Unless you had the inclination and resources to take a women’s studies course in university, you probably missed out on engaging with the work of most women’s writers, philosophers, scientists and artists.

Does it matter? Yes, it does. The Oxford English Dictionary defines feminism first and foremost as having ‘a feminine quality’, its meaning as the struggle for equality is third, after its medical definition. Yet, we only think of feminist as being a fight for equality.

Today’s world has been shaped by the interests of men. Why do I think this? Because for hundreds, even thousands of years women were denied access to education, the ability to participate in politics, and the ownership of property, in fact women were property.

Was this because men are more powerful? Smarter? More worthy of being civilization builders then women? I am not certain how patriarchal thought came to dominate, maybe it was the vulnerability of women during pregnancy, the difference in brute force, perhaps men just had more time on their hands.

I must define what I mean when I say ‘patriarchal thought’. I mean systems of power created by men, won through military might and maintained by force. I mean an economic system that until recently excluded women, and rewards those that abuse, dominate, and whose only concern is profit-making; where people, animals and land are commodities. I refer to an education system that defines and determines the social environment, but where access to that education is only granted to a few, and its main ficus is preparing people to participate in the economy.

We clearly live in a more equal society than we have in the past, but that society is impoverished of the perspectives of women. We have historically been restricted to the perspectives and biases of men, and primarily straight white men. Those straight white men have imposed their ideologies on a global level, but world-wide women have been gagged. We are all losers for this. The remedy is to familiarize ourselves with those ideas, discoveries, inventions, and stories that have been overlooked, the philosophies of women. By doing this the fabric of our culture, and humanity itself gets richer, stronger and more flexible.

This idea is not just for women, feminism is not just for women. It is not the goal to destroy patriarchy for the sake of belittling men. We need this now, the evolution of humanity depends on our ability to incorporate feminist thinking. I am going to start by exploring the great writers, thinkers and artists that have always been there but whose work was never allowed to permeate collective culture at the time it was created, and consequently by its segregation to the Women’s Studies department at ‘forward-thinking’ universities.

So, if you missed out on women’s studies courses, and you think its important to understand the perspectives, ideas, and struggles of women listen to the She Speaks Volumes podcast. Each two-part podcast episode consists of an extract of a feminist classic or a classic written by a woman, and a discussion or commentary on the work that explores both the context in which it was written and how we might view it from our current perspective.