As March unfolds, it brings with it a reminder to celebrate the indomitable spirit, resilience and achievements of women throughout history. Women’s History Month serves as a time for reflection, education and appreciation of the remarkable contributions women have made in shaping our world. One powerful way to honor this month is through literature, immersing ourselves in the stories, struggles, triumphs and voices of women from diverse backgrounds and walks of life. Whether you’re seeking inspiration, knowledge or simply a captivating story to lose yourself in, these 10 books promise to enlighten, empower and enrich your Women’s History Month reading list.
Let’s Get Physical by Danielle Friedman
From jogging and Jazzercise to Jane Fonda, this captivating blend of reportage and personal narrative reveals the hidden history of women’s contemporary fitness culture, chronicling how exercise evolved from a beauty tool to a path to mental, emotional and physical well-being.
Shine Bright by Danyel Smith
American pop music is arguably this country’s greatest cultural contribution to the world, and its singular voice and virtuosity were created by a shining thread of Black women geniuses stretching back to the country’s founding. This is their surprising, heartbreaking, soaring story written by one of the preeminent cultural critics of her generation.
Secrets of the Sprakkar by Eliza Reid
Iceland’s First Lady shares her remarkable insight into the roles of Icelandic women, showing why Iceland is one of the best places in the world to be a woman.
Women in White Coats by Olivia Campbell
The story of three Victorian women who broke down barriers in the medical field to become the first women doctors, revolutionizing the way women receive health care.
Formidable: American Women and the Fight for Equality: 1920-2020 by Elisabeth Griffith
The 19th Amendment was an incomplete victory. A century later, women are still grappling with how to use the vote and their political power to expand civil rights, confront racial violence, improve maternal health, advance educational and employment opportunities and secure reproductive rights. Dr. Elisabeth Griffith integrates the fight by white and Black women to achieve equality.
Brave Hearted by Katie Hickman
The true-life story of women’s experiences in the Wild West is more gripping, heart-rending and stirring than all the movies, novels, folk legends and ballads of popular imagination. Discover the dramatic, untold stories of the diverse array of women who helped transform the American West.
Civil Rights Queen by Tomiko Brown-Nagin
This biography of Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court, examines how she played a critical role in vanquishing Jim Crow laws throughout the South.
All In: An Autobiography by Billie Jean King
King discusses not only her historic accomplishments on the court but also her activism as a feminist and social justice fighter in the wake of her coming out as gay at age 51.
The Women’s House of Detention by Hugh Ryan
The Women’s House of Detention, a landmark that ushered in the modern era of women’s imprisonment, is now largely forgotten. But when it stood in New York City’s Greenwich Village, from 1929 to 1974, it was a nexus for the tens of thousands of women, transgender and gender-nonconforming people who inhabited its crowded cells. Historian Hugh Ryan explores the roots of this crisis and reconstructs the little-known lives of incarcerated New Yorkers, making a uniquely queer case for prison abolition.
Twice as Hard by Jasmine Brown
No real account of Black women physicians in the US exists, and what little mention is made of these women in existing histories is often insubstantial or altogether incorrect. In this work of extensive research, Jasmine Brown offers a rich new perspective, penning the long-erased stories of nine pioneering Black women physicians beginning in 1860, when a Black woman first entered medical school.
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