"If not you, then who? If not now, then when? We need more women to speak up and make their voices heard.Young women have valuable experiences and perspectives. We need you in this fight.” Senator Elizabeth Warren, from a Girl’s Guide to Joining the Resistance
So—the presidential election of 2016 happened. You cried, you ranted, you marched. But how do you stay engaged for the long term? How do you keep fighting while also continuing your real life? How do you get involved when you feel far from the action? How do you stay vigilant without being furious all. the. time?
Needing to take action after the election, Emma Gray, Executive Women’s Editor at HuffPost, put on her journalist hat and set out to get answers to these questions from some of the most prominent thought leaders and activists of our time. She spoke with march organizers, and senators, long-time activists, and newcomers across political movements to find out the best ways to listen to those who have been doing this for a while, join in, and create sustainable action. In all of her conversations, one theme came up again and again: young women are essential to the resistance.
Interweaving the interviews with her own experiences covering resistance events and being a member of the media in a time when the media has been under assault, Emma has created a down and dirty guide for women of all ages to roll up their sleeves and resist the forces that are a threat to our rights.
Inside you’ll find:
• A guide for how to choose good news sources and make sure you’re getting quality information.
• Practical instructions on how to get involved and stay involved, with examples from the author’s own experience organizing the successful “Watch Us Run” conference.
• An exploration of female centric work spaces and instructions for how to create your own.
• Advice for self-care and how to stay involved without exhausting yourself.
• Extensive information including numbers to call, organizations to email and donate to, and scripts for reaching out to representatives and organizations.
• Interviews with experienced activists including Senator Elizabeth Warren, actress and activist Ashley Judd, actress and activist Marlo Thomas, Women’s March Co-Chair Carmen Perez, Mother of the Movement Lucy McBath, Black Lives Matter Network co-creator Alicia Garza, People for Bernie Founder Winnie Wong, and former assistant to President Obama Tina Tchen.
Whether you’re new to the front or an activism vet, there has never been a better time to jump into the fray.
A wonderful introductory book on how to get involved. Whether you want to be fully immersed in activism, or just want to dip your toes in and show your support, this book can inspire you. From the minds of ladies already in the thick of things, you learn how to go from "I want to help" to actually being that help. Written by an American, so you gotta do your own legwork on equivalent resources in your country. The ideas are there to get you started at least. Warning: Contains curse words so make sure you read it before putting it in young hands.
Very much a beginners guide to activism, and probably most useful to middle class, white cishet American women. I suspect that, for that audience, it’s very informative and inspiring. I found it a bit of a bore. But it’s not for me. So no harm, no foul.
I dont understand the hate for this book, I think it provides amazing tools and tips for the girls who whats to be an activist or join the resistance 💪🏻✨. Isnt the most intersectional book cuz is rly centered on USA and their political sistem, but I learn a lot.
Read it in one hot sitting!!! Very useful for new activists & a wonderful reminder/electric bolt for those of us who already consider ourselves activated. Always important to listen, muse, and re-inspire ourselves.
Big fan & will give a copy to my younger sisters, mother, and grandmother, not to mention sign up for local organizing I haven't already plugged into!! Go go go go
The part of the book that I thought was the best was the 5 Tips for Every Responsible News Reader [That means You!] which was on p. 86-87, as part of the Fake News/ Shmake News Chapter. It is a shame that the author did not follow her own advice in the writing of her book and understand that many of her readers would be judging what she wrote under those "responsible news reader" guidelines, starting with her Chapter One.
Reporters no longer report. They interpret, provide their own meaning, and many times attempt to just plain agitate. And they are often successful at it.
Americans might have thought that the media had hit rock bottom with their 'coverage' of the 2016 presidential election. Author Gray's description of Election Night in her Chapter 6 was a case of classic hoodwinking by the media on their readers/viewers. The media had taken in everyone so much with its 'Hilary will win hands down' in every news report, and its 'There is NO PATH by which Trump can win', that there was literally shock throughout the country when the election returns came in. Many had been eating the media reports up, hook, line and sinker.
