This book sounded so promising and started of that way as well. Eventually it did end up making some good points but in general I wasn't a big fan of this book. Those good points I talked about were repeated over and over again throughout this book. It just made the book feel very repetitive and therefore boring as well. Besides all that this book just felt very biased and bitter. A lot of things are based on theories rather than facts. Other things are just completely based on belitteling men and women who don't conform to the author's idea of what an empowered women is like (which is basically everyone). I also feel like this book barely actually spend time talking about the female geniuses the author claims to want to praise up so much. It mainly talks about the author and the "research" she's done. I think a book like this is very interesting. I just don't think this was the right author to write it.

This book was so important, especially in today's world! As a woman, I often am made to feel like my genius can never match a man's -- that's something we need to curb SOON so our daughters don't grow up feeling less adequate. Great, important work!

When you think of genius, where does your mind go? Usually, you're thinking of a man, right? In this book, the author goes to great lengths to bring attention to the fact that there are women that are, can be, and have been geniuses but are either never given the credit or there are ideas are presented by a man who takes the credit. One of the best things about this book is that t highlights several women geniuses. The author mentions a few studies where people are told to choose geniuses out of line up or some other type of experiment and more often than not only men are chosen. This book covers in a great deal how women are constantly overlooked simply because they are women. I highly recommend this book and I am glad I had the opportunity to read it.

In college, I met with a philosophy professor to discuss the required project for his course: a profile of and analysis of a significant philosopher. When I asked if I might write about a woman philosopher (which would integrate well with other coursework I was doing in other classes), this young man sneered at me, droning that there have never been any women philosophers, significant or otherwise. Chastened, I did the assignment and went to as few classes as possible thereafter. This is where Janice Kaplan's THE GENIUS OF WOMEN shines: in the accounts of women philosophers, mathematicians, artists of the past and the present day. I loved learning about Ada Lovelace, Fanny Mendelssohn, and so many other forgotten (as in written out of history) thinkers and creators in every field. Were it for the research and the painstaking interviews that Kaplan conducted with luminaries in industry and academia today, I would give the book a 5 star review. However--and this is a major issue with this book -- Kaplan used the women geniuses as a springboard to her own rants and causes. She blew an emotional gasket over how THE LITTLE MERMAID is a story about silencing women--never going back to the original source material of Hans Christian Anderson's story for its more complex, heart-wrenching choices. All too predictably, she has the same reaction over FROZEN. (Possibly, this bright and impassioned person might consider taking a pass on Disney movies.) The heavy-handed and off-key swerves into the author's ideas about genius and what she ate for lunch with eminent scientists and entrepreneurs got in the way of a truly inspired piece of research and thinking. I guess that's the way of it: an impassioned person using women geniuses to her own ends? You're either written out of the history or dragged in for someone else's cause? My hope is that others may pick up the traces of meaningful and significant and write a thoughtful, balanced book that genuinely explores the individuals and their accomplishments, in their own words and in their own complicated reality.

Thank you to @netgalley and @janice.kaplan for the complimentary e-galley of The Genius of Women. I was asked to review this book, and did so voluntarily and honestly.
If you were to ask anyone to name someone they think of as a genius, there’s a good chance the person they name will be a man. A few come to mind right away: Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Galileo, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates. What about women geniuses? I’ll be honest—I had some trouble with that one. The obvious came to mind: Marie Curie. But...who else?
Have you heard of Lise Meitner? I hadn’t. She was a scientist in the 1930s who fought for her place, despite being banned from science labs where women were not allowed. For all of her work, there is now an element in the periodic table named after her—Meitnerium, the first element to be named after a woman.
There are also Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper, who both were revolutionary in helping to launch the computer era. Grace Hopper was a rear admiral in the Navy in the 1940s, and she helped to develop computer programming languages that are still in use today.
Back to Albert Einstein—everyone knows what a genius he was. His name is practically synonymous with the word. But did you know his wife, Mileva Maric, was also brilliant in physics and math, and that papers Einstein wrote indicate she collaborated with him in his discoveries? Yet—the general public has no idea who she was.
Henrietta Swan Leavitt made discoveries about the brightness of stars, which helped to accurately measure distances in the universe. Edwin Hubble used her work to measure galactic distances. Hubble? Sound familiar? Yeah, the same guy the Hubble Space Telescope was named after—he got there because of Leavitt’s discoveries, which were not credited to her at the time.
This was an interesting collection of stories and anecdotes on the prejudices women have faced, and continue to face, and the brave women from our past that broke barriers to create names for themselves. With histories of these great women, and interviews with current women geniuses in widely varied fields of expertise, Kaplan explores the biases women face on a daily basis. I’m a firm believer in that women can do anything, but the book kind of lost me when the author recounted leaving a movie theater, years ago, furious over the message The Little Mermaid sends to little girls. I found the histories of women very interesting, but the overall tone of the book seemed rather condescending and preachy. I found a lot of the parts in between the histories and interviews to be rather repetitive and somewhat speculative.

