Don’t look away from the reality of women and girls around the world.
“Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls” is the United Nations’ official theme for International Women’s Day 2026. It calls for “equal rights and equal justice to enforce, exercise, and enjoy those rights” in fundamental areas of life, including work, money, safety, family, property, mobility, business, and retirement.
The UN reports that currently, women only have 64 per cent of the legal rights that men hold worldwide. What do these statistics look like in the everyday lives of real, living women? These non-fiction books illustrate this reality; they may not be easy reads but they are essential to understanding why it is important to call for rights, justice, and action for all women and girls.
In 2024, Gisele Pelicot waived her right to anonymity to pursue justice against her sexually abusive husband. Her new memoir, A Hymn to Life, recounts this arduous journey. (Photo by Arnold Jerocki/Getty Images)
In conjunction with International Women’s Month 2026, BAZAAR puts together an essential reading list of five non-fiction books.
The New Age of Sexism: How AI and Emerging Technologies Are Reinventing Misogyny by Laura Bates
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Laura Bates, activist and author of Everyday Sexism and Men Who Hate Women, opens our eyes to misogyny’s new frontier: artificial intelligence (AI) and the digital world. In The New Age of Sexism, she opens our eyes to how technology is currently being weaponised against women and girls, drastically changing our understanding of harassment, objectification, and rape. Around the world, women’s likeness are used to create deepfake pornography, sex dolls and cyber brothels are being marketed as a must-try experience, and the rise of AI chatbots are contributing to the social isolation and radicalisation of young boys. It is a harrowing but important read, especially for parents who are raising the next generation.
“I believe that we need to expose the true awfulness of what is happening, to force people to reckon with it and to acknowledge that this is unsustainable. That something has to be done,” writes Laura Bates.
The Eyes of Gaza: A Diary of Resilience by Plestia Alaqad
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Along with reporter Bisan Owda and photojournalist Motaz Hilal Azaiza, Plestia Alaqad has become a powerful voice in showing the world the reality of daily life in Gaza through social media. In The Eyes of Gaza, Plestia Alaqad recounts her journey as a 21-year-old woman, whose bright future as a fresh journalism graduate is eviscerated by war and devastation. It also serves as a quiet reminder of the indomitable spirit of Palestinian men, women and children as they continue to endure unthinkable experiences of loss and suffering.
For more on the subject, we recommend watching the following documentaries: Eyes of Gaza (2024), From Ground Zero (2025), and the Oscar-nominated docudrama, The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025).
A Hymn to Life by Gisèle Pelicot, translated by Natasha Lehrer and Ruth Diver
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In 2024, we followed Gisèle Pelicot’s harrowing case in real time; her husband and 50 other men were put on trial. For more than a decade, the former had been secretly drugging and raping her, inviting strangers to do the same; he recorded these crimes and disseminated the footage online. In this memoir, Pelicot recounts her fight for justice, during which she courageously waived her right to anonymity. “Shame must change sides,” she declared. Pelicot also writes about how she is navigating life after the discovery of her husband’s betrayal and his conviction, receiving the maximum 20-year prison term.
For context, this was playing out at the same time that South Korea was struggling to contain the widespread abuse of women on Telegram, where non-consensual images, sexual exploitation videos, and deep-fake pornography, were shared to more than 200,000 people in chat rooms, such as Nth Room and Doctor’s Room. Pelicot’s case became a global phenomenon but it is clear that her experiences are not singular. It begs the question: how many other ordinary women are pursuing justice in the same way with different results? And how can we prevent these crimes, at a legal and societal level, from ever happening again?
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez
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We live in a data-driven world; policies on economic development, healthcare, and education are informed by data collected from research, taken as reliable facts. But Caroline Criado Perez wants you to know that this data is far from accurate; it treats men as the default and actively internalises gender bias and stereotypes. This gap is actively harming women. An eye-opening, accessible read Invisible Women validates a lot of concerns that women have been experiencing and sharing since the beginning of time.
Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood by Lucy Jones
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When pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood is presented by society as the most beautiful transformation a woman can undergo, it is almost blasphemous to point to the facts suggesting otherwise. Lucy Jones dares to investigate the reality of motherhood and its psychological, physiological, hormonal, and social impact on a woman. Drawing from new research and anecdotal evidence, she presents the maternal experience in a radically different light from what we are used to.
