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Feminism for a World on Fire
GLOBAL IN SCOPE, FEARLESS IN TONE AND DARING ABOUT WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN NEXT
'The world is on fire, and this is the book we need in this moment' ANGELA SAINI, author of THE PATRIARCHS
'Fantastic and timely . . . I highly recommend this book to all women' ZAHRA JOYA, author of THE VANISHING GIRL OF KABUL
'This is a wonderful book, terrifying yet full of hope. I highly recommend it' NICOLAS NIARCHOS, author of ELEMENTS OF POWER
Across the world, women are facing backlash. Authoritarian states, online misogyny and climate breakdown are creating growing dangers for women, as their safety is being threatened and their freedoms are under attack.
Today, feminism is trapped in a cycle of consumerism and sold to women as individual empowerment. The result is that women are struggling to build connections with one another and with the world around them.
How can women defend their rights and freedoms in this dangerous world?
In the urgent Feminism for a World on Fire, Natasha Walter moves decisively beyond individualism to build a vision of a rooted feminism that can connect women's liberation to other movements for equality and environmental protection. A world where women can thrive together on a flourishing planet may sometimes seem like a distant dream - but it is still within our grasp.
With clarity and courage, in this passionate and compelling book, Natasha Walter finds a thread of real hope in the dark.
'This book couldn't be more timely, or more needed. I found it a joy to read' JULIET STEVENSON
'At the heart of Natasha Walter's book is a proposition that actually filled me with hope' MARY PORTAS
'An urgent call to arms for those of us who are left despairing about the state of the world' TAHMIMA ANAM, GUARDIAN
'As neoliberalism has hollowed out many things that make life bearable, and fun, Walter believes a revitalised, muscled-up feminism is urgently needed' IRISH SUNDAY INDEPENDENT
'Natasha Walters is a unique voice and a big picture thinker. She's this is a world on fire. This book will help you understand exactly how' CAROLE CADWALLADR
'Refreshing and inspiring' CAROLINE LUCAS
'The world is on fire, and this is the book we need in this moment' ANGELA SAINI, author of THE PATRIARCHS
'Fantastic and timely . . . I highly recommend this book to all women' ZAHRA JOYA, author of THE VANISHING GIRL OF KABUL
'This is a wonderful book, terrifying yet full of hope. I highly recommend it' NICOLAS NIARCHOS, author of ELEMENTS OF POWER
Across the world, women are facing backlash. Authoritarian states, online misogyny and climate breakdown are creating growing dangers for women, as their safety is being threatened and their freedoms are under attack.
Today, feminism is trapped in a cycle of consumerism and sold to women as individual empowerment. The result is that women are struggling to build connections with one another and with the world around them.
How can women defend their rights and freedoms in this dangerous world?
In the urgent Feminism for a World on Fire, Natasha Walter moves decisively beyond individualism to build a vision of a rooted feminism that can connect women's liberation to other movements for equality and environmental protection. A world where women can thrive together on a flourishing planet may sometimes seem like a distant dream - but it is still within our grasp.
With clarity and courage, in this passionate and compelling book, Natasha Walter finds a thread of real hope in the dark.
'This book couldn't be more timely, or more needed. I found it a joy to read' JULIET STEVENSON
'At the heart of Natasha Walter's book is a proposition that actually filled me with hope' MARY PORTAS
'An urgent call to arms for those of us who are left despairing about the state of the world' TAHMIMA ANAM, GUARDIAN
'As neoliberalism has hollowed out many things that make life bearable, and fun, Walter believes a revitalised, muscled-up feminism is urgently needed' IRISH SUNDAY INDEPENDENT
'Natasha Walters is a unique voice and a big picture thinker. She's this is a world on fire. This book will help you understand exactly how' CAROLE CADWALLADR
'Refreshing and inspiring' CAROLINE LUCAS
Audible Audio
Published May 7, 2026
About the author
Natasha Walter
8 books66 followers British feminist writer and human rights activist. She is the author of Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism (2010, Virago) and The New Feminism (1998, Virago), and is the director of Women for Refugee Women.
Her father was Nicolas Walter, an anarchist and secular humanist writer; her grandfather was William Grey Walter, a neuroscientist. After attending North London Collegiate School, she read English at St John's College, Cambridge, graduating with a double First, and then won a Frank Knox Fellowship to Harvard.Her first job was at Vogue magazine, she then became Deputy Literary Editor of The Independent and then a columnist for The Guardian. She went on to write for many publications and to appear regularly on BBC2's Newsnight Review and Radio 4's Front Row. In 1999 she was a judge on the Booker Prize.
