This book will infuriate you and open your eyes to so many injustices that you simply accept as “life as it is” presented with many accounts from real women and statistics that will shock, frighten and sadden you. We should also applaud Bates for her courageous campaigning in the face of appalling abuse and hatred. Too often, decisions about whether or not to proceed to trial for rape rely on whether the woman fits the societal profile of the “perfect victim”: ie, those who are “sweet and pretty and innocent and careful and didn’t stray off the path or talk to the wolf”. Grateful that she has written such important books for us to do with what we will, but then I'm also sad that she has had to.

Black women are four times as likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth in the UK, yet rarely see themselves represented in campaigns to reach out to expectant mothers. The book unpicks systemic injustices, highlights their endless overlaps and makes for a brilliant and essential read (I only wish it didn’t need to be!

Domestic violence, harassment and rape are for example so common and trivialised that we're essentially conditioned to think they're part of "normal" life - no one bats an eyelid when about 90% of women report experiencing harassment in public, yet when we get a highly mediatised case like that of Sarah Everard the authorities present it as "an exception", "a bad apple", and so on, as if it came as a suprise that a man with overtly misogynistic views and behaviours who had been reported before would end up abusing his position of power to rape and murder a woman.

so… i wanted to see what people were saying about this book and how well received it was by people, so i read some reviews and most are saying how important and impactful it was, however of course there was negatives as well and it really intrigued me. Combining stories with shocking evidence, Fix the System, Not the Women is a blazing examination of sexual injustice and a rallying cry for reform.I was sad, angry and elated to finally feel understood - it's a strange combination to feel and no matter how tough it was at times to keep reading the book I'm so glad I did. Maternity discrimination, workplace sexual harassment, the gender pay gap “and so much more” lie somewhere in between.

Laura is a contributor at Women Under Siege, a New York-based project tackling rape in conflict worldwide and she is patron of SARSAS, Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support.This distracts us from the real problem: the failings and biases of a society that was not built for women.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. There are still injustices towards women that are raped, assaulted or even murdered by a male, and these injustices are sometimes entirely justified by the fact the person was a female.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Behaviours are based on thoughts and feelings, be them conscious or unsconscious, that's basic cognitive behavioural psychology. This book examines how everyday accounts of sexism have become so ingrained into daily life that not only do we not even notice them half the time, but they've infiltrated and infected every structure of society.