Incisible Women

In her new audiobook, Invisible Women, award-winning campaigner and writer Caroline Criado Perez shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. She exposes the gender data gap - a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women’s lives.

Janet Pimm is used to being invisible. 70 something, with her beloved allotment for company, she simply doesn't need anyone else. But when the local council threaten to close the allotments, Janet will do anything she can to try to save them - even enlisting the help of her irritatingly upbeat and interfering neighbour, Bev. As the two women set off on a journey together, Janet begins to realise that perhaps she isn't so happy to blend into the background after all. And that maybe there's more to Bev than she first thought.

Sorrowful widows, vengeful jezebels, innocent maidens, wronged lovers, former slaves, the odd axe-murderess—America's female ghosts differ widely in background, class, and circumstance. Yet one thing unites them: their ability to instill fascination and fear, long after death. Here are the stories behind some of the best-known among them, as well as the lesser-known—though no less powerful. A Haunted History of Invisible Women offers a unique lens on the role these ghostly legends play both within the spook-seeking corners of our minds and in the consciousness of a nation.

Sharp, irreverent and very funny women's fiction for women who won't put up with being told to step aside! Isn't it about time we talked about you? Tessa, Sandra and Harriet have been best friends through first crushes, careers, marriage and the trials of motherhood. After 20 years of taking care of everyone else's every needs, they've found themselves hitting the big 5-0 and suddenly asking themselves, 'What about me?' Sandra has a sordid secret, and Harriet is landed with her ailing mother-in-law.

France, March 1944. Virginia Hall wasn't like the other young society women back home in Baltimore - she never wanted the debutante ball or silk gloves. Instead, she traded a safe life for adventure in Europe, and when her beloved second home is thrust into the dark days of war, she leaps in headfirst. Once she's recruited as an Allied spy, subverting the Nazis becomes her calling. But even the most cunning agent can be bested, and in wartime trusting the wrong person can prove fatal.

Unexpectedly denied a visa to remain in the United States, Qanta Ahmed, a young British Muslim doctor, becomes an outcast in motion. On a whim, she accepts an exciting position in Saudi Arabia. This is not just a new job; this is a chance at adventure in an exotic land she thinks she understands, a place she hopes she will belong. What she discovers is vastly different. The Kingdom is a world apart, a land of unparalleled contrast. She finds rejection and scorn in the places she believed would most embrace her.

In this ground-breaking investigation, Laura traces the roots of misogyny across a complex spiders web of groups extending from men's rights activists and pick-up artists to Men Going Their Own Way, trolls and the Incel movement, in the name of which some men have committed terrorist acts. Drawing parallels with other extremist movements around the world, Bates seeks to understand what attracts men to the movement, how it grooms and radicalises boys, how it operates and what can be done to stop it.

Based on nearly a decade of reporting, Invisible Child follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani Coates, a child with an imagination as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn homeless shelter. Born at the turn of a new century, Dasani is named for the bottled water that comes to symbolise Brooklyn's gentrification and the shared aspirations of a divided city. As Dasani moves with her family from shelter to shelter, this story traces the passage of Dasani's ancestors from slavery to the Great Migration north.

Sixty is the new 40, we're constantly told. Or is it that 70 is the new 50? Either way, there's nothing middle of the road about middle age. From coping with bodies that are 'heading south' to rampant ageism in the workplace, this time in our lives, in the words of Bette Davis, is 'no place for sissies'.

Extraordinary women have held positions of power throughout history. But, aside from the select few, why do we not hear about them? The middle ages are seen as a bloodthirsty time of Vikings, Saints and Kings: a patriarchal society that oppressed and excluded women. But by digging a little deeper into the truth, drawing on evidence from all disciplines, we can see that the 'dark' ages were anything but. BBC historian Janina Ramirez has uncovered countless influential women's names struck out of historical records, with the word femina annotated beside them.

Every day women are reinventing what it means to be female in cultures where power, privilege or basic freedoms are all too often equated with being male. One of the most tenacious campaigners of her generation, Caroline Criado-Perez introduces us to these pioneering women. We meet the first woman to cross the Antarctic alone; a female fighter pilot in Afghanistan; a Chilean revolutionary turned politician; and the Iranian journalist who dared to uncover her hair.

Euridice is bright and ambitious. But this is Brazil in the 1940s, and society expects her to be a loving wife and mother. While Antenor is busy congratulating himself on his excellent catch, Euridice spends her spends her humdrum days ironing his shirts and removing the lumps of onion from his food, dreaming of the success she could have made of herself - as a writer, dressmaker or culinary whiz - in another life.

Saffyre Maddox was 10 when something terrible happened; she's carried the pain of it around with her ever since. The man who she thought was going to heal her didn't, and now she hides from him, invisible in the shadows, learning his secrets; secrets she could use to blow his safe, cosy world apart. Owen Pick is invisible, too. He's 33 years old and he's never had a girlfriend, he's never even had a friend. Nobody sees him. Nobody cares about him. But when Saffyre Maddox disappears from opposite his house on Valentine's night, suddenly the whole world is looking at him. Accusing him.

When it's your job to save the day—where do you start? Librarian spy Irene has standards to maintain, especially while on probation. And absconding from a mission via a besieged building doesn't look good. But when her escape route home goes up in flames, what's a spy to do? However, it seems gates back to the Library are malfunctioning across dozens of worlds. Worse still, her nemesis Alberich is responsible—and he plans to annihilate the Library itself.

Invisible to Invaluable is a celebration of what midlife women do, who we are and what we are capable of. It's a rallying cry for us to change the world for the better. With personal stories, exciting research and insights from a cast of inspirational women, Jane Evans and Carol Russell's manifesto blows open the ageism that's sidelined midlife women at work and in society, and sets out an empowering vision for a world where we can unlock our full potential.

People are dying in the West Yorkshire city of Fordley, from the kind of random, everyday accidents that happen in a busy city. Or are they? Forensic pathologist Elle Richardson, doesn't think so. She believes there's a serial killer, stalking the streets. But with no hard evidence to go on, West Yorkshire police are treating them as unfortunate deaths. Convinced she's right, Elle turns to her good friend, Forensic Psychologist Doctor Jo McCready. Working as a police consultant, Jo's methods have proved successful in the past. But this time, she'll have to go it alone.

The Shadow King is an inner self that carries the patriarchal traditions, values and rules of the last six millennia—an internalized version of the outer patriarchy. It is the name Sidra Stone has given to the Inner Patriarch.

Ralph Elllison's Invisible Man is a monumental novel, one that can well be called an epic of modern American Negro life. It is a strange story, in which many extraordinary things happen, some of them shocking and brutal, some of them pitiful and touching—yet always with elements of comedy and irony and burlesque that appear in unexpected places. It is a book that has a great deal to say and which is destined to have a great deal said about it.

Invisible ADHD: Proven Mood and Life Management for Women With ADHD by Shanna Pearson is a forthcoming title from Flatiron Books.

This book is a summary and analysis of Caroline Criado-Perez's Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. This book addresses a serious issue: how women are systematically ignored in today's world.