Birth Announcement!

Sep 03, 2024

She’s here! Sexism & Sensibility: Raising Empowered, Resilient Girls in the Modern World has officially entered the world. The title speaks for itself but for a little more context, watch this brief video to hear why I wrote it. Research shows that gender bias and sexism deeply affect girls, and I believe that parents, educators, and anyone caring for girls can help!

I am BOWLED OVER by the reviews so far. I had trouble choosing but here are a few:

“This is a brilliant and timely book which I enjoyed immensely, and at times was even moved to tears reading it. As a father of a teenage girl I was impressed by Dr. finkelstein‘s ability to point out pitfalls and obstacles facing girls as they develop into womanhood. Some of these are right under our noses, but were out of my awareness until I read this book. She cleverly elucidated rapidly evolving customs, norms and expectations by drawing on her clinical experience and astute observations of the culture . I highly recommend this book to anyone who cares about girls, women, sisters and daughters.”

“This is a must read for anyone (I thought long and hard about qualifying this. "...any parent," "..,anyone interacting with a child," "...anyone interacting with anyone of the female persuasion," but decided that the world would be a better place if everyone was considering these topics. Dr. Finkelstein provides clear, approachable discourse on the state of sexism in the United States. She also provides practical advice, including client examples from her own practice to illustrate how parents can discuss these topics with children of all genders to help them navigate their own experiences of sexism and the mixed signals that society sends us about how gender "should" present.

I felt incredibly seen reading this book, there were many times that Dr. Finkelstein's case examples rang true with my own experience of gender. I highlighted many passages for future parenting discussions with my daughter.”

“Dr. Finkelstein concludes the introduction to Sexism and Sensibility with this promise: “By the end of these pages you’ll have a clearer path forward for helping your daughter manage the dissonance between who the world says she is and who you know her to be: powerful, astute, and full of potential.” This line illustrates one of the great strengths of this book, and, to be clear, there are many, many strengths. Dr. Finkelstein has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of sexism, past and present, and its far-reaching implications for girls and their futures, yet, she maintains a hopefulness about all of our daughters. Maybe because she is very much in this with us. She is a gentle guide and teacher, never preaching, such that reading Sex and Sensibility feels like talking with your wisest friend, or perhaps, the wise friend we all wish we had. She is the friend who has the facts and research to back up her theories and the clinical anecdotes to provide powerful, resonant examples. The friend who doesn’t need to perform her intelligence and skills as a mother, but rather shares openly her mistakes and challenges, and even her own biases, making space for you, and all of us, to learn and grow into the very best parents we can be, because, after all, we are raising “powerful, astute girls who are full of potential.” Dr. Finkelstein sees the potential in all of us. What could be better?”

“What an incredibly important, beautiful, and devastating read! Even though I thought I already understood the dangers of sexism, after reading this I feel newly awakened from a numb slumber where I had become desensitized to the harms. But now I am awake again and it's hard to confront all of this, honestly. I was stunned by the research, the frank look at sexting .. But I feel newly able to confront the realities (not easy, my daughter does not want to hear it!) because there are real practical tips on how to parent our girls through these dangerous waters and I am soaking them up!”

Remember, if you order Sexism & Sensibility by Sunday, Sept 8th, you’ll get:

🗞️a free paid subscription to this newsletter, “The Feminist Parent”
👩‍💻an exclusive live zoom with me and
Ruth Whippman
, author of BoyMom

*** If you’ve already bought the book, THANK YOU! I would be eternally grateful if you would post an honest review on Amazon—Here is a direct link to the review page. You can also cut and paste your review into Goodreads here for double eternal gratitude. And, I wouldn’t stop you from sharing about it on social media :)

Events

Today I fly to New York. Catch me on NBC Daily News at 12:45 PM on Wednesday 9/4 if you happen to be near a TV! My launch party is Thursday 9/5 in Chicago. I’ll be in LA on 9/11 and then Berkeley CA 9/13. If you’re in the area, come introduce yourself! For details click here. I have also started scheduling book groups, so if your book group is interested in reading the book and would like me to join for as session, just reach out!

Finally, I want to thank this community who faithfully reads my articles, comments, messages me, debates me, encourages me, shares my posts, and has made writing so much fun. Preparing for this book launch has been one of the most intense periods of my life. I can’t wait for normal life to resume so I can get back to regularly scheduled programming! There are many, many drafts waiting to be polished and sent out to you all!

Jo-Ann