February 2021 Events

While the Women’s Library remains closed to the public six days a week, our virtual events are continuing in February with Learning to Skate in a Warzone as our next film selection and Mary Astell’s A serious proposal to the Ladies for the book club.

These events are free for members of The Women’s Library. See this page if you are not yet a member

Register here for the online activities: Women’s Film Club  |  Feminist Classics Book Club. Details about how to join the Zoom sessions are sent out the day before the event.


Women’s Film Meetup

Sunday 21 February at 6:00pm (Sydney time)

Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone
Carol Dysinger’s BAFTA and Oscar winning documentary (2019)

This is only a short one, at 39 minutes.

“This movie is my love letter to the brave girls of that country,” said the documentary’s director, Carol Dysinger, as she accepted the award [at the Academy Awards] alongside producer Elena Andreicheva. “They teach girls courage, to raise your hand, to say I am here, I have something to say and I’m going to take that ramp, don’t try to stop me.”

If you’d like to read a review,  check out this one by Diaa Hadid (with spoilers). The trailer for the film is included with Diaa’s review.


Feminist Classics Book Club

Thursday 25 February at 7:00pm (Sydney time)

We will be reading A serious proposal to the Ladies (1694) by Mary Astell. You can find the Free ebook here, available as a PDF and Epub.

Here’s some further reading

Broad, Jacqueline. Mary AstellThe Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Sowaal, Alice. Mary Astell’s Serious Proposal: Mind, Method, and CustomPhilosophy Compass, 2(2), 2007, pp. 227–243.
Sowaal, Alice and Weiss, Penny (eds).  Feminist Interpretations of Mary Astell, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2016.

And a very informative podcast
BBC In Our Time: Mary Astell, 5 November 2020.


Image Credit: A&E IndieFilms, Grain Media