The Best Books About Feminism Of All-Time
“What are the best books about Feminism?” We looked at 243 of the top Feminist books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
One of the very first articles we wrote on this site three years ago was on the “Best Feminist Books Of All-Time“. We decided it had been long enough that it was probably time for an updated list including books and lists released in the last few years. A lot of the same books from last time are on this list as well, but there are some new additions and some shuffling in where books have ranked.
The top 37 titles, all appearing on 2 or more “Best Best Feminism” book lists, are ranked below by how many lists they appear on. The remaining 200+ titles, as well as the lists we used are in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.
Happy Scrolling!
Top 37 Feminist Books Of All-Time
37 .) Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine
Lists It Appears On:
- Standard
- Stylist
The guitarist for seminal female punk group The Slits recounts playing with Sid Vicious, touring with the Clash, dating Mick Jones, inspiring “Train in Vain,” and releasing her solo debut in 2012 Viv Albertine is one of a handful of original punks who changed music, and the discourse around it, forever. Her memoir tells the story of how, through sheer will, talent, and fearlessness, she forced herself into a male-dominated industry, became part of a movement that changed music, and inspired a generation of female rockers. After forming The Flowers of Romance with Sid Vicious in 1976, Albertine joined The Slits and made musical history in one of the first generations of punk bands. The Slits would go on to serve as an inspiration to future rockers, including Kurt Cobain, Carrie Brownstein, and the Riot Grrrl movement in the 1990s. This is the story of what it was like to be a girl at the height of punk: the sex, the drugs, the guys, the tours, and being part of a brilliant pioneering group of women making musical history. Albertine recounts helping define punk fashion, struggling to find her place among the boys, and her romance with Mick Jones, including her pregnancy and subsequent abortion.
36 .) Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys
Lists It Appears On:
- Standard
- Stylist
In 1930s Paris, where one cheap hotel room is very like another, a young woman is teaching herself indifference. She has escaped personal tragedy and has come to France to find courage and seek independence. She tells herself to expect nothing, especially not kindness, least of all from men. Tomorrow, she resolves, she will dye her hair blonde.
35 .) Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Lists It Appears On:
- Auto Straddle
- Electric literature
In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women’s lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. A wife refuses her husband’s entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store’s prom dresses. One woman’s surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella Especially Heinous, Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a show we naively assumed had shown it all, generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgangers, ghosts, and girls with bells for eyes. Earthy and otherworldly, antic and sexy, queer and caustic, comic and deadly serious, Her Body and Other Parties swings from horrific violence to the most exquisite sentiment.
34 .) How to be Both by Ali Smith
Lists It Appears On:
- Standard
- Stylist
Passionate, compassionate, vitally inventive and scrupulously playful, Ali Smith’s novels are like nothing else. A true original, she is a one-of-a-kind literary sensation. Her novels consistently attract serious acclaim and discussion—and have won her a dedicated readership who are drawn again and again to the warmth, humanity and humor of her voice. How to be both is a novel all about art’s versatility. Borrowing from painting’s fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it’s a fast-moving genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths and fictions. There’s a Renaissance artist of the 1460s. There’s the child of a child of the 1960s. Two tales of love and injustice twist into a singular yarn where time gets timeless, structural gets playful, knowing gets mysterious, fictional gets real—and all life’s givens get given a second chance. A NOTE TO THE READER: Who says stories reach everybody in the same order? This novel can be read in two ways and this book provides you with both. In half of all printed editions of the novel the narrative EYES comes before CAMERA. In the other half of printed editions the narrative CAMERA precedes EYES. The narratives are exactly the same in both versions, just in a different order. The books are intentionally printed in two different ways, so that readers can randomly have different experiences reading the same text.
33 .) How we Get Free by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Lists It Appears On:
- Charis Books And More
- Independent
The Combahee River Collective, a group of radical black feminists, was one of the most important organizations to develop out of the anti-racist and women’s liberation movements of the 1960s and 70s. In this collection, founding members of the organization and contemporary activists reflect on the legacy of its contributions to black feminism and its impact on today’s struggles.
32 .) Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
Lists It Appears On:
- Auto Straddle
- Signature Reads
From the bestselling author of Bad Feminist: a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself “I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.” In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,” Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her own past—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself. With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and power that have made her one of the most admired writers of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to learn to take care of yourself: how to feed your hungers for delicious and satisfying food, a smaller and safer body, and a body that can love and be loved—in a time when the bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes.
