An eye-opening, mind-boggling, utterly infuriating investigation into how women are so often left out in the cold by scientific investigation. Saini writes with engaging clarity and details as she shines a light on science and (often) pseudo-science that gets women wrong and places them in an inferior position to men, undervaluing them and failing to give their needs equal consideration. It was alarming how often she found flawed and harmful attitudes and beliefs accepted within the scientific community. This is generally vehemently denied by those she challenges, who protest impartiality while failing to examine the assumptions that lead to bias. She tackles the issues this raises in our understanding of medicine, anthropology and even evolution, and how these unchallenged assumptions, based on flawed data and flawed experimentation, bolster the gender divide, ultimately prolonging sexist and misogynist attitudes. The idea that women's heart problems are so often misdiagnosed as anxiety is horrifying. Ultimately a book to make your blood boil.

This book covers a lot of interesting topics and discusses a lot of very interesting things
I liked how it was mentioned that specific health issues are only becoming researched after being made popular after it was discovered that for example pharmaceutical companies could make money from women suffering or going through those issues.
I think that shows very clearly how important women's health rally is to the male population -meaning not at all if they can't profit from it in some way.

It's a very interesting read and I do recommend checking it out.
It's a little dry in some sections and sometimes drags on a bit.
But overall a fantastic and informative read!

Angela Saini heeft haar research voor Ondergeschikt grondig gedaan. Zowel in de breedte als in de diepte.

Om te beginnen (in de breedte) verdiepte ze zich in talloze onderzoeken waarbij het vrouwenlichaam centraal stond. Denk een hormonen, lichaamsbouw en hersenen. Daarnaast legde ze ook wetenschappelijke artikelen naast elkaar betreffende gedrag van vrouwen – vaak vergeleken bij mannen, en hoe de verhoudingen man/vrouw binnen de wetenschap liggen. Dat er nog steeds heel weinig vrouwen aan de top in de wetenschap zijn.
Hierbij werpt ze interessante vragen op, bijvoorbeeld of vrouwen werkelijke slechter in wiskunde zijn dan mannen en in hoeverre dat op aannames is gebaseerd of door onderzoek wordt bewezen. Saini legt de lezer uit hoe dergelijke onderzoeken tot stand kwamen en wat er discutabel aan is. Maar hoe plausibel dergelijke zaken klinken als ze uit de mond van een onderzoeker of dokter, die een witte jas draagt, komen.
De auteur maakt duidelijk dat men hierbij sceptisch dient te zijn. Zij heeft heel diep gegraven in de literatuur waarop zij Ondergeschikt baseerde en legt uit hoe sommige onderzoeksmethodes niet los kunnen worden gezien van bepaalde interpretaties. Zelfs de uitkomst van een hersenscan is niet altijd eenduidig.

Angela Saini zet in dit boek uiteen hoe moeilijk het is om stereotypes te vermijden, zowel in het dagelijks leven als in de wetenschap. Maar ook hoeveel de wetenschap simpelweg nog niet heeft kunnen blootleggen of vaststellen.
Ondanks ons vertrouwen in wetenschappelijk onderzoek is er veel wat men niet met zekerheid zeggen. Er is nog een lange weg te gaan.

My second audiobook of the month is a non-fiction audiobook related to feminism, the persecution and subjugation of women and gender roles and sexual behaviour of animals as well as everything from various scientific experiments, societies views of women and female genital mutilation. It made for a interesting audiobook with a fair amount of the information that I already knew but various studies I'd never heard of. I read it partly as a netgalley arc but mostly as a BookBeat audiobook - I'd definitely recommend the audiobook! I think it would make an essential read for women and especially men!

I was a feminist before I knew it. The tenets of feminism were so integral to my life as a young woman it never came to me to truly question it. That is, until my first conversation with someone with other opinions, presenting me with "scientific facts" that undermined everything I thought was true. And so started a journey of reading and researching, digging through decades of misogynistic writing to get as close to the truth as I could. Angela Saini's Inferior came at just the right time and I'm incredibly glad to have read it. Thanks to Fourth Estate and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As I said, feminism is quite integral to my being. I also come from quite an academic background, which I always thoughts would be a boon. But there is no single truth when it comes to science and academia. Feminism and science are similar in that sense. They are an ongoing conversation, consistently working on improving themselves, adjusting to new discoveries and full of contention. Those who think scientific discourse is straitlaced and calm is completely wrong. Academics can get vicious, in their own way, and careers are destroyed in the process. Science is a fluid thing, a fact which, to some, disqualifies its findings. However, science has an enormous impact on society. Sometimes research even has more impact on society than on its own field! Freud is no longer an authority in psychology, yet almost every piece of literature and cinema is still deeply affected by it. The same happens with other research, especially now that the Internet easily disseminates it with clickbait-y headlines. I loved the way Saini addressed all of these issues in Inferior and it has definitely opened my eyes to my own response to new research on gender.

