What She Said - by Elizabeth Renzetti (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

One of Indigo's Most Anticipated Canadian Books - One of CBC Books' Works of Canadian Nonfiction to Check Out This Fall

A passionate advocate for gender equity, and one of our most respected journalists, explores the most pressing issues facing women in Canada today with humour and heart.

The fight for women's rights was supposed to have been settled. Or, to put it another way, women were supposed to have settled--for what we were grudgingly given, for the crumbs from the table that we had set. For thirty per cent of the seats in Canada's Parliament; for five per cent of the CEO's offices; for a tenth of the salary of male athletes; for the tiny per cent of sexual assault cases that result in convictions; for tenuous control over our health and bodies. "Aren't we over it yet? No, we're not," Elizabeth Renzetti writes.

In this book, Renzetti draws upon her own life story and her years as an award-winning journalist at the Globe and Mail, where her columns followed the trajectory of women's rights. Forcefully argued, accessible, and witty, What She Said explores a range of issues: the increasingly hostile world of threats that deter young women from seeking a role in public life; the use of non-disclosure agreements to silence victims of sexual harassment and assault; the inadequacy of access to health care and reproductive justice, especially as experienced by Indigenous and racialized women; the ways in which future technologies must be made more inclusive; the disparity in pay, wealth, and savings, and how women are not yet socialized to be the best financial managers they can be; the imbalanced burden of care, from emotional labour to child care.

Renzetti explores the nuance of these issues, so often presented as divisive, with humour and sympathy, in order to unite women at a time when women must work together to protect their fundamental right to exist fully and freely in the world. What She Said is a rallying cry for a more just future.

Review Quotes

A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year - One of Indigo's Most Anticipated Canadian Books - One of CBC Books' Works of Canadian Nonfiction to Check Out This Fall

"This is a fantastic book. A must-read for anyone who needs reminding about why we have a long way to go towards a more equal world, or simply that we're not in this alone."
--Eliza Reid, bestselling author of Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland's Extraordinary Women and How They Are Changing the World

"This book is personal--to me and every woman who's ever felt the sting of being sidelined by sexism. . . . What She Said is frank, funny, and unfailingly honest. . . . Renzetti's insightful and sensitive commentary on real-world discrimination validates the last generation and will, most importantly, inspire the next. What She Said should be mandatory reading!"
--Lisa LaFlamme, journalist

"What She Said is as honest as it is painful and smart. . . . [This book] made me weep, laugh, and ultimately helped me exhale."
--Kathleen Wynne, former premier of Ontario

"Reading What She Said is like sitting down with your smartest girlfriend to chat about the lived experience of women: sexual assault and harassment, reproductive rights, pay inequity, period and menopause shaming, intimate partner violence, the caregiving load, and, unfortunately, so much more.That is this book, which I highly recommend--and not just for women. What She Said is very good company and so important."
--Marsha Lederman, bestselling author of Kiss the Red Stairs: The Holocaust, Once Removed

About the Author

ELIZABETH RENZETTI is a bestselling Canadian author and journalist. She has worked for the Globe and Mail, where she served as the paper's Arts and Books editor. In 2020 she won the Landsberg Award for her reporting on gender equality. She is the author of the essay collection Shrewed: A Wry and Closely Observed Look at the Lives of Women and Girls, the novel Based on a True Story. Her first mystery (co-authored with Kate Hilton), Bury the Lead, was published in 2024. She lives in Toronto with her family.