Praise for Sexed
“I loved reading this vital account of the defence of sex-based rights in Britain, contextualized within the rich history of women’s political activism. It’s good to remind ourselves that women have, for centuries, grappled with the intersections of feminism, socialism and anti-racism and that, rather than being a barrier to progress, they are a driver; and that there is a long history of men failing to support women’s equality and liberation.”
Karen Ingala Smith, author of Defending Women’s Spaces
“This is a brilliant and unmissable history of British feminism. Susanna Rustin traces the common causes and splits from Wollstonecraft to Mumsnet. Her book is vital to understanding why the 2020s have brought a resurgence of grassroots feminism that many would not have predicted.”
Sonia Sodha, The Observer
“Sexed takes us through the history of British feminism, describing the battles that women have fought and won across the centuries, including less familiar examples, such as Elizabeth Fry’s achievement of having women prisoners housed separately from men. For a generation of women fighting to reclaim our rights anew, there is much inspiration to be found in this history.”
Alice Sullivan, Professor of Sociology, University College London
“Susanna Rustin provides a fascinating overview of feminist history in the UK from Mary Wollstonecraft to contemporary controversies over sex and gender. Throughout, she explores the tensions and challenges faced by successive generations of feminist writers and activists around what Wollstonecraft called “the distinction of sex”. Whatever your views about whether biological sex or gender identity should be central to feminist analysis and activism, this book provides important insights into a currently contested issue.”
Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, Director, UK Women’s Budget Group
“This important book navigates the history of feminism from Mary Wollstonecraft through the suffrage campaigns to anti-colonial socialism, peace movements and resistance to austerity at a time when the movement finds itself in opposition to an illiberal and regressive attack from the US right, Russia, Brazil and parts of eastern Europe on the rights of women, gender-nonconforming people, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans people. Admirably, Rustin has written for people who don’t agree with her as well as those who do, and her book seeks broad alliances and welcome accommodations where there is currently ideological conflict. In doing so, it points up how feminist voices are often suppressed by the same forces that attack any and all disruptions to the status quo. This detailed, deft and fascinating exploration of writers, organizers, parliamentarians, campaigners and liberators, some famous, others unknown, from Mary Wollstonecraft to Stella Dadzie, Gail Lewis, Amrit Wilson, Hazel Carby and Jo Cox, reveals continuities no less than ruptures between generations of women and across economic and racial divides.”
Angelique Richardson, Professor of English, University of Exeter
“This comprehensive chronicle of British feminism underscores how the material reality of being female has always played a key role in the history of women’s rights and reforms. In an age where violence against women and girls is rampant, violent online pornography proliferates and prostitution is glamorized against a backdrop of rape convictions being at an all-time low, the salience of sex must be recognized.”
Tonia Antoniazzi, Labour MP for Gower
“Sexed argues that sex – sexed bodies – and not gender has always been feminism’s fault line. Feminism touches the most difficult and, for Susanna Rustin, recalcitrant areas of our lives and times: reproductive technologies, motherhood, childcare, poverty and alliances with other groups. For these reasons and more, thinking about the 'meanings of sex', Susanna Rustin reminds us, 'is feminist work' that will always need to be done. Sexed offers a thoughtful guide to feminism’s past and present.”
Sally Alexander, Emerita Professor of Modern History, Goldsmiths, University of London
“I love Rustin’s attitude, unafraid to ask all kinds of questions with a calm, enquiring mind. How did we get here? Who says feminism comes in waves? A fascinating, illuminating and essential history of British feminism written in the eye of the hurricane around sex and gender raging right now.”
Samira Ahmed, journalist and broadcaster
“an urgent reappraisal of feminism”
Fiona Sturges, The Guardian
“…it covers enormous – and important – ground in its 286 pages.”
Hannah Barnes, New Statesman
“impressive in its scope and erudition. The narrative zips along faster than the King’s horse heading for Emily Davison, and elegantly compresses a lot of detailed information”
Kathleen Stock
“measured and insightful…Sexed is a powerful reminder of just how much women have achieved, fuelled by a sense of injustice, against the odds and relatively speedily”
Yvonne Roberts, The Observer
“brave and passionate”
Alice O’Keeffe, The Times
"a clear eye and a brain unfogged by fashion"
The Critic
“timely […] Sexed: A history of British feminism reminds us vividly that so many of the women’s rights we take for granted today are the result of sex-based activism that our foremothers bravely fought for, usually in the face of strong male opposition.”
Times Literary Supplement
