Free Thinking: Women Behaving Badly?

Helen Lewis, Zoe Strimpel. novelist Kiley Reid, and Juliet Conway join Shahidha Bari to talk about ‘difficult women’, how we expect women to behave, and the power dynamics at play – from the feminist activists who challenged the status quo, to the personal realm of dating and flirting. Such A Fun Age, Kiley Reid’s first novel, looks at racism and class in the story of a black baby sitter accused of kidnapping the child in her care. Helen Lewis has just published Difficult Women: A History Of Feminism In 11 Fights. Zoe Strimpel’s book is called Seeking Love In Modern Britain: Gender, Dating, And The Rise Of ‘The Single’. Juliet Conway is researching the flirt in American fiction from 1878-1928, and is based at the University of Edinburgh.