So fitting that I finished this book on the first day of Women's History Month. Bravo Janice Kaplan! She does an amazing job of defining "genius" and introducing us to multitudes of women from the past and present who fit the term. Really thorough research done but written in a way that isn't textbook but narrative. Do yourself a favor and read this book- then recommend it to every women and man you know!

This is an incredibly powerful book and another reminder of the bias that affects our society. It was difficult to read about all the women geniuses throughout history that were either never recognized for their talent or only recognized years after their death. But at the same time, it was incredibly empowering to read about the women that Kaplan interviewed and how they have overcome obstacles and provided a path for women in the future. Genius is not limited to men and we should celebrate genius, whether it comes from a man or a woman.

The Genius of Women is thought-provoking and would be an excellent book for discussion in book clubs. It's a book that I will be thinking about and one that I will be buying so that I can share it with others.

The Genius of Women is slightly difficult for me to review. I’m giving it 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 because it was very well written. It was my first nonfiction book and not my typical genre, BUT:⁣
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I felt it was a bit too feministic for me.⁣
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As a young girl, my dad taught me how to play catch, ride a bike, and hit a ball. My mom typically helped me with my homework, went running with me and took me shopping and my grandparents gave us incentive that if we got straight A’s on our report cards we would get $20 and could pick out a book of our choosing to read because being educated was important. ⁣
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Thank you grandma for making me an avid reader and book lover. ❤️ ⁣
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Hello, $20 as a kid is A LOT of money. ⁣
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That $20 a report card gave me enough drive to try and make straight A’s every single report card middle school through my senior year of high school. It also made me a perfectionist, which at times made me completely stressed and insane. My brother, was never that stressed and didn’t care about the $20. ⁣
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My favorite subject as a girl, was science. I majored in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. I went on to get my Masters degree in Physician Assistant’s studies, which is a predominantly female career.⁣
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I then started my career as a PA in Orthopedic Surgery which is a predominantly male field. Though the men tend to be misogynistic and condescending at times, absolutely, I do not let them walk all over me, nor do they define who I am. I am ME.⁣
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I may be a girl, but I cuss like a sailor. ⁣
I may be a girl, but I’d choose pizza over salad.⁣
I have an old soul, and would rather be home reading a book, snuggling my dogs than going out partying. ⁣
I am a dog mom, but I have chosen not to be a mom to a small child and my husband is okay with this. He agrees it is my body to make the choice with. ⁣
I love kids, they just aren’t for me.⁣
I have work life balance.⁣
I am content with who I am. I am supported by those who matter.⁣
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I was raised as a young girl, to make sure I could always independently take care of myself. I could. I can, but yes I am happily married, to a man who respects me and my foul mouth, independence, and ambition.⁣
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I freaking loved The Little Mermaid growing up, because Ariel could sing, and her best friend was a yellow and blue fish, and she lived in the ocean and I loved the beach. I never even thought about how she had to give up her voice for a man in the movie, until this book mentioned it.⁣
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Just like there are men, women, and me; as the book suggests and everyone is multifaceted. Everyone views things differently. I viewed that movie differently as a child, than the writer believes all children will view it as a princess giving up her voice to be with a prince. I just wanted to wear seashells in my hair and swim with the fish.⁣
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I don’t agree with the past and women being only homemakers and living in the shadow of men, at all. I would’ve personally hated it and would’ve wanted to rebel. ⁣
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But I have learned, with my rights as a woman, that I can do anything I damn well please (obviously I have morals) and I won’t let a man keep me in the shadows. ⁣
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“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸. 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘶𝘴.”⁣
-and that’s who I intend on continuing to be❤️

This should be required reading for every girl, boy, woman and man. We are so used to men being the inventors, geniuses, creators that we overlook so many women.

