A Woman’s Guide to Claiming Space: Stand Tall. Raise Your Voice. Be Heard.

Simultaneously a raw memoir and a call to action, this is a book designed to encourage women to stop making themselves small—even as systems enforce social, political, legal, and moral standards designed to shame women for being taking up space. The author, a teacher and speaker (TEDx Talk “Women, Power, and Revolutionary Speech”) draws on her experience as the child of a mother with schizophrenia who learned early to make herself invisible. The book is divided into five parts. VanCort begins with actual body choices, including posture and voice, then shifts her focus to collaborative or relational strategies (including both connecting and disconnecting), and offers strategies for staying safe without compromising in a world replete with mansplaining, microaggressions, and sexual violence.