Walter is the founder and director of the charity Women for Refugee Women which campaigns for the rights of women who seek asylum. In 2008 Women for Refugee Women produced the play Motherland which Natasha Walter wrote based on the experiences of women and children in immigration detention. It was directed by Juliet Stevenson and performed at the Young Vic in 2008 by Juliet Stevenson, Harriet Walter and others. Women for Refugee Women subsequently worked in partnership with other organisations to campaign for the end to the detention of children for immigration purposes in the UK, a policy which the government announced it would end in 2010.
She is the author of The New Feminism, which was an influential feminist book published by Virago in 1998. Her book Living Dolls, also published by Virago, looks at the resurgence of sexism in contemporary culture. Natasha Walter says, "I once believed that we only had to put in place the conditions for equality for the remnants of old-fashioned sexism in our culture to wither away. I am ready to admit that I was wrong."
Natasha Walter lives in London with her partner and their two children.
/source:Wikipedia/
Her father was Nicolas Walter, an anarchist and secular humanist writer; her grandfather was William Grey Walter, a neuroscientist. After attending North London Collegiate School, she read English at St John's College, Cambridge, graduating with a double First, and then won a Frank Knox Fellowship to Harvard.Her first job was at Vogue magazine, she then became Deputy Literary Editor of The Independent and then a columnist for The Guardian. She went on to write for many publications and to appear regularly on BBC2's Newsnight Review and Radio 4's Front Row. In 1999 she was a judge on the Booker Prize.
Walter is the founder and director of the charity Women for Refugee Women which campaigns for the rights of women who seek asylum. In 2008 Women for Refugee Women produced the play Motherland which Natasha Walter wrote based on the experiences of women and children in immigration detention. It was directed by Juliet Stevenson and performed at the Young Vic in 2008 by Juliet Stevenson, Harriet Walter and others. Women for Refugee Women subsequently worked in partnership with other organisations to campaign for the end to the detention of children for immigration purposes in the UK, a policy which the government announced it would end in 2010.
She is the author of The New Feminism, which was an influential feminist book published by Virago in 1998. Her book Living Dolls, also published by Virago, looks at the resurgence of sexism in contemporary culture. Natasha Walter says, "I once believed that we only had to put in place the conditions for equality for the remnants of old-fashioned sexism in our culture to wither away. I am ready to admit that I was wrong."
Natasha Walter lives in London with her partner and their two children.
/source:Wikipedia/
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 19, 2026
TLDR; an important read for all women that will open your eyes to the ways the current fight for female equality is ineffective and what we need instead.
Wow, this incredible and important hidden gem of a book blew me away. It opened my mind to so many things I hadn’t considered regarding feminism and equality. The overall thesis is that our society and economy focuses on a form of feminism that advocates for the individual rather than on changing the system overall. It recognizes the intersectionalities and global factors of feminism. The author herself, mentions that in the past she viewed feminism from a white woman’s perspective without considering these other implications and how, by not focusing on the other experiences of womanhood, she could not fully address the issues of feminism.
The author suggests that the individualistic ideals of feminism have increased with neoliberalism. She questions the concept of considering the accomplishments of iindndividual women who happen to climb the ladder, are elected to leadership positions, etc. as progressive victories rather than recognizing the politics involved in individual empowerment.
Each chapter focused on a different area supporting this overall thesis. One of the very fascinating ones for me was the capitalist adoption of feminism, turning it into performative consumerism rather than actual feminist advocacy, even when well intentioned. One example was a $700 t-shirt touting the title of Chimamnda Ngoni Adichie’s essay “We Should All be Feminists”, and another example was the Barbie movie. “The real value of the film for Mattel was this surge of consumption and women joined in with staggering enthusiasm”. She referenced this as the “"co-opting of feminism by marketing and branding”.
She also spends a lot of time discussing caregiving and the ways in which this prevents woman from achieving equality in a variety of different ways.
“It is becoming clearer and clearer that Women can never achieve equality and an economy in which markets are the only measure of value… someone has to keep doing the care, but nobody who is doing the care is valued. It hurts women and it hurts all of society.” She was able to tie this even to outcomes with natural disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, etc) and statistics showing that death rates of women are higher than men in all these circumstances. She also showed the correlation between natural disasters and increased sexual violence against women. I’m not doing the topic justice in this paragraph, but it was fascinating research.
An especially triggering chapter for me was the one on social media and its “rampant spread” of misogynistic and sexist content. She showed research with algorithms that showed that even for boys and men who hadn’t interacted with any misogynistic posts, their algorithms directed them toward this type of content repeatedly.
I was also introduced in this book to the term, eco-feminism, what it is, and why it’s pertinent to overall feminism. It was all truly fascinating. I kept finding myself wanting to write down more things and tell everyone about it, but realized I can’t literally write the whole book down for you, but since it is already in written form, you can and should read it too!