This book made me mad, and full of rage and anger - and then full of hope for the next generation of powerful and smart and amazing women.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I had been looking for different books that talked about women in history that did great things, bet men took credit for it instead. This book made my feminist self very happy.

“Genius women have lived and died, but if nobody told their stories, it was as if they didn’t live at all”.

And just what is a genius? It’s not simply IQ. Genius is a combination of intelligence, talent, and hard work. Persistence, often despite the odds. There’s no question that there are women who have excelled in the fields of music, art, the sciences, and many others. But how many of us can name these women? Worse yet, how many women had a spark of genius that was extinguished because of lack of encouragement and opportunities? It boggles the mind.

One of the strengths of this book are the many, many women whose accomplishments are highlighted. I am amazed at the many extraordinary accomplishments made by women as well as I’m angered that they have rarely received the recognition they so deserved (or received it too late). It’s impossible to list them all here but it’s worth picking up this book to read about these women.

“What counts as great is what those in power say is great.” Throughout the centuries who has been in power? Men. Which is why we hear about more men than women when we think of geniuses. In one “Genius women have lived and died, but if nobody told their stories, it was as if they didn’t live at all”.

How can we encourage young women to reach their full potential, to not feel limited in their vision and opportunities? The author gives us the answers in these pages from the mouths of the geniuses themselves. Times are changing, but slowly. Change is made one woman at a time..

This is an important book and has a strong message that I’m glad I read and I urge others to read it as well.

“Genius women have lived and died, but if nobody told their stories, it was as if they didn’t live at all”.

And just what is a genius? It’s not simply IQ. Genius is a combination of intelligence, talent, and hard work. Persistence, often despite the odds. There’s no question that there are women who have excelled in the fields of music, art, the sciences, and many others. But how many of us can name these women? Worse yet, how many women had a spark of genius that was extinguished because of lack of encouragement and opportunities? It boggles the mind.

One of the strengths of this book are the many, many women whose accomplishments are highlighted. I am humbled and proud of the many extraordinary accomplishments made by women and I’m angered that they have rarely received the recognition they so deserved (or received it too late). It’s impossible to list them all here but it’s worth picking up this book to read about these women.

“What counts as great is what those in power say is great.” Throughout the centuries who has been in power? Men. Which is why we hear about more men than women when we think of geniuses. In one study, six-year-olds were asked to pick out the genius in a line-up of pictures of both men and women. In every single case, the children chose a man. Shocking isn't it that bias starts so early?

Bias is sometimes overt, but it can also be subtle and there were many instances where I questioned my own assumptions. As the mother of a daughter, and a Nana to three girls, I appreciated hearing many of these accomplished women speak about what it was that made the difference. Why did they excel in what was often a man’s domain? How can we encourage and nurture young girls and women to reach their full potential, to not feel limited in their vision and opportunities? The author gives us the answers in these pages from the mouths of the geniuses themselves. Times are changing, but slowly. Change is made one woman at a time.

The first half of the book was riveting. The story starts to lose steam in the second half when the anecdotes and opinions become a tad repetitive. It’s clear the author is passionate about the subject, as she should be, but I started to lose interest and there were a few times I questioned her assumptions. There were times she seemed too prickly, seeing bias everywhere. Also, if an author is going to include women in politics in a non-fiction book, then it should include accomplished women of both political persuasions.

Still, despite some shortcomings, this is an important book with a strong message that I’m glad I read and I urge others to pick it up. 3.5 stars.

I will freely admit, I consider myself to be a liberated woman. I went to college ( to my father's chagrin), have multiple degrees, became a wife to a man who understood my need to work and learn, became a mother to four daughters who we made sure became free thinkers. Our goal always was to develop strong personalities in them, foster the ability to stand on their own, and be reliant on their own strengths to see them through.

