The Genius of Women focuses on different women throughout history and the present. It goes into detail about how society generally leans towards male figures when speaking of geniuses and how women often get overlooked. There are many great examples of this, including Mayim Blanik from Big Bang Theory fame. I thought it was well written and the author clearly knew her subject matter. It may be a little dry for someone who is used to fiction writing. However, it is a great read for a non-fiction book. The subject matter is one that is so important, especially in today's society.

Such a well writing book. I read this as a buddy read, over the quarantine. Great enjoyable book everyone loved it. Fun for different ages my buddy read was ages between 19-40 everyone had great reviews!! Thank you netgalley for my copy

I loved the concept behind The Genius of Women. The perception that geniuses are men is so ingrained in society, that many people don’t even realize that the image they associate with genius is male. Kaplan sets out to expose this deep rooted viewpoint, and to explore the stories of women geniuses, living and dead, many of whom were never recognized (at least not in their lifetime) for their incredible intellect. The statistics and the research behind The Genius of Women were staggering and clearly extremely extensive. Kaplan went to great depths to speak to women who are geniuses and carefully collect their individuals experiences, stories, and coping mechanisms. The statistical nuggets she dropped in were shocking and made me, as a reader, want to get fired up and demand change (or at least encourage it).

Unfortunately, the repetitive nature of the book really took away from the concept for me. After a while, the chapters started to blend together. It seemed that each was following the same format by introducing an incredible new woman or two, outlining all the ways they were slighted because they were female, and then discussing how they did or didn’t address this bias. This was great the first few times, but after a while, they started blending together.

This book was absolutely eye-opening, and made me want to be more careful about how I personally perceive genius as well as incite large scale societal change. I think this was a large part of the reason it was written, so in that sense, it was very successful. I wish it was either shorter, or that the examples and chapters were a bit more varied, so I remained captivated and they felt more distinguishable.

Reviews posted on April 28:
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This book was empowering. It was not what I thought it was going to be, but even better. The stats and details put into this book were great. This book made me mad, given the current and past status for women, but also encouraged. There are so, so many strong women and its been a slow build to a time for us.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dutton Publishing for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

The Genius of Women is book about why there have been fewer females declared "genius" than male throughout history. This book covers many topics in which it was the woman who managed to break-through, yet the credit was given to her male counterpart. The author covers a wide range of women over different eras and fields: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Fei-Fei Li, Mayim Bialik, Frances Arnold, Einstein's wife, Mozart's sister, to name a few.

The overall message and style were great for telling these stories. At times it felt the emphasis of the suppression of the female genius was a bit overdone, but it seems to be the only way to explain that society has really been against women throughout history. It seems to take an even bigger effort to congratulate a female for her discovery than for the woman’s work itself.

I really enjoyed learning about these unknown female geniuses over the years. My complain with this book was that there was a lot of unnecessary repetition. Instead of focusing on the stories of these incredible women, the author spent a lot of time on her opinions and personal stories. Kind of rubbed me the wrong way at times. The female geniuses were much more fascinating.

Kaplan’s writing is phenomenal. If I were rating this book purely based on writing, it would be 5 stars. Additionally, this book was very well-researched. However, I was very frustrated by this book. It sounds like a great premise: showcasing the genius of women who have been forgotten throughout history—or simply written out of history. However, race and socioeconomic status and the difficulty many women face in obtaining higher education are never addressed. I hope Kaplan doesn’t believe that a PhD is a prerequisite for genius, but she certainly didn’t go out of her way to highlight genius women without PhDs. The ones mentioned without PhDs were the ones who lived during times when women were not awarded degrees, as stated by Kaplan herself. Additionally, the only women discussed were those who attended and/or taught at prestigious universities (Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, etc.). Women in academia are already told their worth is purely based on their school name and is nothing without a PhD. Do we really need a book that reinforces this toxic message?

Kaplan then goes on a derogatory rant against sororities and the women—or as Kaplan called us “girls”—who choose to participate. Ignore the fact that she implied that we are all dumb airheads who all think, dress, and speak alike. The fact that she called us “girls” in a book purported to tear apart patriarchy shows just how much Kaplan believes there is only one true form of genius women: elitist and condescending. In the chapter immediately prior to this, Kaplan claims it is dangerous to state that women are better at collaboration than men, yet it is acceptable to say that sorority women are not capable of being geniuses simply because they partake in an institution designed to foster female friendship and mentorship? In a chapter or two later, she then goes on a rant against women who compete in beauty pageants and women who buy their daughters princess costumes. For a book that says women are multifaceted and should be allowed to work and think and look any way they like, Kaplan holds very strong opinions about what women can and cannot partake in. I love hearing an author’s opinions and voice shine through their work, but when it directly contradicts the argument they are laying out, I find it egregious.

