Herlands

A landmark exploration of women-led communities worldwide and what they can teach us about new ways to live, think and govern, from BBC global correspondent Megha Mohan. 'A powerful and necessary reminder that women's leadership is not an exception; it is tradition, it is history, and it is the future' Fiame Naomi Mata'afa, Prime Minister of Samoa 'With lyrical precision and journalistic integrity, Megha Mohan weaves a tapestry of resilience, leadership and radical hope' Sulaima Ishaq, head of Sudan's Combating Violence Against Women and Children Commission Society isn't working for women - or any of us. But what if the rules were different? Imagine a world in which women have all the power. A world in which they work together to shape their rules, their societies and their futures. In reality, all-women communities have always existed, and continue to thrive all over the world. In this vital and ground-breaking book, Megha Mohan goes in search of their roots, discovering a vibrant global history, brought together here for the first time. She also takes us into today's women-led spaces, where women live on their own terms, showing us how we can rethink society for new ways of living, working and collaborating, often with less of a profit-driven mindset and a deeper connection to ancestry and nature. Through extensive research and exclusive first-hand reporting, and inspired by her great-grandmother's own matrilineal community in South India, Mohan introduces us to fascinating and diverse groups of women. From the controversial feminist online trolls of South Korea, to millionaire leadership meetups on a private island in the Baltic sea, an ancient secret women's language used in China, elder women co-housing in Paris and North London, the Rain Queens of South Africa, and villages for divorced or widowed women in Egypt and survivors of domestic abuse in Kenya, this is a truly global look at women's community. Essential reading for anyone interested in our collective histories, cultures, economics and governance, Herlands shows the power and possibility of new ways of living - and leading - for us all. 'Immersive and absorbing' Bhavana Menon, award-winning actress, who inspired India's Women in Cinema Collective