Author: Angela Saini
Book Link

Sometimes a book comes along that gets you thinking in a direction you never considered. They challenge you, force you to think differently and activate your fight or flight mechanism.

These are the books I treasure the most and reading Inferior almost put it on my list.

While you would be hard pressed to sway me from my feminist upbringing (household of four very strong women plus a concentration in feminist ethics during my undergrad degree), there is still this overlying narrative running in my head about differences between men and women. Much of that I confess, has to do with the gender classes that emphasize patriarchy as a systemic framework in which we live.

In other words, it’s hard to say there’s no difference between men and women and we should rid ourselves of the distinction when you have professors pointing their fingers at men and categorizing them as the problem.

Saini does a great job at unearthing the science to show how gender differences really are a social construct and biologically speaking, the differences are far and few between. There were points where I nodded in enlightenment and other points where I wanted to challenge what was being presented (especially the section on hormones… something I’m incredibly familiar with in my own medical history).

The supposed objectivity of her findings also caused me to squint in confusion. Sometimes she would pick a biological approach and other times it would be a social one making the evidence a forced fit into the author’s thesis.

Overall, a really solid read if you are unfamiliar with any of the scientific arguments in gender theory.