In reading this book, I found myself considering many issues I hadn't thought of before. It never really occurred to me why there was a lack of women in the science field or why we never really heard of any women achieving great heights in the world of academia. I mean my girls were all into science and math and didn't seem to have any particular facet of life holding them back. Surely, we knew of the titans of education and business, the innovators, the thinkers and most of them were males. Why was that and why was it I never thought to question that question? As the author aptly points out you can't know about female achievers unless they are made known. She uses the age old analogy of the tree falling in the woods. It doesn't make a sound if there is no one there to hear it. Can we know of these genius women when no one even mentions their names no less their accomplishments.

Janice Kaplan, the author, points to the fact that many women were held back by their male counterparts and existed in a world where male dominance held sway. Women were considered property, had their place in society, and were expected to be seen and seldom heard. A genius woman was overlooked and made to find other places or circuitous ways to let their genius be known or conversely they just acquiesced to the way things were.

As I read this book, I found many brilliant women profiled that I never heard of. However, their achievements have been amazing and their contributions are right up there with any male and at times far surpass them.

The first half of the book is amazing, riveting, and right on. The author pinpoints the errors in our thinking, the ways in which these women have advanced the sciences, technologies, and thought processes. She focuses on them with a laser focus and draws the reader into their world and how they individually dealt with being in a world formerly populated by men. It's awesome.

However, I was a tad disappointed in the second half where I felt the author sent some conflicting views. She mentions Ruth Bader Ginsberg but neglects a mention of Sarah Day O'Connor the first women appointed to the Supreme Court in 1981. She mentions Hilary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren but neglects to mention Nikki Haley or Jeane J. Kilpatrick, who was the first women representative from the US to the UN. I felt at times her agenda was based on a more liberal outlook on the women she chose to profile. Another point that bothered me was her referral to the looks and dress of many of the women she wrote of. I found that a bit off setting as well since I felt we should not be looking at looks but at the sheer intelligence and bravery of these women who stepped into a world where few had dared to be in before. Many men are mentioned who denied women their just accolades for inventions and innovations and then those same men took credit for the achievement. However, there were men who did and have supported and pushed ahead women much to their credit.

However, this book has much relevance and I do recommend it to those, who like myself, need a lesson in the ways in which women have gone forward and continue to do so. It has always been tough being a female in a male dominated world, but what must never be denied is that woman have progressed and will continue to do so making our voices, our achievements, our genius known to the world. This will be our new challenge, our way forward into the world of the future.

Thank you to Janice Kaplan, Dutton Books, and NetGalley for a copy of this worthwhile book.

This one was an interesting read. No one I would normally pick on my own but I liked it! I liked getting to read about some of women like Oprah for example and the obstacles many of them had to overcome. I found this very informative!

This is a great book celebrating women who have raised the bar and expectations in their chosen field. From musicians to female Nobel peace prize winners, this book is inspiring and a great read for young women starting on their path. Well written, enjoyable.

Janice Kaplan does an excellent job with this book, sharing stories and insights from many amazing women around the world. I found this book to be informative, funny and incredibly interesting. The chapters are short and easily digestible, which I greatly appreciated. I was able to pick this book up and read a short section no wherever I was.
You can tell Kaplan put a lot of thought and research into this work and I loved the combination of interviews, discussion and investigative data. I felt like I learned so much about many women in history I had either overlooked or in some cases never heard of. I think this would make a wonderful “bedside table” book as it’s binge-able but also would be nice to take your time with and reflect on. I will definitely be buying a physical copy to keep on my bedside table.

This is a book about women who have made great contributions to the world and that, because of the oppressing constraints throughout history, have not been given the proper recognition. It is also a book about women who are positively impacting the world with their ideas and work.

Some of the women discussed are Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Fei-Fei Li, Mayim bialik, and Oprah, among many others. I enjoyed reading about the obstacles many of these women faced and how they were able to handle it. It was an interesting and insightful read and I recommend it.

ARC provided by Publisher via Netgalley

As an investigation into women geniuses of history, why they’ve been so overshadowed by their male equivalents (and lesser thans), and the formula behind what makes a genius, I thought "The Genius of Women" may become one of my top nonfiction of the year (yes, already).

