Notes on Womanhood

Book Author Sarah Jane Barnett
Rights Available World excl. NZ

After Sarah Jane Barnett had a hysterectomy in her forties, a comment by her doctor that she wouldn’t be “less of a woman” prompted her to investigate what the concept of womanhood meant to her. Part memoir, part feminist manifesto, part coming-of-middle-age story, Notes on Womanhood is the result.

Here, Barnett examines the devastation she inflicted on herself as a young woman, the invisibility she feels as her youth fades, the power of female friendship, the stories women learn about midlife and menopause, and how being the daughter of a transgender woman changed her ideas of womanhood.

‘This book is a conversation with myself about my own womanhood,’ Barnett says. ‘The act of looking showed me the stitches: Western society’s beauty standards, the male gaze, a fear of aging, hair and gender, care work, my grandmother, life stage transitions, orca whales and tramping. All the people whose work I explored – Darcey Steinke, Alok Vaid-Menon, Megan Jayne Crabbe, Maggie Nelson, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Judith Butler, Barbara Brookes, Natalie Wynn, Ani Mikaere, Atul Gawande and many more – offered up ideas about gender, aging and society in a way that opened a door to the next idea. I kept on walking through those doors. The result is what I am calling my “coming-of-middle-age” story.’

About the Author
Sarah Jane Barnett is an Aotearoa writer and editor. Her poetry, essays, interviews and reviews have been published widely in Aotearoa journals and magazines, as well as in Australia and the US. Her debut poetry collection A Man Runs into a Woman was a finalist in the 2013 New Zealand Post Book Awards. Her second collection WORK was published in October 2015. You can find her at: sarahjanebarnett.net