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"Life's a B**** and then You Die"--the first time I saw this was on a women's t-shirt well before the song of that title came out in 1994. This is how I felt reading most of this book. However, this is not why it's 3 stars instead of the 4 I thought it would get at first. I have written quite a bit but in no way is this exhaustive nor does it cover all of my thoughts on it. I think it's a must-read even though I had issues with certain things.

Yes, there are many excellent points in this book that many people don't seem to know, and I would say that includes the majority of men as well as many women. For example, scientists like to eliminate too many variables when doing studies, but this hurts medical ones since to do this they use primarily male mice/rats and them mostly men, which is a huge problem since men and women don't respond the same way to all medications.

However, Pérez relies on secondary and journalistic references too often, and frequently will cite one study. It's not that I think the majority of her points are invalid, but it's not good scholarship. In addition, there were points made based on media that don't reflect what I have encountered in real life or didn't show the full picture. It's very common for people with a cause to accept things that back them up with a sort of knee-jerk reaction--humans are all prone to this, but it's something to watch out for because it's not difficult for this sort of documentation to be disputed. Also, it can turn women who love staying at home against a cause--as flabbergasting as this might seem I have met them. Okay, it shocked me who first adopted a feminist stance at the age of 10, which was quite young for that back when I was growing up and living in a man works wife stays home set up (they are still married.)

Also, data is tricky and isn't always what you think (I am going to read Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy that goes into related topics.)

I am going to cut and paste points I have made in a group chat we are having on GR this month since as anyone who reads my reviews know they tend to be short and don't give summaries (I figure that the book blurb does this and for me it feels too much like school book reports even though I realize that many great reviewers do the same :) )

I just read chapter 13 last night and I have mixed feelings about the US tax system for married couples since you have a choice as to whether or not you file jointly. Whether or not filing jointly it is good or bad really depends on the couples more than the system in my personal experience. If you had no choice and had to file jointly, then I would agree that it's mysogyinstic.

Note--I do think there are misogynistic things in the US tax law and that IRAs are very much so since you can only save as an individual based on your income, not your jointly filed tax return. I just don't think that it's quite the way she made her points and some women do benefit from filing jointly.

and

I also want to say that this book ignores the needs of children, most of whom don't do as well if they spend their days in a group run childcare centre, so when couples have a choice they often opt to avoid doing that if they don't have family and can't afford care. Yes, women tend to do this more than men, but many times it's the woman that wants to stay home with her children.

Also, and this is in response to someone who is the "you"

I hated much of the last part of the book due to inaccuracies and generalizations that I haven't seen backed up IRL. As you said, she cites too many secondary sources. Also, she uses too many non-scientific journals for her scientific and data base points and this is bogus. That mistake is well documented in one of the chapters in The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us

So, on the one hand I think this topic is essential, I don't agree with every nuance and certainly not a significant amount of her sources. Naturally, not everyone will agree with me (you can see this by the book ratings), but this is my science background coming up.