Book Review in 250 words or less: Women & Power by Mary Beard

In this 115-page-long book, not a word is wasted as Mary Beard criticises the public taboo of the integration of women’s oppression in politics, and their silencing right from the most influential western epic, the Odyssey. When Telemachus tells Penelope to shut up, Beard argues that a toxic culture for women has already evolved where a women will never be able to be taken seriously in a public sphere. Women were punished, and still are for speaking out and trying to change their role to a masculine one in desperation to be taken seriously. Through the book, she argues that to change this misogyny in society, we must change our definition of power to one of a verb. By defining power as a male attribute we are already excluding women. She seamlessly weaves the myths of female inferiority with the modern day dismissal of the idea of women and power and even argues that if most of us were asked to close our eyes and imagine a powerful figure, a man is more than likely to come to mind. Although this may not be universal , it is a problem which must be addressed. Beard shows the comparison of modern politicians with Medusa, the irony of Philomela’s declaration of her rape and the #MeToo campaign with sexual assaults being hidden thousands of years later. With such powerful content in such a small book, it would be ignorant not to read this book which attacks one of the biggest, yet most undermined problems through our evolution of morals.