One of the Guardian's "100 Best Books of the 21st Century" — "A modern feminist classic." From the internationally acclaimed classicist and New York Times best-selling author comes this timely manifesto on women and power. "Based on a lecture from the London Review of Books lecture series, this essay from Beard uses examples from literature to show deep roots of misogyny in Western culture. Beard uses clear and elegant prose to explore the ways in which men have silenced women and excluded them from the public sphere throughout history...This slim and timely volume leaves readers to contemplate how women can reconfigure society’s current perceptions of power."  - Publishers Weekly "Beard always fights back, with humour and the confidence of intellectual authority…It’s fun to read...slim, elegant, well-illustrated. - The Washington Post. Mary Beard is a fearless writer with the gift of writing the right book at the right moment, and I’ve been emboldened by her brilliant analysis of women’s voice and role in society since antiquity"      - Diana Athill  in The Guardian