A Paperback Original

Caitlin Moran’s debut—an instant runaway bestseller in the UK—puts a new face on feminism, cutting to the heart of issues with an irreverent, transcendent, and hilarious touch

“The U.K. version of Tina Fey’s Bossypants. . . . You will laugh out loud, wince, and—in my case—feel proud to be the same gender as the author.” —Emma Gilbey Keller, Vanity Fair

“Because for all that people have tried to abuse it and disown it, 'feminism' is still the word we need. That 'Girl Power' has been the sole rival to the word feminism in the last 50 years is a cause for much sorrow on behalf of women. After all, P. Diddy has had four different names, and he’s just one man.”

Though they have the vote and the Pill and haven’t been burned as witches since 1727, life isn’t exactly a stroll down the catwalk for modern women. They are beset by choices, uncertainties, and questions: Why are they supposed to get Brazilians? Why do bras hurt? Why the incessant noise about having babies? And do men secretly hate them?

At a time when more than 70 percent of American women don’t consider themselves to be feminists, award-winning writer Caitlin Moran offers a provocative, funny, and much-needed polemic on feminism and the state of women today.

Moran interweaves her funny, common-sense observations with scenes from her own life, from her terrible thirteenth birthday (“I am overweight, have no friends, and boys throw gravel at me when they see me”) through the riot of adolescence to her life as a writer, wife, and a mother. With rapier wit, Moran slices right to the truth—whether it’s the workplace, strip-clubs, love, fat, abortion, popular entertainment, or children.

Irreverent, funny, and deceptively serious, How to Be a Woman jumpstarts a new conversation about feminism, laying bare the reasons why female rights and empowerment are essential issues not only for women, but for society itself.