Many were angry, unless they were in California, New York or the cities of Chicago or Washington D.C. But their anger was misplaced.
Yes, anger can be a motivating force, as she explains on p. 54 and continuing. And more women should run for election, and more will hopefully do that, and more will succeed. But the anger in this country should be at a media which does not 'report' honestly and objectively. The author does not address how the deceitful media misled the public to believe something that was clearly not the case. And continues to do so.
Can the anger of these women not translate into recognizing that the media continues to pander to what they believe will sell, and agitate the American public? It is obvious in most national news. And I agree with the premise that local news, and local news reporting is either accurate, or the local readers will shout out loud and strong.
Several stories on our local news stations surprised me in their interviews which clearly went against prevailing opinion on how wonderful Obamacare was [when a woman initially praised signing up for it, only to be interviewed the following night indicating it was 'Unaffordable' -WSOC TV] and another woman who was supposedly representative of DACA receiving a free education and becoming a teacher, being interviewed - severely disrespecting our country and our government - and doing so in her classroom in front of her young elementary students - WSOC TV. Even I was shocked, and could practically hear the phones ringing off the hook at the news station.
Calling oneself a feminist or an activist needs to be tempered by 'What do you mean by that?' I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
I really like Emma Gray and I’m a huge fan of the “Here to Make Friends” podcast, a show about the Bachelor franchise which she co-hosts with Claire Fallon for the Huffington Post. I commend Emma for putting together a simple yet well-researched collection that promotes not only girl power but intersectional girl power. It’s clear that including all ethnicities, sexual orientations and body types is important to Emma and it’s extremely important to me when discussing feminism and womanhood.
Unfortunately, it fell a little short for me because I feel like some of the interviews and stories could have been fleshed out more. At 200 pages, it is such a short volume and I think that most of these complicated issues were only glossed over. Still, I think it makes a great gift book for the feminist in your life and I definitely think there could be a big crossover for teenagers. My favorite chapter was the last one about self care tips. I expected more but I’m not disappointed I picked this one up for Women’s History Month.
Why is it that so many of the women who want to pass on the idea of equality to the next generation of girls seem to think that they have to speak so gutturally, and use language that is simply base and mean. More than once Gray relies on MLK as an example, yet MLK was unendingly polite, nonviolent, and new that ones' reputations make a big difference in whether anyone will listen. In addition, Gray refers to BLM who are vicious instigators of trouble. I believe that MLK would be disappointed in the incendiary provocateurs that you try to create with this book.
We need strong girls to become strong women, not agitators that make everyone turn away in disgust.
A Girl's Guide to Joining the Resistance should be essential reading for females of all ages! I love the way Gray broke down the book. Not only did she provide history into the feminist movement and ideas for how to get involved, she also included tips for prioritizing self-care and a playlist to jam out to when you're frustrated like hell or empowered AF. I can't wait to take all this knowledge to go out there and RESIST LIKE A GIRL!
This was too, what’s the word, umm.....slang??? I read MAYBE two or three pages and the tone was SO cynical and rude. Not exactly the best tone to have if your audience is young, impressionable girls — but I digress.
To be honest, this just seems more like a Negative Nancy’s twitter feed than anything else.
Thank you to Harper Collins for the advanced copy.
I think this I'd a great resource if you're feeling overwhelmed by the political climate and don't know where to start to get involved. There's also a great resource for simple ways to get involved and lists of organizations for each issue.
A quick, entertaining, Trump-election aftermath guide to becoming more politically engaged for women and girls. A lot of this book was an amalgamation of different political and social justice leaders’ thoughts on intersectionality, the importance of involving younger generations in the resistance, and the interpretation of self care. The most useful sections included a curated database of organizations fighting the good fight and step-by-step actions to contact your reps and form committees. Nothing too groundbreaking but a nice intro to activism.