I enjoyed learning about the women in this book, but overall, I wanted more diversity and more of the women’s stories. I wanted to hear about the genius women without higher degrees, with “only” a bachelor’s or master’s. I wanted to hear about the women who not only overcame gender-based barriers, but also race and class barriers. I wanted to hear about all genius women, not just the one type of woman Kaplan saw as worthy of the “genius” title.

The Genius of Women is so timely - we've seen women succeed, but there's a sense that they are still being held back. The fact that intelligent women have been restricted from realizing their full potential (or had their ideas stolen by men, or credited to men) is a tough pill to swallow, but it's not at all a surprise. This book is a great outline to introduce readers to that idea.

This reads more like a long-form article, in my opinion. (or maybe a series of long-form articles) I think this would be a great reading assignment for a high school or college course - a way to get young men and women used to the reality of what women can accomplish, what women have accomplished and what's been done to keep their accomplishments from being celebrated.

The title was recommended to me by the publisher and I am so glad it was! I thoroughly enjoyed it and found the tales of genius women to be interesting, inspiring, and depressing in equal measure - the latter because of the way these women were overlooked for so long...

The writing is a mix of stories and arguments about the rationale behind the way society ignores genius women. As a result, the style is a mixture of engaging narrative descriptions of the individual women, and argumentative and pointed political conversation when it comes to the author's position on the whys and wherefores behind the biases these women face(d) in their lives. It was at times a jarring blend, but I think both styles worked for the type of writing they incorporated.

Frankly I would have enjoyed more women's stories and slightly less of the political arguments, as after a while those did start to feel somewhat repetitive. Still the need for such repetition on a general level is not lost on me - the behaviors that lead to the deliberate as well as unintentional slights these (and similarly situated) women face(d) continues to the present day, unfortunately, so I understand the author's interest in driving her points home. Perhaps one day such repetition won't be necessary, but I fear that day is still some ways off in the future...

This was, on the whole, a fascinating look into the lives of a group of amazing women - and an excellent exegesis on the importance of ensuring that future generations don't face the same types of challenges in promoting their own genius. It is definitely worth the read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.

For any women (or anyone) who has found themselves at a loss in the system where we live in- where it seems only men can be CEOs, scientists, doctors, this book rethinks male achievement and what centuries of systematic conditioning has caused our society to think only men can be geniuses.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

While I love the message and the amount of effort that Janice Kaplan put into this book. She really did her research and had some great stories, BUT the book was slow. I mean painfully slow that it took me a while to get through it.

I did enjoy the message a lot, I just wish the book moved faster.

I don't normally read much nonfiction but I found The Genius of Women to be right up my alley. The author has put together a wonderful collection of stories about women who have done amazing things but before now, have had little or no recognition for their achievements, and as the title suggests, for their sheer genius. I was sad that I hadn't heard of most of the women in the book before but grateful to the author for bringing them to my attention. The pacing was a little slow for me at times, but I think that's just me not being a nonfiction reader. I'd highly recommend this timely read to anyone who is interested in a book that recognizes and celebrates smart women. This would be a perfect read for Women's History month!

This is a great read for women’s history month! The Genius of Women is interesting and thought provoking. Overall I enjoyed this book and the message it’s trying to convey. However, I did find the writing a bit dry and the second half of the book a bit repetitive.

Thank you NetGalley and Dutton Books for the advanced copy of this book.

If it's possible for a book to be both empowering and depressing, this book is it. Empowering in that it shared so many stories of women who have accomplished incredible feats that have moved our country and world to the place it is, but depressing because they aren't widely known. I like how this book focused on so many different kinds of "genius", as I feel a strength of women is that they have the power to succeed in so many areas so well.

The Genius of Women was just not my type of book. I appreciate the opportunity to read and review it but sadly I wasn't able to finish this one.

“The genius of women is to persist even when nobody believes in them.”

Looking for a way to celebrate Women’s History Month from the safety of your own home? Look no further! The Genius of Women by Janice Kaplan is an eye opening study on what it takes to be a genius, why so few women genius’s have been enabled to come into the spotlight, and highlights some brilliant women throughout history and the present! As a man, this was a challenging, and very important read. This book reveals the injustices of the past, while also drawing attention to the fact that the fight for equality amongst the sexes is far from over. I think that this book is so incredibly important, and that all people should be aware of the information that Kaplan writes so passionately about. I definitely recommend The Genius of Women.

