The five books you need to read in the wake of #Metoo.

The revelations of the #Metoo movement will have shocked many men. While vaguely aware of a problem, few knew of the extent, nor how widespread sexual abuse is for women, everywhere. We discovered the truth in the most visceral manner by listening to and reading the testimonies of women in the case against Mr Harvey Weinstein, and in the countless other cases that followed. As more and more of our female friends, relatives, colleagues and lovers tell us their stories of abuse, lots of men will want to know more about what they can do to help.

For Mr Carl Cederström, associate professor of organisation studies at Stockholm Business School, one of the first steps to solidarity with women was to spend some time reading the classics of feminist literature. “Like most white men, I read books written predominantly by, well, white men,” says Mr Cederström. “I knew that I would have to listen, seriously, to women. In a way, reading is a form of listening, and also, a means by which we can empathise with the experiences of others. Of course, I’d heard of names like Simone De Beauvoir mentioned before, but I had never read them.”

What struck Mr Cederström was how relevant the experiences and arguments earlier writers describe are to the #Metoo movement. “Sometimes, it was as though I was reading the testimonies of women in the Weinstein and Kavanaugh cases,” says Mr Cederström. With the help of editors from The Guardian he compiled a list of 13 of the most influential books for an article he wrote earlier this year. Here, then are five examples from that list and some of the key insights Mr Cederström gained by reading them.

**The Second Sex **by Ms Simone De Beauvoir, 1949

“This was the book that made the biggest impression on me,” says Mr Cederström of The Second Sex, which is regarded as one of the definitive treatises on what it means to be a woman. “[Ms de Beauvoir] describes, exhaustively, the biological and psychological differences between men and women. However, unlike popular thinkers of today like Jordan Peterson, she believes these differences do not justify the ways in which men and women are expected to live their lives. She reveals the deeply ingrained myths designed to keep women oppressed and under control. It is one of the most scholarly and painstakingly researched books on the list, and because of that, one of the most intimidating to read. But, for me, it really is a magnum opus.”

The Feminine Mystique  by Ms Betty Friedan, 1964

The Feminine Mystique sold one million copies the year it was published and is considered by many as the founding moment of second-wave feminism, responsible for drawing millions of affluent, middle-class women to the feminist cause. “This book challenged the widely held opinion that a woman’s place belonged in the home,” says Mr Cederström. “Betty Friedan was a journalist who noticed that in the 1950s, all of a sudden, after a period of steady decline in the 1930s and 1940s, huge numbers of women had become housewives instead of going to college. She noticed that many of her former classmates were bored and unhappy despite being married with children and materially comfortable. She discovered the result of the ‘feminine mystique’ – this idealisation of the housewife – was for women, social and spiritual poverty.”

The Female Eunuch by Ms Germaine Greer, 1970

In The Female Eunuch, Ms Germaine Greer argues that the traditional nuclear family represses women sexually, rendering them “eunuchs”. Polemic in its style and also a bestseller upon its release, it is seen as one of the key texts of the feminist movement of the 1970s. “This is totally different in tone to the other books, with lots of swearing and coarse language,” says Mr Cederström. “It is a fun, intelligent, angry, cutting piece of writing, like a radical, punk version of Betty Friedan, who was not totally against the home. Greer on the other hand was militant in her critique of the role of the housewife. She believed that women must get out of the house because children ultimately don’t care as they eventually leave home, men have work to occupy them, while women stay trapped.”

**Lean In ** by Ms Sheryl Sandberg, 2013

Written by Facebook COO, Ms Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In is a manifesto for women who strive for corporate success. “After you read lots of feminist literature, you realise that they reference each other and build on each other’s ideas,” says Mr Cederström. “We should see The Feminine Mystique, The Female Eunuch, and Lean In as a kind of trilogy. [Ms Sandberg] is similar to Germaine Greer in that they both think security, and the longing for security, is a trap. She believes fear holds a lot of women back, and that in order to succeed you need to embrace risk and ‘lean in’. It’s an insightful, first-hand account of what women have to do to succeed in a largely hostile corporate world, and has been criticised for being a right wing, neo-liberal take on feminism.”

**We Should All Be Feminists ** by Ms Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‎, 2014

We Should All Be Feminists was adapted from Ms Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TEDX Talk of the same name, which has been viewed more than five million times. “This is one book that everyone should read,” says Mr Cederström. “It’s very well written with a gentle, welcoming tone. It explains the absurdity of not being a feminist, in an amusing and humorous way. She notes how difficult it still is to say that you’re a feminist. That somehow you can’t be a feminist and wear high heels and lipstick. Or how you can’t be a feminist if you’re an African woman. It’s not a particularly radical concept to say that men and women are equal and should not be discriminated against. Of the entire list, this is the one that stretches out a hand to men and says, ‘You can engage with this.’”