This was a quick read but packed a big punch! I felt like the first few chapters of the book were written as an introduction to privilege, protest, and intersectionality for white women. Which is fine, but it wasn't written for me so I was just a little bored. The second half of the book was really powerful, giving really specific and actionable ways to get involved in activism and join the post-Trump resistance. One of my favorite parts of the book were the quotes from all of the amazing and inspirational women that Gray interviewed; I loved that she recognized the need for a variety of women's voices in her book. This is a great guide for not just young girls but old(er) girls like me who are trying to kick their activism up a few (hundred) notches.
Intersectionality, the author uses it for the author’s purposes and discards it when it doesn’t serve the author’s needs. In the book basically, we are all different and need to support each other to ensure everyone’s voice is heard unless you are a white male heterosexual in which case you all are the exact same. The book also suffers from an obvious Hillary Clinton is the greatest, anything else is evil problem. Finally, the book felt like a conglomeration of information available on the web thinly veiled as a book. Hopefully, anyone buying this book realizes they’ve been duped.
This is a harmful anti-feminist book that fails repeatedly to say anything about actual feminism. If this is what our young women are learning about feminism, we're in trouble.
This book has solid tips for young girls entering advocacy work and I will place it in my classroom. What I enjoyed was just hearing other women talk about stuff. I love being a girl. As far as joining the feminist resistance I probably would benefit from something a little deeper. She tried her best to not be a white feminist but it still felt like she was at times. Not bad but not great and don’t need to keep this on my shelves🤧
A good read, especially if you're just starting to get your feet wet in being involved in your community or keeping current on the political issues you care about. It reads like a series of articles so I breezed through it. Lots of good tidbits. It's definitely an introductory book but what I loved about it was that it was all about broadening your horizons, expanding your worldview to include other people's experiences and views, finding people and organizations who need support and showing up for it. It's all about love, not hate.
"The 2016 presidential election felt, in some ways, like a referendum on the value of women (and people of color and immigrants and refugees and Muslims ... the list goes on), one that we had lost."
"This is a time to define the values our country stands for, and to fight for those values," (Tina Tchen, chief of staff to Michelle Obama) "like caring for those in need, expanding social justice for all, and protecting our planet for future generations."
"Social change takes time -- lots of it."
"Advocacy can't just be spouting off statistics. Advocacy has to come from the heart, and in many cases that includes storytelling."
"People don't remember what you say, they remember how you make them feel."
"work rather than wallow"
Ways to join the resistance: 1) Call, fax, email, and confront your reps. 2) Run for office -- and/or encourage the women in your life to 3) Donate what you can 4) Volunteer your time 5) Start having tough conversations with people you might disagree with -- offline a) ground yourself in love b) be aware of the privilege you hold c) be unconditionally accepting d) ask questions: What motivated you to participate in this discussion? What are you most hopeful about when you think about the future? What do you want to know but have been afraid to ask about the other side of this topic? 6) Listen to the women who are already leading the resistance, especially women of color 7) Show up, show up, show up -- even when it's not directly about you
Responsible news viewing: 1) be your own filter 2) fact check 3) find sources you trust 4) read widely 5) support local news
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I’m giving this one a four because I think it’s a valuable resource and I got some good ideas about how to get more politically active and contribute to building better societies, especially for women. If I’d been rating only based on the writing, I’d have had a hard time even giving it a three. The bulk of several chapters is just long lists of quotes. I wanted to read how the author pulled everything together. It was kind of like reading all the individual responses to an opinion survey without ever reading any analysis or synthesis of the results.
This was certainly more liberal than I thought it would be, but nevertheless, it's still a great source of information. Granted--you should all know that this book is fairly Feminist 101, but hey, we all have to start somewhere before we get to those grad courses! Overall, I really enjoyed the color scheme and the illustrations, but there were a few things that got my chupacabra.
This appears to be a pretty white, able-bodied, middle-class aide in becoming an activist. Which is awesome for white, able-bodied, middle-class feminists! Unfortunately, it doesn't really lend itself to being intersectional in its audience. Additionally, I found the slang to be a little bit grating at times. I know this book is likely trying to connect with a relatively young audience, but I'm personally at a stage in my feminism where I like something a little more straightforward, academic, non-white, and radical.