In the end, the concept that really hit home for me in a new way was that in order to really reach equality for women, “we have to re-value and center care”. Lots and lots of food for thought in this!
Wow, this incredible and important hidden gem of a book blew me away. It opened my mind to so many things I hadn’t considered regarding feminism and equality. The overall thesis is that our society and economy focuses on a form of feminism that advocates for the individual rather than on changing the system overall. It recognizes the intersectionalities and global factors of feminism. The author herself, mentions that in the past she viewed feminism from a white woman’s perspective without considering these other implications and how, by not focusing on the other experiences of womanhood, she could not fully address the issues of feminism.
The author suggests that the individualistic ideals of feminism have increased with neoliberalism. She questions the concept of considering the accomplishments of iindndividual women who happen to climb the ladder, are elected to leadership positions, etc. as progressive victories rather than recognizing the politics involved in individual empowerment.
Each chapter focused on a different area supporting this overall thesis. One of the very fascinating ones for me was the capitalist adoption of feminism, turning it into performative consumerism rather than actual feminist advocacy, even when well intentioned. One example was a $700 t-shirt touting the title of Chimamnda Ngoni Adichie’s essay “We Should All be Feminists”, and another example was the Barbie movie. “The real value of the film for Mattel was this surge of consumption and women joined in with staggering enthusiasm”. She referenced this as the “"co-opting of feminism by marketing and branding”.
She also spends a lot of time discussing caregiving and the ways in which this prevents woman from achieving equality in a variety of different ways.
“It is becoming clearer and clearer that Women can never achieve equality and an economy in which markets are the only measure of value… someone has to keep doing the care, but nobody who is doing the care is valued. It hurts women and it hurts all of society.” She was able to tie this even to outcomes with natural disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, etc) and statistics showing that death rates of women are higher than men in all these circumstances. She also showed the correlation between natural disasters and increased sexual violence against women. I’m not doing the topic justice in this paragraph, but it was fascinating research.
An especially triggering chapter for me was the one on social media and its “rampant spread” of misogynistic and sexist content. She showed research with algorithms that showed that even for boys and men who hadn’t interacted with any misogynistic posts, their algorithms directed them toward this type of content repeatedly.
I was also introduced in this book to the term, eco-feminism, what it is, and why it’s pertinent to overall feminism. It was all truly fascinating. I kept finding myself wanting to write down more things and tell everyone about it, but realized I can’t literally write the whole book down for you, but since it is already in written form, you can and should read it too!
In the end, the concept that really hit home for me in a new way was that in order to really reach equality for women, “we have to re-value and center care”. Lots and lots of food for thought in this!
July 17, 2026
An interesting load of examples but fails to scrutinise how valid existential dreads are and how these are used by patriarchy and talks about caring and dignity but ultimately sees it as a distraction if applied to trans people. It is kind of 4 stars for examples but 1 star for analysis.
June 7, 2026
The author covers far too much feminist ground to cover in a short review, though this book particularly focuses on eco-feminism and how the climate crisis is affecting women.
The author clearly is impatient with the current women’s movement and claims that the bond of sisterhood has been lost in grassroots work, it’s every woman for themselves more and more, and Western women need to get on board.
Another highlight for me was her point that rather than trying to cure ourselves from fear or cut off from it, we need a feminism that can enter into understanding of catastrophe and cease to prescribe false medicine to manage it.
An important and necessary read for both genders.
The author clearly is impatient with the current women’s movement and claims that the bond of sisterhood has been lost in grassroots work, it’s every woman for themselves more and more, and Western women need to get on board.
Another highlight for me was her point that rather than trying to cure ourselves from fear or cut off from it, we need a feminism that can enter into understanding of catastrophe and cease to prescribe false medicine to manage it.
An important and necessary read for both genders.
July 2, 2026
An excellent overview of the scale of the issues facing women, particularly rampant misogyny and the impact of climate change on women. Her response is the importance of women joining together across existing boundaries and in partnership with men to set up radical responses to the shortage of care and to combat climate change.
Daunting but also encouraging! Highly recommend.
Daunting but also encouraging! Highly recommend.
August 2, 2026
it was really great to read this book after seeing walter discuss this book and relevant topics on her book tour. i love the attention to detail surrounding care giving and the environment in this book; they are topics i feel can be glanced over in many feminist discussions, despite being some of the pillars of the societies we aim to change.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Excellent and necessary provocation about where western feminism has fallen prey to individual ambitions and narratives, and how we can regather ourselves as a collective.
I received an advance copy from the publisher to interview Natasha.
I received an advance copy from the publisher to interview Natasha.
Read
June 9, 2026😭
July 17, 2026
Essential
July 28, 2026
Men need to do better. And if men read this book they would be in a far better & more informed place to do better.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews