Mrs. Everything

Jennifer Weiner is a longtime advocate for female authors. She’s known as an “outspoken critic of a literary establishment that fails to engage with books written by, for, and about women” (Hess, Amanda. “Jennifer Weiner Critiques Sexism in Publishing, Promotes Self.” Slate, 6 Jan. 2014). Though Weiner writes women’s fiction, or “chick-lit” (a term that tends to be insulting, implying the genre is lesser), she wants her work—and all women’s writing—to be taken seriously. She also wants men to feel at home reading her stories because the themes affect everyone, especially in a historical, poignant story such as Mrs. Everything, which is about equal rights and women’s rights: “I think that for a lot of men it’s like, ‘Oh, [women’s fiction is] all romance,’ or, ‘It’s all fluff,’ or, ‘It's not for me.’ I think that's really unfortunate. I think men are missing great stories” (Williams, Mary Elizabeth. “Jennifer Weiner Was Right About Sexism, Media and Women Writers: ‘We Were Told We Were Lying.’” Salon, 17 June 2019). She set out to write about big issues, such as abortion, queerness, gender roles, and racism, when she started Mrs.