Non­fic­tion

The Genius of Women: From Over­looked to Chang­ing The World

  • From the Publisher
September 1, 2019

We tell girls that they can be any­thing, so why do 90 per­cent of Amer­i­cans believe that genius­es are almost always men? New York Times best­selling jour­nal­ist and cre­ator and host of the pod­cast The Grat­i­tude Diaries Jan­ice Kaplan explores the pow­er­ful forces that have rigged the sys­tem‚ and cel­e­brates the women genius­es, past and present, who have tri­umphed anyway.

Even in this time of rethink­ing wom­en’s roles, we define genius almost exclu­sive­ly through male achieve­ment. When asked to name a genius, peo­ple men­tion Albert Ein­stein, Leonar­do da Vin­ci, and Steve Jobs. As for great women? In one sur­vey, the only female genius any­one list­ed was Marie Curie.

Jan­ice Kaplan, the New York Times best­selling author of The Grat­i­tude Diaries, set out to deter­mine why the extra­or­di­nary work of so many women has been brushed aside. Using her unique mix of mem­oir, nar­ra­tive, and inspi­ra­tion, she makes sur­pris­ing dis­cov­er­ies about women genius­es now and through­out his­to­ry, in fields from music to robot­ics. Through inter­views with neu­ro­sci­en­tists, psy­chol­o­gists, and dozens of women genius­es at work in the world today‚ – includ­ing Nobel Prize win­ner Frances Arnold and AI expert Fei-Fei Li – she proves that genius isn’t just about tal­ent. It’s about hav­ing that tal­ent rec­og­nized, nur­tured, and celebrated.

Across the gen­er­a­tions, even when they face less-than-per­fect cir­cum­stances, women genius­es have cre­at­ed bril­liant and orig­i­nal work. In The Genius of Women, you’ll learn how they ignored obsta­cles and broke down seem­ing­ly unshak­able bar­ri­ers. The genius­es in this mov­ing, pow­er­ful, and very enter­tain­ing book pro­vide more than inspi­ra­tion‚ they offer a clear blue­print to every­one who wants to find her own path and move for­ward with passion.

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