HQ, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, is proud to be publishing an exciting and inspiring book by bestselling author, and co-founder of the Women's Equality Party, Catherine Mayer. HQ Executive Publisher, Lisa Milton, acquired World rights from Ed Victor as one of her first actions when she started at HarperCollins. The book will be published in hardback, ebook and audio download on International Women's Day (8 March 2017).

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The book blends Catherine Mayer's insights from her years as a journalist, latterly as Editor at Large for TIME magazine, with illuminating and sometimes hilarious accounts of the process of forming the Women's Equality Party and deep research into the global reality of gender inequality. But Attack of the Fifty Foot Women doesn't just set out with clarity and unprecedented detail the mechanisms holding women back and how much women contribute despite these hindrances to every area of life. Mayer also takes readers with her on a journey to a truly gender balanced society—a place that she calls "Equalia"—and shows us how to get there.

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Catherine Mayer said: "You may have noticed a popular refrain in public life at the moment: 'Men have made a mess. We need women of stature to clear it up'. This book tests that proposition and asks what else the power of women, unleashed, might achieve. A lot of research points to the economic benefits of increasing female participation but what else would change? Are Equalians happier? What's going on in Equalian homes and workplaces? Who's looking after the children? Does the air smell cleaner? What's on TV? It wasn't until I started advocating for gender equality on doorsteps and at meetings of the Women's Equality Party that I realised everyone struggles to imagine a gender equal society, because nowhere on the planet does such a society exist. My book works to plug that gap."

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Lisa Milton said: 'This is the book I've been waiting all my life to publish. At the outset I said I wanted HQ to be bold, brave, feminist and empowering. This ticks all of those boxes, and crucially will help create understanding for how we can achieve empowerment and equality. You won't be able to put this book down until you've finished it and once you've finished it, you won't be able to stop changing the world.'

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Attack of the Fifty Foot Women tackles questions fundamental to everyone affected by the global imbalance between the sexes, by drawing together studies and interviews with experts and leaders in many fields and people in their public and domestic lives. Catherine Mayer peppers the book with fascinating anecdotes and startling revelations, surveys cultures and countries from Iceland to Saudi Arabia, China to Hollywood, looks at how the changes heralded by science and technology will play out and assesses the media and its power. Are politicians such as Angela Merkel, Theresa May and Hillary Clinton and public figures including Beyoncé the 50 foot women we need? This book holds the answers.

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Issued by: Sophie Calder

Email: Sophie.Calder@harpercollins.co.uk