Female Fear Factory

* A provocative book from an acclaimed feminist thinker and writer * A timely book, in its highlighting of how rape culture is normalised. * Has a global appeal, as the book uses examples from across the world. * Comp titles: The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahawy; Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed; Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger by Soraya Chemaly * Focused national media campaign to accompany launch * Online marketing campaign to build buzz * Online pre-order campaign targeting 1000 pre-orders

A rigorous and accessible feminist analysis of how patriarchy deliberately manufactures female fear as a tool of social control, across cultures and continents.

Women aren't born afraid—we're taught. Pumla Dineo Gqola traces how patriarchy manufactures female fear across continents, from South African streets to Saudi Arabian laws, Nigerian markets to American campuses.

Female Fear Factory examines how societies across the world teach women to be afraid. Pumla Dineo Gqola, one of Africa's leading feminist scholars, reveals fear not as natural female instinct but as deliberately manufactured tool of social control. Drawing on South Africa, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the UK and US, she shows how different cultures deploy the same tools—rape culture, victim-blaming, restricted movement—to limit women's lives and choices.

Pumla Dineo Gqola is South African Research Chair in African Feminist Imagination at Nelson Mandela University and author of multiple books on gender, power and culture. Her work combines rigorous feminist theory with accessible prose, making complex structural analysis of patriarchy understandable without simplification. Gqola writes with the authority of someone who has studied global patriarchy's patterns while living its African manifestations.

Essential for anyone studying gender, feminism, or structural violence—from university students to activists, sociologists to general readers questioning why women's mobility and choices remain constrained worldwide. If you've ever wondered why 'stay safe' means something different for women than men, this book names the architecture of that difference.