That being said, I think there were some really great aspects about this book--it offers so many resources on how to get involved from meeting up with other feminists, to donating money, to downloading apps. Though I have my reserves about it, this is a pretty good place to start if you want to get more involved in feminist activism!
A basic primer for young feminists on how to join the resistance in a Post-Trump world. Especially helpful are the chapters on intersectionality (what it is, what it isn't, and how to do it) and self-care (the variety of simple things that can restore us). Also included are topics like how to spot fake news, the importance of women's groups, why your story is important, and how marching can bring change. Helpful lists of useful apps, music playlist, movies/TV shows, and organizations to join. Quotes from various women are used throughout to define terms and enlarge the conversation. What might make it better? Some photos of marchers might make it more inspiring, even in black and white. And somehow it didn't quite feel like it went far enough...a good beginning, but not enough by itself. Pair it with other books like Feed the Resistance and those recommended in the Our Shared Shelf group.
This was an uncorrected proof I received for free through Goodreads Giveaways. Page numbers in the table of contents were marked as 000 and the Acknowledgments page just said "Acknowledgments TK" -- I am not sure what else might be different in the final print edition.
This book isn't perfect - I feel like the case laid out here is one that many books being published right now focus on but this one has the advantage of being accessible. Quick and easy to read, this book was written in the conversational style that internet savvy young readers know so well. While I'm definitely a member of that group, I also read of lot of stuff that's written for more academic audiences and so the chapter on intersectionality left me craving a more in-depth analysis, but I was still glad to see it addressed. Also, I loved the quotes from female leaders and the stories about women activists from earlier eras. Overall, a good read, even if a few sections left me wanting more - but really, that's okay because I've still got plenty of feminist, resistance-themed books on my to-read list.
An excellent overview of how to get involved if you don't know where to start. The language makes it accessible for teens through adults. Part inspiration, part handbook, it offers a good launching place for tools/apps, people to follow, etc. Even though I am already a resistance veteran, there were a couple of resources included in this book that were new to me that I hope to utilize. This would make a perfect gift for a recently-awakened young activist or someone who feels overwhelmed by all the possibilities offered by an internet search.
A short, smart guide to learning about the women who shape activism and create change everyday and how women can get and stay involved—and an important book for men to read as well, to learn about the work women have and continue to do (and also learn when they should stfu in spaces that are not for them). The guide contains quotes, suggestions and brilliant thoughts from the smartest women doing the WORK today. This is a one sitting book that is worth two hours of everyone’s time.
The author of this book co-hosts one of my favorite Bachelor podcasts. See? Feminists can be Bachelor fans, too! While this book is really geared toward young women & toward people who are new to activism, I found it to be a nice refresher for me, formerly a professional activist who has since begun to slack a little because I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the state of the world. A quick, easy, informative, & worthwhile move.
The book was based around and discusses actions in the American political space. I just wish that it had a chapter on actions that can be taken on an international level or actions that can be applied on a country level basis for different 2nd/3rd world nations.
This could possibly fuel the inspiration for the sequel to this book 🤗
Great job to all the amazing women behind this beautiful creation ❤️
This is an activism 101 guide that is a good starting point for people who aren't currently involved in any community organizing or want to know how to get started. It introduces concepts like intersectionality, social justice, and equity.
This book doesn't go super in depth for those that are already aware of these things or already organizing. It's a good introductory book though that everyone should read!
Upset about what's going on in the country right now? Do you feel like women's rights aren't being respected? This is the book for you. It's a wonderful primer on being part of the Resistance. The book contains advice from many different resistors from many different organizations. One of the best chapters is on intersectionality and how vital it is to the resistance.
A serious, insightful and entertaining book and must read for all young girls and women interested in becoming or continuing to be involved in making change for social justice in the world. Great for moms, dads, teachers and young male allies who want to understand and support "the resistance" and the activist young girls and women in their lives.