Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada | McClelland & Stewart for this book for review. Fantastic book about equality and feminism in Canada. It was good to read another perspective from our sister country. Although as seen here, some things are not different no matter where you go in the world.

To begin with
the title and the cover is very eye catching. It is feminine and playful.

I appreciate a feminist book that focuses on Canadian issues. I find Canadians are too lax about the issues intersectional feminism often addresses in my day to day life. Many people think women no longer have to fight for anythint.
This book does address issues in a totally realistic and almost blunt way- so it is not too preachy to scare off people who don't identify as feminist.

We live in a pretty unequal world. The people in power tend to look the same way and don’t want anyone who doesn’t look like them to stick their nose in. Thinking too much about this can be pretty disheartening so you’d think a whole book that tackles inequality in Canada would be a tough read. But no. In What She Said: Conversations About Equality, Elizabeth Renzetti takes the issues facing women in Canada and discusses them in an intelligent and, yes, sometimes humorous way.

Here’s the book’s description:

The fight for women’s rights was supposed to have been settled. Or, to put it another way, women were supposed to have settled—for what we were grudgingly given, for the crumbs from the table that we had set. For thirty per cent of the seats in Canada’s Parliament; for five per cent of the CEO’s offices; for a tenth of the salary of male athletes; for the tiny per cent of sexual assault cases that result in convictions; for tenuous control over our health and bodies. "Aren’t we over it yet? No, we’re not," Elizabeth Renzetti writes.

In this book, Renzetti draws upon her own life story and her years as an award-winning journalist at the Globe and Mail, where her columns followed the trajectory of women's rights. Forcefully argued, accessible, and witty, What She Said explores a range of the increasingly hostile world of threats that deter young women from seeking a role in public life; the use of non-disclosure agreements to silence victims of sexual harassment and assault; the inadequacy of access to health care and reproductive justice, especially as experienced by Indigenous and racialized women; the ways in which future technologies must be made more inclusive; the disparity in pay, wealth, and savings, and how women are not yet socialized to be the best financial managers they can be; the imbalanced burden of care, from emotional labour to child care.

Renzetti explores the nuance of these issues, so often presented as divisive, with humour and sympathy, in order to unite women at a time when women must work together to protect their fundamental right to exist fully and freely in the world. What She Said is a rallying cry for a more just future.

Renzetti is a journalist by trade so this book is, as you’d expect, well researched and extremely accessible. Since it’s not one of her articles, it’s more biased but if you’re reading a book about feminism and gender inequality, you won’t be surprised by what she writes or in disagreement. I love that she had a mix of research, references to past stories she’d written or folks she’d interviewed, and personal experience. It made this book easy to read and I knew I was getting accurate information.

Each of the book’s ten chapters focuses on a different issue facing women in Canada today and each has an anchoring element than Renzetti uses to set the scene for the reader. In “Who Tells the Stories?”, it’s the Barbie movie and how women filmmakers are still fighting an uphill battle. In “What’s Your Sell-By Date?”, she references the firing of long-time news anchor Lisa LaFlamme as she discusses ageism and menopause. It was an excellent way to focus each short chapter and make it easier for the reader to frame the information and research she presents.

I especially loved that this book took a Canadian viewpoint. So many of these issues are, sadly, worldwide ones. And some are even worse in other countries. It was great to have a Canadian writer tackle the issues we see here at home instead of trying to Canadian-ize articles and research done in the USA. I liked that I knew the references she was making - usually! There are, of course, gaps in my knowledge but I was glad and thankful to have filled while reading this book.

What She Said is not all doom and gloom. There are many, many problems still facing women around the world but Elizabeth Renzetti still manages to find some hope in her latest book. Through her research and personal anecdotes, the reader can understand the past and, just maybe, start to imagine a more equal future.

*An egalley of this book was provided by the publisher, McClelland and Stewart (Penguin Random House Canada) via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

The old journalism chestnut "write what you know" is on full display in this collection of well-executed essays by Canadian journalist Elizabeth Renzetti. Renzetti certainly knows of what she writes - female rage, misogyny, harassment, domestic abuse, the need to protect abortion rights, the perils of practising journalism while being a woman, etc. And on the eve of another divisive and chaotic American election, Renzetti's laser sharp analysis is even more necessary. While I don't agree with all of Renzetti's analysis on some issues including civic engagement in Toronto, I certainly agree with enough of it to want to continue fighting, protesting, arguing, making noise and taking up space. Unfortunately, the progress made, unmade, and not made reminds me of a recent experience charging an EV - after 45 minutes of patient and consistent charging, it only gained an additional 5% battery life. While the arc of the moral universe is long and bends toward justice, it is also doing so painfully slowly. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for e-ARC. Highly recommend.

This is one of the few great socio-political books I’ve read about feminism that is 1. actually centred around Canada and its policies, 2. an appreciative and investigative inquiry that does not feel doomsday-esque, and 3. relevant and accrued from reliable sources. It covers everything from the gender-bias in the electoral system to intimate partner violence to the almighty Taylor Swift while harnessing the power of Renzetti’s journalistic background and personal anecdotes to create a well-rounded discussion of how being a woman in Canada is both a privilege and a challenge. Would highly recommend to everyone.