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Fleet has signed a “timely exploration” of the demonisation of middle-aged women and a re-evaluation and defence of their role and relevance by Victoria Smith.
Ursula Doyle, publisher, acquired UK and commonwealth rights excluding Canada to Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women from Caroline Hardman at Hardman & Swainson for publication in early 2023.
The synopsis said: “What is it about women in their forties and beyond that seems to enrage almost everyone? In the last few years, as identity politics has taken hold, middle-aged women have found themselves talked and written about as morally inferior beings, the face of bigotry, entitlement and selfishness, to be ignored, pitied or abused. Hags reveals why this group is treated with such active disdain.”
Smith, a regular contributor to the New Statesman and the Independent, traces these attitudes back to the same anxieties that drove Early Modern witch hunts and the demonisation of previous waves of feminism, and explores why this type of misogyny is so powerful today.
She said: “I’m delighted to be making a case for my brilliant, much-maligned generation of women. That this isn’t a book I could have imagined myself writing 20 or even 10 years ago is symptomatic of our endlessly reinvented fear of the older woman inside. I’m so happy to be working with Ursula at Fleet, and will feel honoured to have my work alongside so much wonderful, uncompromising writing on women, politics and our lives.”
Doyle added: “Middle-aged women are currently experiencing a storm of rage, ageism and explicit misogyny, frequently from people who see themselves as progressive, accepting and kind.
“Victoria’s book is insightful and rigorous, examining her own experiences as a middle-aged woman, alongside those of a wide range of women, in various contexts. Hags is a clear and incisive look at what has happened over the past few years, and why it is crucial to address it now.”