Eve Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, A World Not Built for Women: Gender Bias in Medicine & Science and our BookBrowse Review of Eve.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. In her introduction, Cat Bohannon quotes Susan Sontag, who wrote in her essay for Annie Leibovitz's book Women, "any large-scale picturing of women belongs to the ongoing story of how women are presented, and how they are invited to think of themselves. [As such, it raises] the question of women—there is no equivalent 'question of men.' Men, unlike women, are not a work in progress." Talk about the way that quote makes you feel. Do you think it rings true in your own life? In the lives of the women you know?
2. Bohannon grounds each chapter with an Eve, an evolutionary great-great-grandmother from whom we have all evolved. How did that organizational method feel to you as the reader? Was it helpful to get to know the various animals from whom we've evolved as humans? Did you have trouble imagining these species as ancestors?
3. What misconceptions about the female body did you confront while reading this book?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Vintage. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.