Does God Hate Women?

Does God Hate Women? (cover)
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‘More surgically than any other thinkers, Benson and Stangroom have dissected the complicity of post-modern liberals in the oppression of women…Their writing is at once a joy to read and a call to arms.’
Nick Cohen, Author of “What’s Left”.

By Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom

‘In their wonderful book, Benson and Stangroom point out that religions tend to feel a need for “ferocious control” – and what they aspire to control most of all is women’s bodies. The authors demolish any amount of modern cant…’
Joan Smith, The Independent

‘In Does God Hate Women? [Benson and Stangroom] forensically dismantle the last respectable misogyny.’
Johann Hari, The New Statesman

In large parts of the world, a great many women lead lives of misery and sometimes of plain horror. They are often considered and treated as the property of men: as children they are seen as burdens, to be married off as soon as possible, and as adults they are sex tools, reproductive machines, and domestic labour. When things go wrong – when sexual rumours are floating around, when the crops fail, when a child falls ill – they are scapegoats to be punished. They have few if any rights, they are kept out of school as children, they are illiterate, they receive less food than men however hard they work, they are confined to the house or required to wear stifling, movement-inhibiting clothing if they go outside, they are denied medical treatment, they are forbidden to vote or drive cars, and they are whipped or beaten if they disobey.

Does God Hate Women? examines the role of religions in the subordination, control, concealment, and punishment of women, from Vatican lectures on the female nature to sharia-based stoning.