They said men wouldn't buy this book...

So we decided to prove them wrong

Be forewarned! This is going to be a ranty newsletter…

This week Emma Wilkinson and I published our book ULTRA WOMEN: The Trailblazers Defying Sexism in Sport. The book has already received some glowing reviews on social media and lovely endorsements from ultra athlete Jasmin Paris and world-record breaker Sophie Power, plus authors Sue Anstiss, Lisa Jackson, Damian Hall and Adharanand Finn.

Emma and I feel extremely passionate about this book. It tells the untold stories of female endurance from all corners of the globe. For hundreds of years women have been breaking world records, winning races outright, and achieving world firsts. And it’s not just in running. These women have been performing amazing feats in swimming, cycling, adventure racing and multi-sport challenges.

Their bodies are designed to endure. Whether it’s coping with mental load, sleep deprivation, muscle fatigue or fat utilisation, women are damn good at ultra endurance in their own right.

And yet - and it’s a big YET - they have faced sexism and barriers to entry since time immemorial. This sexism continues today and is rampant in the world of sport. That’s why we felt it was so important to bring to light the unique challenges women face, and celebrate the phenomenal things their bodies can do.

Somewhat ironically - the process of getting the book published has also been ingrained in deep cultural prejudices.

Back in 2022 we were working on the book proposal with a publisher that specialises in sports books. They were extremely enthusiastic and championing it through all their editorial meetings. But when it got to the final marketing meeting the book pitch received a big fat no. The reason? Not enough men would buy the book.

The lead marketer argued that since the book was about women, men wouldn’t be interested in it and there weren’t enough women doing endurance sport, so that market wasn’t viable either. To add insult to injury this marketer was a woman. And the editor championing the book was a man.

This was our first dose of huge sex bias in the publishing industry. We felt we were being told that only men buy sports books, and when they do they only buy sports books about other about men. Anything else was irrelevant. There was absolutely no desire to change the status quo. It’s no wonder that women find it so hard to break into publishing. They are hugely under-represented just as they are at the start lines of ultra endurance races.

Thankfully we did finally find a publisher who saw value in the book, and recognised there was definitely a gap in the market. Nothing like this already existed and we were determined to prove that original marketing committee wrong.

The process of writing the book also drew out the raging feminists inside us. Time and again we came across stories of women who were told they couldn’t enter races, they weren’t financially valuable enough to warrant equal media coverage or they had to base their training on science conducted on men. It led to us creating a manifesto for change at the end of the book calling on sport scientists, race directors, coaches and male allies to recognise the huge inequality in sport and actively do something about it.

The book launch this week has continued to be bittersweet. Women kept telling us they were so excited to read the book and finally they felt there was something representing their experience. Teenage girls eagerly waited to get their copies signed and quizzed us about our favourite female athlete stories in the book.

But at the same time, the book launch also opened up disgruntled conversations about how little sport has moved forward. One woman told me how she won a three-mile running race at her company and showed me a photo of the male and female trophy. The male trophy was twice the size of the female one.

Another book buyer told me how one of her local races awarded the top fastest finishers but didn’t differentiate between the sexes. This meant all the awards went to men. When the race director was challenged about it he simply shrugged and said they should enter a different race.

But the final icing on the cake - which really cemented the reason for why this book needs to exist - came in the formal of social media mansplaining. I posted a link to the book on a Facebook group with a brief description saying it celebrated women’s achievements in ultra endurance sport. It was met with lots of excited comments from both women and men.

But one man couldn’t resist stepping in to tell me what the book should actually be about. Even though he didn’t know what the book was actually about. He hadn’t read it. He even jumped into my DMs to give a lengthy passive aggressive sermon on why the thesis of the book was wrong. I pointed out to him that I didn’t disagree with any of his points and he simply needed to READ THE BOOK. He was 100% assuming what the book was about and was 100% wrong. Yet here was a man telling a woman, who had interviewed over 70 other women, what women think. He thought he was being an ally to women - but the approach was wildly misguided.

Eventually he relented and admitted he had made an assumption about the content and he would go ahead and read it. As Emma pointed out to me, it takes some confidence to dismiss an entire book having only read the title.

This is of course, all part of the game, and the point of the book is to provoke debate. But please read it first before telling us what it should say!

Luckily there have been many moments of hope, particularly from one male reader who couldn’t put the book down and messaged me to tell me how eye-opening it had been. This is what a male ally looks like:

If you read the book you will discover lots of things that amaze and alarm you, and hopefully you will come away both inspired and outraged. This is just the beginning of the conversation because we cannot ignore that sexism in sport is very much alive and kicking.

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ULTRA WOMEN is available now from:

If you see one in the wild please let me know! They are hiding out in independent book stores and a selection of Waterstones and I’d love to see a photo of one in their natural habit! Tag me in on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lilycanter/

And please leave us a review on Amazon and Good Reads. It really helps to spread the word!

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Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter. Send feedback to lilycanter@yahoo.co.uk or suggest topics you’d like me to cover.