31 .) I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark by Debbie Levy and Elizabeth Baddeley
Lists It Appears On:
- She Knows
- Today
Get to know celebrated Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—in the first picture book about her life—as she proves that disagreeing does not make you disagreeable! Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has spent a lifetime disagreeing: disagreeing with inequality, arguing against unfair treatment, and standing up for what’s right for people everywhere. This biographical picture book about the Notorious RBG, tells the justice’s story through the lens of her many famous dissents, or disagreements.
30 .) In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens by Alice Walker
Lists It Appears On:
- BuzzFeed
- Charis Books And More
In this, her first collection of nonfiction, Alice Walker speaks out as a black woman, writer, mother, and feminist in thirty-six pieces ranging from the personal to the political. Among the contents are essays about other writers, accounts of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the antinuclear movement of the 1980s, and a vivid memoir of a scarring childhood injury and her daughter’s healing words.
29 .) Inferno by Eileen Myles
Lists It Appears On:
- Audible
- BuzzFeed
Eileen Myles’ chronicle transmits an energy and vividness that will not soon leave its readers. Her story of a young female writer, discovering both her sexuality and her own creative drive in the meditative and raucous environment that was New York City in its punk and indie heyday, is engrossing, poignant, and funny. This is a voice from the underground that redefines the meaning of the word.
28 .) Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty by Dorothy Roberts
Lists It Appears On:
- BuzzFeed
- Charis Books And More
This is a no-holds-barred response to the liberal and conservative retreat from an assertive, activist, and socially transformative civil rights agenda of recent years–using a black feminist lens and the issue of the impact of recent legislation, social policy, and welfare “reform” on black women’s–especially poor black women’s–control over their bodies’ autonomy and their freedom to bear and raise children with respect and dignity in a society whose white mainstream is determined to demonize, even criminalize their lives. It gives its readers a cogent legal and historical argument for a radically new , and socially transformative, definition of “liberty” and “equality” for the American polity from a black feminist perspective. The author is able to combine the most innovative and radical thinking on several fronts–racial theory, feminist, and legal–to produce a work that is at once history and political treatise.
27 .) Little Feminist by Galison and Emily Kleinman
Lists It Appears On:
- She Knows
- Today
Mudpuppy’s Little Feminist Board Book Set is comprised of colorful illustrated portraits of real women who have made historical impact on the world. Illustrations by Lydia Ortiz and words by Emily Kleinman introduce children to these important people in history with images that are fun for youngsters and also realistic. The Board Book Set includes 4 mini board books (Pioneers, Artists, Leaders, and Activists.)
26 .) Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison
Lists It Appears On:
- She Knows
- Today
Featuring forty trailblazing black women in American history, Little Leaders educates and inspires as it relates true stories of breaking boundaries and achieving beyond expectations. Illuminating text paired with irresistible illustrations bring to life both iconic and lesser-known female figures of Black history such as abolitionist Sojourner Truth, pilot Bessie Coleman, chemist Alice Ball, politician Shirley Chisholm, mathematician Katherine Johnson, poet Maya Angelou, and filmmaker Julie Dash. Among these biographies, readers will find heroes, role models, and everyday women who did extraordinary things – bold women whose actions and beliefs contributed to making the world better for generations of girls and women to come. Whether they were putting pen to paper, soaring through the air or speaking up for the rights of others, the women profiled in these pages were all taking a stand against a world that didn’t always accept them.
25 .) Mean by Myriam Gurba
Lists It Appears On:
- Auto Straddle
- Signature Reads
Myriam Gurba’s debut is the bold and hilarious tale of her coming of age as a queer, mixed-race Chicana. Blending radical formal fluidity and caustic humor, Mean turns what might be tragic into piercing, revealing comedy. This is a confident, funny, brassy book that takes the cost of sexual assault, racism, misogyny, and homophobia deadly seriously. We act mean to defend ourselves from boredom and from those who would cut off our breasts. We act mean to defend our clubs and institutions. We act mean because we like to laugh. Being mean to boys is fun and a second-wave feminist duty. Being mean to men who deserve it is a holy mission. Sisterhood is powerful, but being mean is more exhilarating. Being mean isn’t for everybody. Being mean is best practiced by those who understand it as an art form. These virtuosos live closer to the divine than the rest of humanity.
