Anonymous Is a Woman: A Global Chronicle of Gender Inequality was the winner in the History category of the 2021 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.
Following find an interview with author Nina Ansary.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The name of my book is Anonymous Is a Woman: A Global Chronicle of Gender Inequality. The book was published in 2021.
What’s the book’s first line?
“In 1929, British novelist Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) ran her fingers along the spines of the books in her library wondering why no woman during Shakespeare’s era had written ” a word of that extraordinary literature, when every other man, it seemed, was capable of song or sonnet.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
The book takes readers on a 4,000-year historic journey to expose the roots and manifestations of systemic gender discrimination and the myriad ways women worldwide continue to be restricted by society’s formal and unspoken barriers.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
It was a combination of factors, including my advocacy work, lectures and participation on university panels and conferences both here in the US and abroad where I met countless women and girls from different parts of the global community who shared their stories including the plethora of challenges they encountered in their respective countries.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Despite the fact that generations of women have made seminal contributions in practically every field, women occupy a mere 0.5% of recorded history. Eclipsing women’s achievements contributes to a debilitating cycle of discrimination not to mention it deprives young girls from exposure to countless role models. Furthermore, the benefits of true parity reach far beyond social and ethical contexts as closing the gender gap would add $12 trillion to the global economy and unleash the untapped potential of more than 3 billion women and girls worldwide.
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?
If they made my book into a movie, I would like to see either Julianne Moore or Nicole Kidman play the main character(s).
Is this the first book you’ve written?
This is not the first time I have written. My first book Jewels of Allah: The Untold Story of Women in Iran was published in 2015