This is a short (fewer than 100 pages) manifesto is so clear in its articulation and clarity of thought. Beard takes the reader through the public voice of women, starting with the ancient Greeks; ‘public speaking and oratory were not merely things that ancient women didn’t do: they were exclusive practices and skills that defined masculinity as a gender… A woman speaking in public was, in most circumstances, by definition not a woman.’ In so doing, she gives context to the way women are treated in public today and the vilification we see when women speak up.

She then moves to women and power, ‘…we have no template for what a powerful women looks like, except that she looks rather like a man.’ ‘For the most part, (women) are portrayed as abusers rather than users of power. They take it illegitimately, in a way that leads to chaos, to the fracture of the state, to death and destruction… they must be disempowered and put back in their place.’ All Australians will remember the hysterical response of many powerful men when Julia Gillard made a challenge for the Prime Ministership and won. Deemed as too ambitious and Lady Macbeth-esque, they set out to destroy her and send a message to all women; stay small. You don’t belong in the halls of power.

You can easily read this book in a couple of hours and if you’re interested in placing our current visibility challenges in an historical context, this is the book for you.