24 .) Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions by Gloria Steinem
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookstr
- Charis Books And More
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions–a phenomenal success that sold nearly half a million copies since its original publication in 1983–is Gloria Steinem’s most diverse and timeless collection of essays. Both male and female readers have acclaimed it as a witty, warm, and life-changing view of the world–“as if women mattered.” Steinem’s truly personal writing is here, from the humorous exposé “I Was a Playboy Bunny” to the moving tribute to her mother “Ruth’s Song (Because She Could Not Sing It)” to prescient essays on female genital mutilation and the difference between erotica and pornography. The satirical and hilarious “If Men Could Menstruate” alone is worth the price of admission. This second edition features a new preface by the author and added notes on classic essays.
23 .) Sexual Politics by Kate Millett
Lists It Appears On:
- The Atlantic
- Wikipedia
Identifying patriarchy as a socially conditioned belief system masquerading as nature, the author demonstrates how its attitudes and systems penetrate literature, philosophy, psychology, and politics. Her work rocked the foundations of the literary canon by castigating time-honored classics for their use of sex to degrade women.
22 .) Shrill: Notes From A Loud Woman by Lindy West
Lists It Appears On:
- Audible
- BuzzFeed
Coming of age in a culture that demands women be as small, quiet, and compliant as possible–like a porcelain dove that will also have sex with you–writer and humorist Lindy West quickly discovered that she was anything but. From a painfully shy childhood in which she tried, unsuccessfully, to hide her big body and even bigger opinions; to her public war with stand-up comedians over rape jokes; to her struggle to convince herself, and then the world, that fat people have value; to her accidental activism and never-ending battle royale with Internet trolls, Lindy narrates her life with a blend of humor and pathos that manages to make a trip to the abortion clinic funny and wring tears out of a story about diarrhea. With inimitable good humor, vulnerability, and boundless charm, Lindy boldly shares how to survive in a world where not all stories are created equal and not all bodies are treated with equal respect, and how to weather hatred, loneliness, harassment, and loss–and walk away laughing.
21 .) The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
Lists It Appears On:
- Charis Books And More
- The Atlantic
The bestselling classic that redefined our view of the relationship between beauty and female identity. In today’s world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women’s movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife. It’s the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society’s impossible definition of “the flawless beauty.”
20 .) The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
Lists It Appears On:
- Standard
- Stylist
The Color Purple is a classic. With over a million copies sold in the UK alone, it is hailed as one of the all-time ‘greats’ of literature, inspiring generations of readers. Set in the deep American South between the wars, it is the tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. Raped repeatedly by the man she calls ‘father’, she has two children taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister Nettie and is trapped into an ugly marriage. But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker – a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny. Gradually, Celie discovers the power and joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past and reuniting her with those she loves.
19 .) The Little Book of Feminist Saints by Julia Pierpont
Lists It Appears On:
- Independent
- Signature Reads
This inspiring, beautifully illustrated collection honors one hundred exceptional women throughout history and around the world. A Stylist Must-read Book of 2018 In this luminous volume, New York Times bestselling writer Julia Pierpont and artist Manjit Thapp match short, vibrant, and surprising biographies with stunning full-color portraits of secular female “saints” champions of strength and progress.
18 .) The Mother of all Questions by Rebecca Solnit
Lists It Appears On:
- Independent
- Signature Reads
In this follow-up to Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit offers commentary on women who refuse to be silenced, misogynistic violence, the fragile masculinity of the literary canon, the gender binary, the recent history of rape jokes, and much more.
17 .) The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill
Lists It Appears On:
- The Daily Idea
- Wikipedia
John Mill disagrees with the argument that women are naturally less good at some things than men, and should therefore be discouraged or forbidden from doing them. Mill Thought that men simply don’t know what women are capable of, because we have never let them try – nobody can not make a statement without evidence. We can’t stop women from trying things because they might not be able to do them. An argument based on speculative physiology is just that, speculation…
16 .) The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookstr
- Stylist
I decided to talk to women about their vaginas, to do vagina interviews, which became vagina monologues…At first women were reluctant to talk. They were a little shy. But once they got going, you couldn’t stop them. Women secretly love to talk about their vaginas. They get very excited, mainly because no one’s ever asked them before.
