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.
