A History of Women in 101 Objects

By: Annabelle Hirsch

Narrated by: Gillian Anderson, Katy Hessel, Anita Rani, Jackie Kay, Len Pennie, Annabelle Hirsch, Shirley Manson, Rebecca Solnit, Sandi Toksvig, Marina Hyde, Naomi Shimada, Full Cast

Discover the hidden history of women—and the world—through this visual exploration of intimate objects and the surprising, sometimes shocking stories behind them.

“I adored this book!”—Olivia Colman

This is a neglected history. Not a sweeping, definitive, exhaustive history of the world but something quieter, more intimate and particular: a single journey, picked out in 101 objects, through the fascinating, manifold, and too often overlooked histories of women.

With engaging prose and compelling stories, Annabelle Hirsch’s book contains a curated and diverse compendium of women and their things, uncovering the thoughts and feelings at the heart of women’s daily lives. The result is an intimate and stirring alternative history of humans in the world. The objects date from prehistory to today and are assembled chronologically to show the evolution of how women were perceived by others, how they perceived themselves, how they fought for freedom. Some (like a sixteenth-century glass dildo) are objects of female pleasure, some (a thumbscrew) of female subjugation. These are artifacts of women celebrated by history and of women unfairly forgotten by it. With variety and nuance, A History of Women in 101 Objects cracks open the fissures of what we think we know in order to illuminate a much richer retelling: What do handprints on early cave paintings tell us about the role of women in hunting? How is a cell phone related to femicides? What does Kim Kardashian’s diamond ring have to do with Elena Ferrante?

Wide-ranging, subversive, witty, and superbly researched, this is a book that upends all our assumptions about, and presentations of, the past, proving that it has always been as complicated and fascinating as the women who peopled it.

Read by Gillian Anderson, Katy Hessel, Anita Rani, Jackie Kay, Len Pennie, Annabelle Hirsch, Shirley Manson, Rebecca Solnit, Sandi Toksvig, Marina Hyde, Naomi Shimada, Harriet Walter, Celia Imrie, Kate Manne, Margaret Atwood, Janina Ramirez, Doon Mackichan, Helen Mirren, Elif Shafak, Kathryn Hunter, Kate Mosse, Miriam Margolyes, Val McDermid, Caitlin Moran, Dolly Alderton, Georgia Byng, Olivia Colman, Sasha Lane, Adjoa Andoh, Elizabeth Acevedo, Sue Perkins, Ece Temelkuran, Mary Ann Sieghart, Alison Steadman, Daisy Ridley, Rebecca Hall, Krista Tippett, Patience Agbabi, Michelle Newell, Jeanette Winterson, Geraldine James, Sinead Cusack, Tiya Miles, Crystal Clarke, Louise Brealey, Leila Slimani, Helena Kennedy, Samin Nosrat, Anna Holmes, Michelle Gomez, India Knight, Natascha McElhone, Lauren Elkin,Kate Winslet, Helena Bonham Carter, Sylvia Whitman, Noma Dumezweni, Meera Syal, Niamh McGrady, Denise Gough, Jacqueline Wilson, Siri Hustvedt, Gaby Wood, Sophie Hunter, Lisa Kainde Diaz, Annabel Mullion, Sharleen Spiteri, Jennifer Clement, Julia Gillard, Christiane Amanpour, Jude Kelly, Kerry Fox, Ruthie Rogers, Maggie Smith, Hanna Schygulla, Kübra Gümüsay, Erica Wagner, Sandra Huller, Jodie Whittaker, Virginie Efira, Nicola Sturgeon, Juno Dawson, Juliet Stevenson, Sally Phillips, Anjelica Huston, Lisa Dwan, Ruth Ozeki, Joanna Lumley, Cynthia Erivo, Martha Wainwright, Eleanor Updegraff, Sinéad Gleeson, Salena Godden, Lili Taylor, Mariella Frostrup, Rakie Ayola, Katie Kitamura, Saffron Hocking, Tahmina Anam, Vivian Oparah, and Shirin Neshat

Critic reviews

“Hirsch provides a rich, subversive take on history. . . . The scope and delicious imaginative leaps of Hirsch’s work, translated from German by Eleanor Updegraff, start to work their magic. I guarantee many readers will be exposed to something new.”―Financial Times

“A reminder, lest we forget, that women are and have always been, whether quietly or vociferously, on the periphery or center stage, the engine, the glue, the inspiration behind it all.”—Gillian Anderson

“An excellent reminder that women have always been there. They may be written out of texts, but the objects they leave behind reveal them in all their complexity. Women who fought, women who worked, women who wielded power and carried agency. Through these 101 objects, you can touch the hands of ancestors and understand the worlds they inhabited.”—Dr. Janina Ramirez, author of Femina

“Quirky [and] idiosyncratic . . . wide-ranging, beautifully presented book.”―Herald Review

“I adored this book! Hirsch’s intimate observational gifts turn that world into a rousing, living record of all that we have wrestled with.”—Olivia Colman

“A fantastic cabinet of curiosities that rethinks the role of women in history. . . . Educational, funny—a joy!”—Leila Slimani

“I love this book. . . . A new feminist history of the world . . . stirring, provocative, and carefully researched.”—Lauren Elkin

“An ambitious project, wide in scope, idiosyncratic in approach . . . The power of this book is cumulative; read as a whole it becomes increasingly affecting. At its heart it is about female pain, female bravery, and female creativity.”—Sunday Times

“Hirsch makes an engaging book debut with a feminist chronicle of women’s lives from prehistoric times to the present. . . . Filled with illuminating anecdotes, the collection is as entertaining as it is informative.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Fascinating and Enlightening!

This book gave voice to objects, and thoughts/ideas, that I never would have known about. Made all the more engrossing by the myriad of women readers. Highly recommend!

Vitrol & fascination

What a "broad" romp through women's story. There's so much great information here. Alas, alas there is a whopping dose of vitriolic hatred of men, the past, the church. Instead of relating historical past focused on women, every object's essay is colored, biased so strongly. All the author ends up only saying is how lucky none of us lived in that horrible, miserable past, how we would have suffered. I prefer my history to relate how fascinating humans are in their variety and how interestingly we've striven and struggled and pulled ourselves forward.

Marvelously, the book is still a great listen. Magnificently, each 101 object's essay is read by different women drawn from all aspects of our culture. Each woman brings a great deal to her narration. All together, they are a joy.

Listener beware: rape and other acts of violence against women are vividly described. Hearing may be uncomfortable or disturbing.