15 .) This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa
Lists It Appears On:
- BuzzFeed
- Charis Books And More
This groundbreaking collection reflects an uncompromised definition of feminism by women of color. Through personal essays, criticism, interviews, testimonials, poetry, and visual art, the collection explores, as coeditor Cherríe Moraga writes, “the complex confluence of identities—race, class, gender, and sexuality—systemic to women of color oppression and liberation.”
14 .) We Are Never Meeting in Real Life: Essays by Samantha Irby
Lists It Appears On:
- Auto Straddle
- Signature Reads
Sometimes you just have to laugh, even when life is a dumpster fire. With We Are Never Meeting in Real Life., “bitches gotta eat” blogger and comedian Samantha Irby turns the serio-comic essay into an art form. Whether talking about how her difficult childhood has led to a problem in making “adult” budgets, explaining why she should be the new Bachelorette–she’s “35-ish, but could easily pass for 60-something”–detailing a disastrous pilgrimage-slash-romantic-vacation to Nashville to scatter her estranged father’s ashes, sharing awkward sexual encounters, or dispensing advice on how to navigate friendships with former drinking buddies who are now suburban moms–hang in there for the Costco loot–she’s as deft at poking fun at the ghosts of her past self as she is at capturing powerful emotional truths.
13 .) Women, Race, & Class by Angela Davis
Lists It Appears On:
- Charis Books And More
- The Odyssey Online
A powerful study of the women’s movement in the U.S. from abolitionist days to the present that demonstrates how it has always been hampered by the racist and classist biases of its leaders.
12 .) A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Lists It Appears On:
- Charis Books And More
- Kettle Mag
- The Atlantic
A Room of One’s Own is considered Virginia Woolf’s most powerful feminist essay, justifying the need for women to possess intellectual freedom and financial independence. Based on a lecture given at Girton College, Cambridge, the essay is one of the great feminist polemics, ranging in its themes from Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte to the silent fate of Shakespeare’s gifted (imaginary) sister and the effects of poverty and sexual constraint on female creativity.
11 .) A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Lists It Appears On:
- Charis Books And More
- Kettle Mag
- Wikipedia
Writing in an age when the call for the rights of man had brought revolution to America and France, Mary Wollstonecraft produced her own declaration of female independence in 1792. Passionate and forthright, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman attacked the prevailing view of docile, decorative femininity, and instead laid out the principles of emancipation: an equal education for girls and boys, an end to prejudice, and for women to become defined by their profession, not their partner.
10 .) The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Lists It Appears On:
- BuzzFeed
- Kettle Mag
- Signature Reads
Offred and the other Ha Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now…
9 .) Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
Lists It Appears On:
- Audible
- Charis Books And More
- The Odyssey Online
- Wikipedia
Since its publication in 1990, Gender Trouble has become one of the key works of contemporary feminist theory, and an essential work for anyone interested in the study of gender, queer theory, or the politics of sexuality in culture. This is the text where Judith Butler began to advance the ideas that would go on to take life as “performativity theory,” as well as some of the first articulations of the possibility for subversive gender practices, and she writes in her preface to the 10th anniversary edition released in 1999 that one point of Gender Trouble was “not to prescribe a new gendered way of life […] but to open up the field of possibility for gender […]” Widely taught, and widely debated, Gender Trouble continues to offer a powerful critique of heteronormativity and of the function of gender in the modern world.
8 .) Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
Lists It Appears On:
- Audible
- Bustle
- BuzzFeed
- Charis Books And More
In her comic, scathing essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don’t, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters. She ends on a serious note— because the ultimate problem is the silencing of women who have something to say, including those saying things like, “He’s trying to kill me!” This book features that now-classic essay with six perfect complements, including an examination of the writer Virginia Woolf ’s embrace of mystery, of not knowing, of doubt and ambiguity, a highly original inquiry into marriage equality, and a terrifying survey of the scope of contemporary violence against women.
