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A witty, fiercely intelligent exploration of why capitalism is rigged against women and what we can do about it.

About the Author

Kristen Ghodsee is a professor of Russian and East European studies at the University of Pennsylvania and recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for her work in anthropology and cultural studies. She specializes in understanding how ordinary people's lives - and women's particularly - changed when state socialism gave way to capitalism. She is the author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism, and her articles and essays have appeared in many publications including the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Reviews

Wonderful … Kristen Ghodsee doesn’t wear rose-tinted spectacles … but she seeks with great brio and nuance to lay out what some socialist states achieved for women … That Ghodsee also makes this a joyous read is the cherry on the cake
*Observer*

Ghodsee’s book could not have been published at a better moment ... There are many reasons to revisit socialist policies in a time of widening inequality, but a feminist perspective offers some of the most powerful incentives
*Guardian*

Brilliant ... engaging ... Ghodsee is not naive [and] brings the necessary scepticism to her thesis [which] comes into sharp focus when she looks at what happened after the Wall fell ... [a] valuable record of how things were and how they could be
*Financial Times*

Convincing, provocative and useful
*Times Higher Education*

Capitalism’s triumph is a calamity for most women. Kristen Ghodsee’s incisive book brilliantly reveals their plight
*Yanis Varoufakis*

This book is funny, angry and urgent – it's going to make readers think very differently about how they work, and how they live. Ghodsee is going to start a revolution. I'm already making a placard
*Daisy Buchanan, author of How To Be a Grown-Up*