11 Personal Development And Women's Health Books To Pick Up Now
Blog written by Jessica Hobbis
As we all know, reading is a great hobby and way to expand our learning. We at WoW have therefore collated a selection of books relevant to both women’s health and personal development. Of course, this is not a comprehensive list, and we would love to hear some of your recommendations, but these are just a few to get you started if you are needing some inspiration on what to pick up next. Happy reading!
Personal Development
Black box thinking – Matthew Syed
Black Box Thinking is a brilliant new way of thinking about failure. Syed discusses the value of people admitting to their mistakes rather than denying them, highlighting instead the lessons we can learn from such. He uses the health industry as a consistent comparison to the aviation industry in its attitude to failure. With clinicians and health management often trying to hide failures, he points out that the opportunities to learn and prevent such from happening again are lost, as opposed to aviation, where black boxes that carry all the information on a plane are heavily analyzed following an incident. This is an important read for all those in FemTech and beyond, who can take real actions to cultivate a positive attitude to failure that has so many benefits.
Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before – Dr. Julie Smith
A brilliant self-help book that guides you through different challenges including anxiety, grief, and low mood. Dr. Julie Smith is a clinical psychologist and has broken down each problem into bitesize chapters that are very quick and easy to read, and can be read in any order. She offers clear explanations of how certain issues present themselves, while also outlining clear techniques and exercises that can be employed to combat this. We would recommend this book to everyone regardless of how you are feeling, as it provides great coping mechanisms that can be used when you may not feel your best while highlighting the normality of feeling a range of emotions.
Lean In examines the ways in which women’s leadership in the workplace has not progressed and is limited. Sandberg offers strategies that women can employ to empower themselves to take the lead and counter biases; including having the courage to negotiate their salary, and to not ‘leave before you leave’. She uses a mixture of studies and examples from her own life to clearly illustrate her points, highlighting how many of our mindsets and the norms to which we are accustomed actually restrict women’s ability to progress in the workplace, and should thus be addressed.
StrengthsFinder 2.0 from Gallup – Don Clifton
This book comes with an access code to the Clifton Strengths Assessment. After taking the assessment, you are given 5 of your top strengths (out of 34), and you can turn to these chapters of the book. Here, you are given a summary of your strength, ideas for action, and tips for those working with or managing others who have this strength. In a world that is often obsessed with focusing on weaknesses, this book is great for those who want to know how to better play to their strengths. Tips include those from everyday life to what job roles would best suit you, so is a good way to better figure out both what you want from a career, and how best to go about such.
People Like Us – Hashi Mohamed
In People Like Us Mohamed discusses social mobility in the UK. Using his own experiences, he explores the struggles and the realities of how he ended up where he is today, as a top London barrister, after arriving as a young Somali refugee. This book is an important read both for those who are trying to be more socially mobile, but also for those who should be more aware of their privileges and the obstacles that restrict others’ mobility and success. Mohamed demonstrates this by clearly outlining that his success is not the norm, and uses his story to highlight how UK society to designed to favor a few and reinforce privilege.
Image source: Waterstones, Amazon
Women’s Health
Invisible Women – Caroline Criado Perez
Perez offers an eye-opening insight into the world of data bias against women. This is a great book, particularly for those who are just starting to look into the gender data gap and how it presents itself in the real world. She discusses an array of areas where women face discrimination, from daily life to the workplace, including a plethora of evidence that makes this book highly data-driven. Invisible Women also has a chapter dedicated to women and the health industry, highlighting some of the very real issues that the FemTech industry is trying to combat, such as misdiagnosis and a lack of research beyond the ‘Reference Man’.
How The Pill Changes Everything – Dr. Sarah E. Hill
This book gives an in-depth analysis of the different effects that pills and other contraception can have on women’s bodies. Discussing aspects from the stress response to who women find attractive, this book offers a much more detailed explanation of what is happening in women’s bodies when they take the contraceptive pill. Dr. Hill’s analysis is a great step toward closing the gender gap in women’s health. We would recommend this to anyone thinking of going on hormonal contraception, as many women are not made aware of such impacts prior to being given the pill. The point of Dr. Hill’s book is not that no one should take the birth control pill, but that those taking it should more deeply consider its wide-ranging impacts and make a more informed decision. She also makes a point to highlight that there are other alternatives available that may work better for individuals but are often overlooked.
Come As You Are – Emily Nagoski
Come As You Are is a great book on women’s sexuality, starting from discussions of genitals and progressing onto how you feel these parts and how this can be changed. This is a highly empowering book to read, highlighting the lack of data and research into women’s sexuality, and instead discussing how women can take ownership of their bodies and sex. Nagoski’s overriding message that each individual is normal both in their physical body and how they feel/act/want sex pervades throughout the book and is a brilliant read to help empower women in their own sexuality and body.
Unwell Women – Elinor Cleghorn
Cleghorn takes you through the history of women and medicine, outlining how women have systematically been misunderstood and thus mistreated. This starts from the ‘wandering womb’ myth of the Ancient Greeks all the way to current issues such as the lack of understanding of inherently female medical conditions like menopause. Unwell Women can provide those in the health industry with a clear context of where we have come from, while also illuminating just how far we have left to go.
Right To Sex – Amia Srinivasan
Discusses some of the discourses surrounding sex and how these serve to discriminate and exclude particular groups by constructing them as sexually undesirable. Srinivasan refers to the “fuckability” or, the ability of bodies to “confer status to those who have sex with them”. She uses this to unpack how sexual desire is highly political and can have great power. This is an engaging read for those interested in deconstructing some of the assumptions we have surrounding sex and desire.
Is an inside story of Theranos, a tech start-up in Silicon Valley that risked millions of lives by pushing an inappropriate device. This account highlights some of the dangers that health start-ups can pose to the general population and the risks associated with investing when there is deception at hand. Bad Blood is a cautionary insight into the darker side of health care.
Image source: Waterstones, Amazon
We hope that you enjoy some of these suggestions and please feel free to send us your own recommendations!
Jessica Hobbis is a recent graduate from the University of Oxford. In her position working as a Marketing Volunteer for WoW, she has loved the opportunity to learn more about the expanding world of FemTech, while developing a wide array of skills. She has a passion for healthcare, building relationships, and making a positive impact, and is excited to put these to use in her future career.