Women writers are now the dominant force in the literary landscape. And we certainly do not need an occasion to recognize, celebrate and recommend them. One month is surely not enough to highlight the amazingness of women. Some have pushed boundaries, affected change, and redefined roles. While others have complicated our understanding of what it means to be powerful. 

But March is Women’s History Month. 

And in honor of Women’s History Month, we have compiled a list of 100 books by and about women who ground us, inspire us, and give us courage. 

Our featured list will be published in two parts. And calls attention to the diverse nature of the female experience. We have got you covered. From early feminist novels to compelling modernist prose; from passionate activists to groundbreaking rockers. 

Fun Fact:

Did you know that Women’s History Month began as Women’s History Week? And In 1987, it became “Women’s History Month.”

Virginia Trimble & Edward a Weintraub: The Sky Is for Everyone: Women Astronomers in Their Own Words

Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 

Sylvana Tomaselli: Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics

Virginia Woolf: A Room of One’s Own 

Manon Garcia: We Are Not Born Submissive: How Patriarchy Shapes Women’s Lives

bell hooks: Feminism Is for Everybody 

Hannah Wilke: Art for Life’s Sake

Kate Bornstein: Gender Outlaw

Dorothy Sue Cobble: For the Many: American Feminists and the Global Fight for Democratic Equality

Roxane Gay: Bad Feminist 

Madame d’Aulnoy: The Island of Happiness: Tales of Madame d’Aulnoy

Louisa May Alcott: Little Women 

Claudia Goldin: Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey toward Equity

Rebecca Solnit: Men Explain Things to Me 

Galawdewos: The Life of Walatta-Petros: A Seventeenth-Century Biography of an African Woman, Concise Edition

Janet Mock: Redefining Realness Redefining Realness 

Votes for Women: A Portrait of PersistenceA Portrait of Persistence

Audre Lorde: Sister OutsiderSister Outsider  

Safiya Sinclair: CannibalCannibal

Sylvia Plath: The Bell JarThe Bell Jar 

Angela Carter: The Bloody ChamberThe Bloody Chamber 

Carole Boston Weatherford and Frank Morrison: Respect

Multiple Writers: This Bridge Called My Back 

Sallie Tisdale: Violation

Germaine Greer: The Female Eunuch 

Lucia Berlin: A Manual for Cleaning Women 

Eve Ensler: The Vagina Monologues 

Anne Lister: The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister

Alice Walker: In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens 

Nawal El Saadawi, Deeyah Khan: Two Women in OneTwo Women in One

Betty Friedan: The Feminine Mystique

Naomi Alderman: The Power

Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale

Leah Tinari: Limitless

Simone de Beauvoir: The Second Sex

J. Albert Mann: What Every Girl Should Know

Angela Y. Davis: Women, Culture & Politics

Nadya Okamoto: Period Power

Doris Lessing: The Golden Notebook

Amy Reed: The Nowhere Girls

Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Han Kang: The Vegetarian

Maggie Nelson: The Argonauts

Jeannine Atkins: Stone Mirrors

Kate Chopin: The Awakening

Octavia E. Butler: Parable of the Sower

Claudia Rankine: Citizen: An American Lyric

Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea

Clarissa Pinkola Estés: Women Who Run with the Wolves

Adrienne Rich: Diving into the Wreck

Maya Angelou: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Join us, save this list, and pass it along. But don’t ignore it. Because we are sure if you are to choose any one of these books to read, it will not only inspire you, and it will empower you and teach you something about who you are as a fabulous woman.