What people are saying
Energetic, thoroughly engaging reading ... [Gerner's] highly readable book offers hope for positive new ways of not only thinking and talking about female bodies but also improving health outcomes for women worldwide.
Kirkus Reviews
Marina Gerner's writing is electric, and The Vagina Business will leave you shocked and energized. It's a terrific page-turner that will transform how every reader sees the worlds of business and technology.
Jake Knapp, author of the New York Times bestseller Sprint
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Fascinating, infuriating and exciting, The Vagina Business introduces some extraordinary female revolutionaries and the fantastic promise of tech to transform women's lives - and society - via feminist healthcare. It also spotlights the extent to which craven, misogynistic investors and scientists are blocking a fairer future because they cannot engage with sex differences.
Some scenes will make you want to scream - like the researchers who claimed they couldn't use female mice in tests because their cages were harder to clean, or any of the multiple stories demonstrating colossal unmet health needs, or the case studies of firms profiting from women's shame. But others will have you jumping up and down in delight at the extent to which women are supporting women to innovate - and the vast scale of the sisterhood's imagination.
Gerner renders complex science simple and makes venture capital thrilling. She is a strong writer with a gift for telling a story, and this is a great one.
The Vagina Business is an important book, with significance for our understanding of the impact of structural discrimination on women's health. I hope it is bought and read by many, many people who then advocate for, research and invest in the fairer future that femtech offers.
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Sophie Walker, activist and author of Five Rules for Rebellion
The Vagina Business is an eye-opening book that everyone needs to read. It shines a light on how women's needs have been routinely dismissed and ignored by science, medicine, and technology. Gerner offers us hope for the future, showing us how the world can be a better place for women when innovators in tech, science, and medicine begin to take our needs seriously.
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Sarah E. Hill, PhD, author of This is Your Brain on Birth Control
If you care about your health and the health of all the women in your life, you should read this book. After reading it, I finally felt heard. I finally felt seen. And it felt so good. The Vagina Business is one of those books every woman should read multiple times in her life - the lessons in it are invaluable.
Marija Butkovic, entrepreneur, journalist, women's health advisor and consultant
Marina Gerner's brilliant book should be titled How to Make More Money Than You Ever Dreamed Possible because she is handing all venture capitalists, investors and corporations that opportunity on a plate. The Vagina Business is a must-read - and also, when you buy and read it, a must-display, to overcome the ridiculousness that is holding this sector back. Make sure you show the cover off when you're reading it on the tube, on the plane, by the pool, on the beach, in the office.
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Cindy Gallop, Founder & CEO, MakeLoveNotPorn
In a world where women's health and pleasure have been sidelined, The Vagina Business is a rallying cry for change. This book will expand your mind, and make you rethink how you open your wallet.
Rena Martine, author of The Sex You Want
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The Vagina Business sheds light on some areas of the tech industry that we don’t often hear much about – I must confess I’d never heard of liquid contraception, or thought much about the data privacy issues around period-tracking apps or remote controlled sex toys, but this book has already sparked curiosity and interest in conversations with my friends! If you read ‘Invisible Women’ and were wondering “what can be done?” then this book has answers. Bravo, Marina Gerner!’
Graham Allcott, author of How to be a Productivity Ninja
If the word vagina makes you uncomfortable then you can see the barriers facing women’s health. What Marina Gerner does so brilliantly is to counter that ick with innovations across femtech. A revolution driven by women’s ideas, businesses and investment is happening and this book shows you how.
Bec Evans, author of How to Have a Happy Hustle
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A smart, tech-savvy primer on not only the bottom-line business value of more inclusive research, but its whole-hearted worth for all humankind.
Abby Norman, author of Ask Me About My Uterus