The first few chapters had me smitten; feminist and fabulously written and researched. Kaplan has a knack for summing up a person in one sentence, both physically and their personality, and for creating some of the catchiest chapter titles I’ve ever heard. ('The Dark Lord Trying to Kill off Women Scientists' and 'How to Succeed in Business by Wearing Elegant Scarves' being just two examples.) The story is interspersed with just enough personal commentary to provide some humor and give us a glimpse into the woman behind the words but not so much that it takes the story away from the geniuses. 

Unfortunately, the good parts of this story were buried in a lot of bad.

I soon realized that as intriguing as the chapters sounded, their titles had little to do with the figure or issues addressed, which made them overall more gimmicky than anything. Kaplan not only has a knack for naming but for transitions, which were utilized extremely often. Chapters would begin, often, with the mentioned topic and quickly meander through an extensive series of other topics, so that, by the time we were finished, I had no idea where we had begun, which made it difficult to retain any of the multitudes of information. With so much going on, any meaningful quotes and data end up drowning in all the other discussions.

Every chapter feels like its own feature story, which isn’t intrinsically a bad thing, but in this case, meant that almost half of every section was conclusion. The reading experience of this is inevitable that the book seems as if it's ending eighteen times...and yet, it continues, which makes it drag. With so much narration, there ends up being a lot of repetition and overlap, which ensures that the themes of the story are heard loud and clear (many times), but also seems to slight the reader on realizing their own thoughts. The book became so repetitious at times that I truly thought I had skipped back to the wrong section and was re-reading it once more. 

The even more unfortunate result of so much narration is that it completely trumps the stories of the women that this book is supposed to be focused on. I can be partially to blame for expecting more of a Hidden Figures story, where we finally get to hear the untold tales of these women from beginning to end, following a more story-like structure than an academic piece. But, in comparison to the sheer amount of research that Kaplan clearly did, and the number of interviews she had with these women, there’s very little of it in the final version. We may get one or two quotes from any particular woman, and although they’re well-picked, it seemed minuscule in the scope of things. This book would have been so much better and more memorable if it had just let the experiences of these women stand on their own without all the narration. 

With all of Kaplan’s research, we get a wide range of genius women in a multitude of fields, but there was one group of people who were left out: trans women, and non-binary folks. I wouldn’t necessarily expect there to be a discussion of non-binary geniuses in a book specifically about women, but then Kaplan includes a discussion with someone (who, understandably, wanted to remain anonymous) where they wonder whether there are so many people coming out as non-binary because women face so much oppression. Clearly Kaplan never interviews a non-binary person to get their take on it, or it would have been obvious that this is not only very much not true, but that people who are non-binary usually face more oppression than cis-gendered people...so it doesn’t even make sense...Even though the argument was suggested as having only belonged to the person Kaplan is talking to (rather than herself), it didn’t seem right that it was included without ever being further explored, which would have been so easy to do, while all other topics in the book are thoroughly investigated.

I rated "The Genius of Women" 2.5 out of 5 stars. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group/ Dutton for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

**I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Although Non-Fiction is not my favored genre, I was given the opportunity to read and review this book and I loved it. It was well-written and at times humorous, very personable and a very powerful book. A great, informative read about the amazing women in history whose outstanding accomplishments have been overlooked completely in our world. Janice travels and discusses the struggles for many female scientists and educators throughout the times in a way that is inspiring and enlightening. Kaplan works her way through stories about exceptional women and how they got to be who they were meant to be. I want to give all the credit to the author Janice Kaplan for her thorough research into many unrecognized heroes.

I would not have picked up this book on my own, so I am forever grateful for being given the push to dive into and learn from this book. Thank You.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read The Genius of Women.

This was a great break from the psychological thrillers and crime novels I've been reading. This book is very empowering, educational and is mixed with a bit of humor. I've been working in a manufacturing facility for 5 years so I was able to make many personal connections throughout this book and understand the struggles of working with men who are all "Geniuses". Kaplan does an amazing job at breaking down not only how we view the word genius, but also how we treat men, women, young boys and young girls in our society. A must read!