Jessica Bennett
Journalist & Author
Feminist Fight Club
It was a fight club—but without the fighting and without the men. Every month, the women would gather, to share sexist job frustrations and strategies to combat them. For years, the meetings were secret—but the time has come to talk about the club.
In Feminist Fight Club: A Survival Manual for a Sexist Workplace (HarperCollins), Jessica Bennett blends the personal story of her real-life "fight club" with a studied assessment of the gender gap in the American workplace. With equal measures wit and rigor, Bennett provides the tactical strategies—and camaraderie—to fight back.
Feminist Fight Club has been translated into 16 languages, a podcast and is being adapted for television. It appears in syllabi at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and the women’s leadership program at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Praise
"A classic, f*ck you feminist battle guide, full of unapologetic strategies for how to fight patriarchy on the daily.” —Ilana Glazer
“With mighty wit, Bennett shows women how to defeat the enemies—and men how to stop being them.” —Adam Grant
"Engaging, hilarious and practical — full of simple tools that every woman should have at her disposal." —Sheryl Sandberg
“Feisty, smart and well-researched." —LA Review of Books
"The work bible every young woman starting her career needs.” —London Observer
“A huge service not just to [Bennett’s] target audience but to the businesses they will be joining.” —The New York Times
This Is 18
“This fantastic collection gives the world a much-needed window — and teens a much-deserved mirror — into what it means to be a girl.” — Amanda Gorman, youth poet laureate of the United States
This Is 18: Girls’ Lives Through Girls’ Eyes (Abrams, 2019) is an immersive look at what it means to be a teenage girl around the world.
As told through interviews, photographs and collage, the book was photographed entirely by other teenage girls, featuring messages from Gloria Steinem, Hillary Clinton and more.
Mentions/Chapters
THE GOOD GIRLS REVOLT by Lynn Povich
“Jessica Bennett grew up in the era of Girl Power,” begins the first chapter this book, which tells the story of the women journalists who sued Newsweek for gender discrimination in 1970 — and the young women like me, who rediscovered their plight some four decades later.
ALL THE SINGLE LADIES by Rebecca Traister
In which I recount a story of installing my air-conditioner from a fourth-story window all by myself as a recently dumped Strong Single Woman.
BRAG BETTER by Meredith Fineman
Introducing the concept of the “boast bitch (n.)”: She boasts for you, you boast for her, everybody gets credit and nobody is penalized for being “too braggy.”
THINK LIKE A ROCKET SCIENTIST by Ozan Varol
In which I describe my personal failures and how they’ve made me stronger in this book by an actual rocket scientist.
THE REJECTION THAT CHANGED MY LIFE by Jessica Bacal
I got fired from Tumblr. It turned out to be great.
THINK LIKE A BREADWINNER by Jennifer Barrett
I’m not sure I think like a breadwinner but I do make a vision board every year, as documented in this book.
THE FUTURE IS FEMINIST edited by Mallory Farrugia
My essay on my resting bitch face is featured in this book of essays.