‘You can’t empower women without listening to their stories.’ Gloria Steinem
200 Women
Who Will Change the Way You See The World
Photographs by Kieran Scott
Edited by Ruth Hobday, Geoff Blackwell, Sharon Gelman and Marianne Lassandro
Published by Chronicle Books, £35, hardcover,
72,100 miles travelled • 126 hours of interviews • 200 portraits
5 questions
In this beautifully photographed collection of interviews, the same five fundamental questions were posed to 200 women from a wide variety of backgrounds and from all over the globe, leading to a world of stories, insights, and awareness. Their answers reveal truth, wisdom, and inspiring stories of success and courage, love and pain, redemption and generosity.
What really matters to you?
What brings you happiness?
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
What would you change in the world if you could?
Which single word do you most identify with?
From well-known names to everyday women whose lives are no less exceptional, each woman shares her unique replies to questions that reveal a human being’s deepest motivation, happiness, pain and hope.
Among the women profiled are artists, activists, entrepreneurs and even an astronaut, alongside business leaders, a goat herder, a nurse, and a brave Nepalese woman who has spent most of her life living on the streets of Kathmandu selling cigarettes – one at a time – to support her family. Prominent interviewees include Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Laura Dawn (creative director of MoveOn.org), Amber Heard, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Gillian Anderson, Margaret Atwood, Sarah Outen, Maria Shriver, Isabel Allende, andJ ane Goodall.
Each interview is accompanied by a photographic portrait from award-winning photographer Kieran Scott, resulting in a volume that is compelling in both word and image, and global in its scope and resonance. With responses that range from uplifting to heartbreaking, these women offer gifts of empowerment and strength, inviting us to bring positive change at a time when so many people are fighting for basic freedom and equality. It’s a book that confirms what we already know – there are no ordinary women, and there is no ‘us and ‘them’. There’s just us. People like us.
A percentage of the revenue received from the project will be distributed to organisations primarily devoted to protecting and advancing the rights of women.
For further information, please contact Katrina Power, 07963962538, katrina.power@yahoo.com
Geoff Blackwell and Ruth Hobday are the award-winning New Zealand creative team behind a range of internationally bestselling books founded on humanity, equality and the environment, including Nelson Mandela’s Conversations with Myself. Their books have been published in 40 languages.
Sharon Gelman is an award-winning human rights activist, writer, and media producer who lives in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
Marianne Lassandro, based in France, has edited bestselling photography books, including works by Avedon and Annie Leibowitz.
Kieran Scott is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in magazines, books and advertising campaigns for 25 years. He is based in New Zealand.