5 must-read books about gender inequality

Gender inequality is not always at the top of the political agenda for world leaders or mainstream media. This is a failure. The last year saw the release of several high quality feminist, LGBT and trans-aware books. These five titles are essential reading. Buy them and share them with others.

Gender Failure by Ivan E. Coyote and Rae Spoon

Coyote and Spoon collaborated on this multi-genre collection of essays, lyrics and images. Both authors are musicians. The work details their experiences with a society obsessed with the gender binary. It is an autobiography that hits hard. The content is courageous, open, funny and very sad.

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Gay has been a steady presence in US literary circles for a decade. Her fiction and non-fiction appear in numerous journals. Her debut novel, An Untamed State, arrived recently alongside her first essay collection, Bad Feminist. The essays explore her relationship with gender, sexuality, pop culture, food and sexual violence. She is an acute and accessible cultural commentator.

Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS, and Survival by Sean Strub

This memoir comes from the first openly HIV-positive candidate for U.S. Congress. Strub founded POZ magazine and produced the Broadway hit The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me. The book combines cultural and political insight. It provides a fascinating look into the world of AIDS activism.

Men Explain Things to Me: And Other Essays by Rebecca Solnit

Solnit is credited with inspiring the term mansplaining. The title essay explores unbalanced conversational power dynamics between men and women. The rest of the book includes six more essays. Topics range from Virginia Woolf to marriage equality.