Emma Watson Chooses Sex and World Peace as Her Book Selection for International Women’s Day
Columbia University Press is excited to announce that Sex and World Peace by Valerie Hudson, Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Mary Caprioli, and Chad F. Emmett has been selected by Emma Watson as her International Women’s Day book selection. The announcement was made on Watson’s Instagram account and timed for International Women’s Day on Sunday, March 8, 2020.
Watson writes: “Sex & World Peace shows us how gender inequality is a form of violence that impacts everything from population growth to economies to regime type. For me, this book illuminates how we got where we are today, and along with it, a way forward.”
Since 2016, Emma Watson has chosen books with the goal of creating conversations around intersectionality, feminism, and equal rights, and more than a million people all over the world are active in her book club, Our Shared Shelf. Previous featured authors include Gloria Steinem, Toni Morrison, and Rebecca Solnit. Formerly hosted by Goodreads, book selections will now be announced directly from Watson’s own Instagram account, which serves more than 55 million followers.
Sex and World Peace calls attention to discrepancies between national laws meant to protect women and enforcement of those laws, and it reveals the adverse effect on state security created by abnormal sex ratios, the practice of polygamy, and the inequitable realities of family law. Critically acclaimed and called “a landmark book” by Gloria Steinem, Sex and World Peace was originally published in 2012 and is available now in paperback.
A forthcoming interview between Emma Watson and Valerie Hudson about Sex and World Peace will also be published.
About the authors
VALERIE M. HUDSON is a University Distinguished Professor and George H. W. Bush Chair in the Department of International Affairs of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, where she directs the Program on Women, Peace, and Security. She is a coauthor of Sex and World Peace (Columbia, 2012); The Hillary Doctrine: Sex and American Foreign Policy (Columbia, 2015); and, to be published this March, The First Political Order: How Sex Shapes Governance and National Security Worldwide.
BONNIE BALLIF-SPANVILL is professor emeritus of psychology at Brigham Young University and the last director of its Women’s Research Institute.
MARY CAPRIOLI is associate professor and director of international studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
CHAD F. EMMETT is an associate professor of geography at Brigham Young University.
About Emma Watson
Emma Watson is an English actor and activist who rose to prominence through the Harry Potter film series. In 2014 she was appointed as a UN WOMEN Global Goodwill ambassador and helped launch the HeForShe UN campaign, which encourages men to work toward gender equality. In January 2016 Watson started the Our Shared Shelf feminist book club to share ideas and encourage discussion on the topic of intersectional feminism.
