Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence

Bold Type Books, 2018 (U.S. edition), Paperback with new preface and reading guide, 2020

Bodley Head, 2018 and Vintage Paperback, 2019 (U.K. and Commonwealth editions)

Read an excerpt in: English, Spanish, German, or Dutch

(Confirmed foreign language editions in German, Russian, Dutch, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Korean, Indonesian, and Thai)

 

“With acumen and wit (chapters include “What to Expect When You’re Expecting Exploitation”), a professor lays bare the inequities women face under capitalism and the desirability of decoupling “love and intimacy from economic considerations.” – O Magazine

“The virtue of Ghodsee’s smart, accessible book is that it illustrates how it might be possible for a woman — or, for that matter, a man — to have an entirely different structural relationship to something as fundamental as sex, or health.” – Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker

“Brilliant … engaging … Ghodsee is not naive [and] brings the necessary skepticism to her thesis [which] comes into sharp focus when she looks at what happened after the Wall fell … [a] valuable record of how things were and how they could be.” – Rosie Boycott Financial Times

“[A] short, crisp and wonderfully engaging polemic [that] couldn’t be more urgent…. A tonic for a badly ailing discourse…. Ghodsee’s book shows that for women, socialism can at least improve the conditions for pleasure, and perhaps inextricably, love.”―Liza Featherstone, Jacobin

“What if all it takes to get laid more is to embrace democratic socialism?… Ghodsee demonstrates how, historically, women have reported greater sexual satisfaction under democratic socialist (and even communist) governments.” – Sophia Benoit, GQ Magazine

“A provocative and deftly argued text.”―Broadly

“Wonderful … Kristen Ghodsee doesn’t wear rose-tinted spectacles … but she seeks with great brio and nuance to lay out what some socialist states achieved for women … That Ghodsee also makes this a joyous read is the cherry on the cake” – Suzanne Moore, Observer

“Ghodsee’s book could not have been published at a better moment … There are many reasons to revisit socialist policies in a time of widening inequality, but a feminist perspective offers some of the most powerful incentives” – Emily Witt, Guardian

“Convincing, provocative and useful” –Times Higher Education

“Capitalism has fundamentally shaped and warped the ways we relate to each other, sexually and otherwise…leading us to view intimacy and love as things that only exist in finite quantities, and that are only worth investing in worthy relationships. Ghodsee’s book offers an alternative to this model, looking back at the state-socialist regimes in the 20th century, under which the state liberalized divorce laws, legalized abortion, invested in collective laundries and nurseries, and enabled women to attain more economic freedom-and in turn, better sex.”―The Cut

“A straightforward account of how capitalism harms women-including, yes, in our intimate lives… It made me want to do much more than vote.”―Jewish Currents

“Kristen Ghodsee’s feminist focus is on the “ravages of neo-liberal capitalism…” In addition to sex, those other pillars of gender equity — housework, motherhood, labour and leadership — receive their fair share of attention. An unexpectedly rich and agreeable exploration. “– Sarah Murdoch. Toronto Star

“[F]ascinating, thought-provoking and often jarring reading.” The Herald Scotland

“Ghodsee’s focus…on sex and sexual relations emerges elegantly from the argument she has developed: that a feminist politics is central to socialism because it cannot avoid its foundation in economic principles. So long as women are economically dependent on men, there can be no equality; without such equality, she argues, heterosexual relations will suffer and so will the experience of sex itself.”―In These Times

“A passionate but reasoned feminist socialist manifesto for the 21st century… Ghodsee’s treatise will be of interest to women becoming disillusioned with the capitalism under which they were raised.”―Publishers Weekly

“While the title is the literary version of click-bait, the book is chock-full of hard-hitting real talk.” – Kirkus Reviews

“Although it would have killed some of the fun, Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence could have gone by the title Socialism for Dummies. In six sharp essay-like chapters, she compares her findings with what she’s learned of women’s experiences under socialism. Each begins with a personal jumping-off point that helps her stay true to her stated ambition to write an accessible book for a general readership.” – Shelf Awareness