoken feminist. With dry wit, she sheds light on the gender agenda and demonstrates how history has treated powerful women. Her examples range from classical antiquity to modern times, from Medusa and Athena to Theresa May and Hillary Clinton. Beard examines the cultural underpinnings of misogyny, considers the public voice of women, our cultural assumptions about women's relationship to power, and how powerful women resist being squeezed into a male mold. A year after the emergence of #metoo, Beard reflects on how discussions have evolved during this time and how they relate to issues such as rape and consent, as well as the narratives men tell themselves to justify their actions. In her characteristic Beard style, using examples from both ancient and modern times, Beard argues: "It's time for change – and now!"

By the author of the international bestseller SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome.

Mary Beard is a Professor of Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, and the Classics editor for the TLS. She enjoys worldwide academic recognition, is a member of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her previous books include Civilisations: How We Look / The Eye of Faith, the international bestseller SPQR, and the award-winning bestseller Pompeii, as well as The Parthenon and Confronting the Classics. Her blog has been collected in the books It's a Don's Life and All in a Don's Day. All these books are published by Profile.