Feminist Fight Club

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 18 JUL 2016

In 2009, journalist Bennett, who now writes about gender and culture for the New York Times, founded the Feminist Fight Club with a group of 11 career-minded women living in N.Y.C. to discuss their professional setbacks and successes battling sexism on the job, and many of these experiences are recounted here. Bringing levity to common frustrations, Bennett lists ways (or "fight moves") to combat the bad behavior of workplace-perpetrator archetypes such as the "manterrupter" ("he who won't shut up") and the "bropropriator" (he who "appropriates credit for another's work"). She gives advice on avoiding coffee fetching and "office housework" and hacks away at sexist stereotypes with discussions on such issues as the fine line between assertive and aggressive. A language lesson explores minimizing speech patterns such as up-speak, hedging, and vocal fry. Tips on self-confidence boosting are punctuated with quotations from Tina Fey, Michelle Obama, and other successful women giving career advice to women. It is saddening that the problems described by the book persist, but Bennett's light approach and humorous neologisms make fighting the power a lot more palatable.