How to Be a Woman
Book by Caitlin MoranWikipedia
15
MENTIONS
6
EPISODES
5
PODCASTS
Search complete. 15 mentions across 6 episodes found for "How to Be a Woman".
Oct 2, 2026
Holly WainwrightHOST
She, not everything she writes or does I adore.
Holly WainwrightHOST
Um, but she wrote How to Be a Woman, which is-
Jessie StephensHOST
Mm
Holly WainwrightHOST
... iconic feminist book-
Holly RubensteinHOST
So Caitlin began writing her first book at just 13 years old.
Holly RubensteinHOST
She was published when she was 16, and she quickly became an award-winning columnist for The Times newspaper, and a best-selling author of books including How to Be a Woman, More Than a Woman, and What About Men? And her brilliant new book is called How to Be Hopeful, which we talk about on the episode today.
Holly RubensteinHOST
It really is a very, very timely book in this current climate and, you know, political climate geopolitically, uh, to really think about how we maintain our positive disposition and where travel fits in with all of that.
Holly RubensteinHOST
Can travel really change how we feel or whether sometimes we just simply ask too much of a holiday or of a place to give us that innate shift in ourselves? So Caitlin takes us back to her wonderfully feral childhood summers that she spent living with her seven siblings in a tiny caravan in Wales.
Helen FarmerHOST
... and it's, it's just, as you say, it's, it's really tedious.
Helen FarmerHOST
And I keep on coming back to, I don't know if you've read, um, Caitlin Moran's book, How To Be A Woman, but her kind of rule-
Dawn BarnableGUEST
No
Helen FarmerHOST
... about, like, you know, is it, is it sexist? So she says, you know, she says she has this rule of thumb that allows her to judge, you know, about if something is sexist, which is, she, [laughs] she says it's not, you know, 100% infallible, by and large.
Holly WainwrightHOST
She was a wunderkind in the '90s.
Holly WainwrightHOST
She wrote an enormous selling book called How To Be A Woman that was like a sort of feminist manifesto in the noughties.
Holly WainwrightHOST
Then, since then she, her most recent book, which was about men and masculinity, was not so well received.
Jessie StephensHOST
[laughs]
Brendan O'ConnorHOST
Well, my next guest has tackled how to be a woman, has wrestled with what is happening with modern men, and now in her new book, How to be Hopeful: A Year of Living Joyfully, she's attempting to give us a dose of optimism in this anxiety-ridden age.
Brendan O'ConnorHOST
Best-selling writer, Caitlin Moran, you are very welcome to the show.
Caitlin MoranGUEST
Oh, I'm so happy to be here, and what a brilliant introduction.
19 MINS LATER
Brendan O'ConnorHOST
[laughs]
Caitlin MoranGUEST
They are blithely, deliriously happy to not read my works.
Caitlin MoranGUEST
Uh, and it's quite annoying, so often in an argument they, or, you know, or in a conversation they'll go, "I have this problem, Mom." And I'll be like, "Well, I tackle that on page 152 of the award-winning How to Be a Woman.
Caitlin MoranGUEST
You might wanna read it."
Brendan O'ConnorHOST
[laughs]
Davina McCallHOST
You are the most amazing author.
Caitlin MoranGUEST
How to Be a Woman was a breath of fresh air.
Caitlin MoranGUEST
When the book came out, there was a pap shot of Kate Moss lying on the beach completely naked with a glass of champagne and reading How to Be a Woman, and I was like, "Yeah, it's that kind of feminism."
Davina McCallHOST
[laughs]
Caitlin MoranGUEST
When I was 13, I had that first burst of anxiety, and I felt like I can do anything.
Caitlin MoranGUEST
Thank you.
Davina McCallHOST
Well, I mean, I feel like that about all of your books.
Davina McCallHOST
I think How to Be a Woman-