In Inferior Saini takes an honest and interested look at how science has discussed women, and especially the difference between women and men. She does so without forcing her own opinions onto the research or judging academics in advance. As such, this book is full of honest discoveries and realisations. I was stunned to find out that despite all of his forward-thinking, Darwin believed women were biologically less evolved than men, biologically made to stay at home, far away from books. I was amazed by how deftly Saini discusses opposing sides. The aim of Inferior is to do away with the idea that women are biologically inferior, but she does so not by outrightly claiming so and then finding theories that support her opinions. Rather she looks at both sides, lays out different arguments, and shows the potential weaknesses in both. Although Inferior doesn't cover everything I found it to be a very interesting read. It is impossible to really answer the question definitely, whether there is a difference between men and women, because the question itself is loaded. But books like Inferior make a good headstart in continuing the conversation.

Angela Saini does a brilliant job in Inferior. I have two family members who are physicists and whenever they talk I can feel my brain start hurting from the lingo. Yes, I am one of those Literature students and although Literary Theory terms are nothing to me, I am a complete novice in most scientific terms. But Saini manages to make the studies she explores gripping and accessible, whether it is the intricacies of the brain or the habits of nomadic tribes. Not once did I get distracted or bored while reading Inferior. Rather I found myself wanting more! I was also immensely impressed by how objective Saini remains throughout the entire book. Although she has her own opinions she doesn't allow those to prejudice her. It becomes really clear from the book that Saini herself is incredibly interested in this topic and that researching and writing it was also a journey for her. It makes reading Inferior a joyous experience and once I finished it I was ravenous for more. I will definitely be browsing through the bibliography to continue my research. Thank you Angela Saini for entertaining me, enlightening me and educating me!

I enormously enjoyed reading Inferior. Despite its content, Saini manages to make this an entertaining and gripping read, easy to understand and challenging to grapple with. I'd recommend this to anyone interested both in science and in the history of women.

An interesting read full of insight and facts that I can use to thicken debates I participate in on a regular basis. I'm glad my co-worker suggested this book to me.

It was a little dry in places, hence the lower rating, but it is an important book and one I will recommend to others to read.

This is a wonderful read if you want to take a broad look at the differences between genders and why women are considered to be inferior to their male counterparts.

The research and citations were excellent, with plenty of anecdotes, examples and quotes to support the author's points but presented in such a way that the book was fun to read - it's clearly biased in favour of women not being the inferior 50% of our species, but is that a bad thing?

For what is actually pretty dense and contentious subject matter, I found this book really easy to read and enjoyable.

Possibly my favourite chapter was the last - exploring the evolutionary purpose of the menopause. It shocked me to learn how little interest or research there was in the menopause until pharmaceutical companies they could make money off 'treating' it in the 20th century.

I loved this book and will recommend it to all my friends with an interest in science and gender equality- it's fascinating and informative, but the author hasn't climbed up on a soapbox to write it so it doesn't light my feminist fuse with all the outdated research on why women should stay in the home.

a fascinating study searing with honesty from start to finish.

A brilliant and engaging survey of recent and not so recent research suggesting that women aren't the inferior beings so much of history has thought them to be. Saini manages to make quite complex ideas very accessible and is pretty balanced in presenting both sides of the debates. Obviously there's a risk of preaching to the choir - personally female equality has always seemed blindingly self evident to me, but I was educated and work in female dominated environments which perhaps might have given me a specific outlook - and I'm sure someone who strongly disbelieves female equality will not read this book (unless they take the title at face value!). But Saini preempts this in the introduction by suggesting the contents can be used as (reasoned) debate fodder when one invariably encounters such backward people. Very highly recommended!

This book is the perfect mixture of all the best genres - feminism, history, politics, science and medicine. Saini has done an amazing job of presenting and questioning centuries of complicated scientific gender-biased research in an understandable way. She has interviewed some fascinating people along the way. This is a pleasure to read, as well as enlightening.

Saini looks at some of the biggest myths that male scientists have perpetuated:
Brain science-the male/female brain dichotomy that just does not exist
Women's sexuality - women are not naturally modest and chaste - if they were why would men go to such great lengths to control them?
the purpose of menopause - indeed, is there a purpose, or do we just experience it because those amazing men have enabled us to outlive our usefulness? (note the sarcasm)

I knew I needed to read this book the moment I glanced at the description and I can now say that I wasn't disappointed. It's a well-researched book, each chapter better than the one before and creating a wider picture of systematic sexism in our society. It's essential reading.