Thank you Netgalley, Penguin Random House, and Janice Kaplan for allowing me early access to this book. The Genius of Women is out now!

I know there are a lot of women readers out there (bookstagram case in point), and arguably we are just as enlightened as men, but when asked to name a genius, inevitably, you are going to name a man.

If you are interested in highlighting women in general, learning more about women who are over and above in the intellectual realm specifically, and looking, like me, to raise your nonfiction reading numbers, then this book may be for you.

However, I am not a big short-story, story compilation reader, and did find the writing a bit dry. But I learned a lot!

5 stars
I really wanted to finish this and post the review on International Women’s Day but life got in the way. So I’m a little late but the sentiment is still there.

This book was phenomenal. As a woman in science, I loved reading about all these women who never had their moment in the sun. Not only did the author present all these fascinating geniuses who were overlooked, she presented questions that made me rethink feminism and how we’re viewed not only in science but by the world.

Every human- woman, man, transgendered, ungendered should read this book.

3.5 stars

Oof. No one is more surprised than I am...I really struggled to finish this, and struggled even more to enjoy the reading experience.

Concept: ★★★★★
Actual highlighting of genius women: ★★★
Pacing: ★★

The Genius of Women was a nonfiction book given to me for review, and I immediately was excited to open it up. It's a nonfiction book dedicated to sharing the stories of women overlooked throughout history! Yes! Amazing! Let me learn about these women!

The first few chapters of this book got to me—they had valid feminist points, they highlighted several women from history that I had never heard of, and they incited a fire in me to learn more. I wanted to learn their stories, feel their histories, and know where their accomplishments stood today in 2020. I wanted more!

But then...the chapters started to feel the same. We'd have a killer chapter title. Then we got a great bite-sized nugget of information about a historical/current woman genius who was terribly under-recognized by the patriarchy. And then, very quickly, we abandoned her. It became a personalized essay on behalf of the author about her experiences and strong (strong!) opinions on repeat about all that is wrong in today's society as it relates to women.

This would have been fine-ish—let's be real, I wanted to raise these women UP, not abandon their narratives for opinion promotion, so it wasn't "fine" to me personally—but the opinions and personal anecdotes felt repetitive. I'm a proud woman who promotes female rights and am aware of what's wrong with the world's lens of men first, women second. I didn't need those issues shoved at me at every turn. Maybe, if you're somehow new to gender inequality, it was worth the hammered approach?

I guess, if you boil it down, I wanted the lens of this work to focus on the women and their accomplishments as opposed to using them as brief touchstones and a launch pad to discuss the gender imbalance in all things through the highly personable layer of author opinion. This was probably a "me" issue as others have reviewed this work much more positively, but I can't ignore my thoughts. I realize that my review falls into the trap of what the author herself mentions...that when a woman decides to tout accomplishments and opinions, the reaction to that is to say it's not enough, too much, negativity, etc. I agonized with whether to say my feelings on this because I didn't want to become one of the negative voices being part of the problem. But in this case, it's still important to be honest. I didn't love this.

Thank you to Dutton for a copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

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The Genius of Women presents an interesting subject matter. I found it very interesting that when named to ask geniuses, most people name men. But then I thought about it and I consider myself a feminist but I would have named men as well, such as Einstein, Da Vinci, etc. Kaplan explores the lives and work of women geniuses in many fields. She also discusses the idea of a genius also being a social construct. Many of the women whose stories she shares were people I have never heard of, despite their significant contributions to their field. One of the things that stuck out most to me is that no matter how smart a woman is, she is often still judged on her looks.

On the flipside, I don't read much non-fiction so this was a bit out of my comfort zone. At times I felt like I was back in college reading a sociology textbook. It definitely was not an easy read for me and I found that it was best broken up, reading a chapter here and there.

This book sounded so promising and started of that way as well. Eventually it did end up making some good points but in general I wasn't a big fan of this book. Those good points I talked about were repeated over and over again throughout this book. It just made the book feel very repetitive and therefore boring as well. Besides all that this book just felt very biased and bitter. A lot of things are based on theories rather than facts. Other things are just completely based on belitteling men and women who don't conform to the author's idea of what an empowered women is like (which is basically everyone). I also feel like this book barely actually spend time talking about the female geniuses the author claims to want to praise up so much. It mainly talks about the author and the "research" she's done. I think a book like this is very interesting. I just don't think this was the right author to write it.