I’ve been itching to write another book list and did not realize that it’s been a year since I published my last one. This list is an homage to ladies in heels to commemorate Women’s month in SA, 2023.
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
A book most beloved and read every year since the age of 18. Personally, I’ve resonated with the main character Jane Eyre, in character, personality and values. It may come as a shock, but I am a green (people focused)/ blue (deep thinker) Insights personality (Carl Jung) first, and my yellow (social butterfly) only comes out when I’m working and interacting with others. I am firstly and intellectually, quite a deep thinker. Aren’t all business creatives?
I’ve always been deeply moved by Jane’s choice to be independent and provide for herself by becoming a Governess, over choosing the convenience of a simple, quiet, and married life especially in the eighteen hundreds when women and children were essentially owned by men. More importantly, Jane chooses to listen to her own heartbeat and trust her beliefs which ultimately leads her to success and happiness. In career and love.
- We should all be feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
Firstly, if you have not watched Chimamanda’s, Danger of a single story on TED. Do so now. She talks about how stereotypes and perceptions can limit our thinking of African citizens and if you are from Africa – we can all relate. Feminism to me is more than just a movement. It is an ideology. It does not sit in a box for me, and I continue to want to break the mold of it. The box of it. The gender box. That it is only about promoting equality, gender rights, breaking glass ceilings or fighting the patriarchy. In today’s online atmosphere it is also about protecting the rights of a woman to be whatever she wants to be without being abused online by her own female community. Where is the sister support? That is what feminism is. It is why it exists. To protect women in every aspect. This book encouraged me to look for those unconscious biases in life. To think beyond myself as a female but also to encourage men to be part of the conversation in a way that they don’t feel threatened or intimidated because we’re raging at them. They can’t hear us. Being a feminist also means that I can celebrate my softness and femininity while still being boss about my business. I don’t even understand why feminism is a women thing only. We make men. We raise them. Read the book.
- On beauty by Zadie Smith
Was one of those novels that stretched my mind. It’s a story about two feuding academic families that are the same but very different in political beliefs, culture, values, and behavior and how the choices the men make, affect the women of each family. Zadie captures the essence of how we live in the perception of what we have been exposed to. Of what we know. Our unconscious biases. Then we foolishly assume that what we know is normal but another’s normal is not our normal. In politics. In how we love others. In our behavior and everyday choices. What I was most affected by in On beauty, is that the choices we make as women, are our own to make. Irrespective of how others feel or think about it. That is where our authentic power resides. I had one of those uncomfortable unconscious bias moments where I realized that there is grace in allowing a female friend, sister, colleague, family member, make the choice that is hers to make without judgement. It’s a reflection of true feminism and holding space for each other.
- Always another country by Sisonke Msimang
There are only so many books that I have read that have had the ability to make me feel like I am soaring as a woman, emotionally, mentally, intellectually. Always another country, is one of them. I could identify with how it feels to want to be elsewhere because of the possibilities of a simple and tidy life but also having such a deep love for the country and city that I come from. Then having the constant need to travel to every city and continent to quell an adventurous cultural addiction but also having this deep aspiration to be part of something larger than me in my country. That being a third-class citizen (foreigner) in another country – will never give me. Living and working in South Africa is complex. However, Sisonke’s book reminded me of why I love what I do and why I choose to do it where I do it and whom I do it with. In my country. Nothing beats that gees (spirit)!
- Dare to lead by Brené Brown
If I must choose one book off this list. I would choose Dare to lead. Undoubtedly. Brené Brown is breaking all sorts of ceilings, feelings, emotions that we as humans are just struggling with in today’s culture. We lack the ability to feel our feelings. Feel our shame. Feel our guilt. Be vulnerable. Admit mistakes. Pain. Name it. Recognize it. Process it and then move onto the next emotional block that hinders us from living our best lives. This book has freed me to have the most uncomfortable conversations I could ever brace in my career, personally and socially. I by nature of my profession, love uncomfortable conversations and if you’re a friend, you will know by now, that I thrive on them, but this book has freed me to go so much deeper. For myself, others, my industry, and community. And as the title sums it up: Brave work. Tough conversations. Whole hearts. Must read. Non-negotiable.
- Goodnight stories for rebel girls by Elena Favilli & Francesca Cavallo
I wish I’d had a book like this when I was growing up. I was in my teens when I was introduced to Frida Kahlo and a full-grown adult when I came across RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) for the first time. Both feminists. Doing crazy things in the time when it was impossible to do impactful or phenomenal things as a woman. Frida has outlived her husband, Diego Rivera, in abundance even though he was famous when they were alive. Ruth has made legal changes in America that her husband never had that opportunity to. There are 100 heroic women documented in a fairy tale style to inspire and learn that the impossibilities live only in our heads and the ones that make the changes are the ones that are crazy enough to (Jobs).
