Rebecca Solnit’s experiences of sexism became the inspiration for both her 2014 book Men Explain Things to Me and the popular term “mansplaining.” Miserable at school, Solnit took a GED in tenth grade, began studying at a junior college, then studied in Paris before graduating from San Francisco State University. She earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984 and began her writing career, becoming a frequent contributor to the Guardian and Harper’s Magazine. She published her first book, Secret Exhibition: Six California Artists of the Cold War Era, in 1990, and as of 2017 has written nineteen books and collaborated on several more. Her 2004 book River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West won several awards, most notably the National Book Critics Circle Award. At a cocktail party, a stranger who heard she had just written a book on Muybridge proceeded to lecture her about an important book written on the subject, completely unaware it was her own work. The incident sparked Solnit’s 2008 essay and 2014 collection discussing what would later be called mansplaining and gaslighting. Her most recent book as of 2017 is The Mother of All Questions. Alongside Solnit’s writing career, she has worked as an activist for environmentalism, women’s rights, and human rights.