7 .) We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Lists It Appears On:
- Audible
- Bustle
- BuzzFeed
- Charis Books And More
What does “feminism” mean today? That is the question at the heart of We Should All Be Feminists, a personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from her much-viewed TEDx talk of the same name—by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun. With humor and levity, here Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century—one rooted in inclusion and awareness. She shines a light not only on blatant discrimination, but also the more insidious, institutional behaviors that marginalize women around the world, in order to help readers of all walks of life better understand the often masked realities of sexual politics. Throughout, she draws extensively on her own experiences—in the U.S., in her native Nigeria, and abroad—offering an artfully nuanced explanation of why the gender divide is harmful for women and men, alike. Argued in the same observant, witty and clever prose that has made Adichie a bestselling novelist, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman today—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.
6 .) Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks
Lists It Appears On:
- Audible
- Bookstr
- Charis Books And More
- The Atlantic
- The Daily Idea
Acclaimed cultural critic bell hooks offers an open-hearted and welcoming vision of gender, sexuality, and society in this inspiring and accessible volume. In engaging and provocative style, bell hooks introduces a popular theory of feminism rooted in common sense and the wisdom of experience. Hers is a vision of a beloved community that appeals to all those committed to equality, mutual respect, and justice. hooks applies her critical analysis to the most contentious and challenging issues facing feminists today, including reproductive rights, violence, race, class, and work. With her customary insight and unsparing honesty, hooks calls for a feminism free from barriers but rich with rigorous debate. In language both eye-opening and optimistic, hooks encourages us to demand alternatives to patriarchal, racist, and homophobic culture, and to imagine a different future.
5 .) How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Lists It Appears On:
- Audible
- Bustle
- Kettle Mag
- Stylist
- The Atlantic
Though they have the vote and the Pill and haven’t been burned as witches since 1727, life isn’t exactly a stroll down the catwalk for modern women. They are beset by uncertainties and questions: Why are they supposed to get Brazilians? Why do bras hurt? Why the incessant talk about babies? And do men secretly hate them? Caitlin Moran interweaves provocative observations on women’s lives with laugh-out-loud funny scenes from her own, from adolescence to her development as a writer, wife, and mother.
4 .) The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookstr
- Charis Books And More
- Kettle Mag
- The Atlantic
- The Daily Idea
- Wikipedia
Newly translated and unabridged in English for the first time, Simone de Beauvoir’s masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of “woman,” and a groundbreaking exploration of inequality and otherness. This long-awaited new edition reinstates significant portions of the original French text that were cut in the first English translation. Vital and groundbreaking, Beauvoir’s pioneering and impressive text remains as pertinent today as it was sixty years ago, and will continue to provoke and inspire generations of men and women to come.
3 .) The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookstr
- Charis Books And More
- The Atlantic
- The Atlantic
- The Daily Idea
- Wikipedia
Landmark, groundbreaking, classic—these adjectives barely do justice to the pioneering vision and lasting impact of The Feminine Mystique. Published in 1963, it gave a pitch-perfect description of “the problem that has no name”: the insidious beliefs and institutions that undermined women’s confidence in their intellectual capabilities and kept them in the home. Writing in a time when the average woman first married in her teens and 60 percent of women students dropped out of college to marry, Betty Friedan captured the frustrations and thwarted ambitions of a generation and showed women how they could reclaim their lives. Part social chronicle, part manifesto, The Feminine Mystique is filled with fascinating anecdotes and interviews as well as insights that continue to inspire.
2 .) Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Lists It Appears On:
- Audible
- BuzzFeed
- Charis Books And More
- Electric literature
- The Atlantic
- The Odyssey Online
A collection of fifteen essays written between 1976 and 1984 gives clear voice to Audre Lorde’s literary and philosophical personae. These essays explore and illuminate the roots of Lorde’s intellectual development and her deep-seated and longstanding concerns about ways of increasing empowerment among minority women writers and the absolute necessity to explicate the concept of difference—difference according to sex, race, and economic status. The title Sister Outsider finds its source in her poetry collection The Black Unicorn (1978). These poems and the essays in Sister Outsider stress Lorde’s oft-stated theme of continuity, particularly of the geographical and intellectual link between Dahomey, Africa, and her emerging self.
1 .) Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
Lists It Appears On:
- Audible
- Bustle
- BuzzFeed
- Charis Books And More
- Electric literature
- The Odyssey Online
Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink—all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I’m not doing it ironically, though it might seem that way. I once live-tweeted the September issue. In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman of color while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years and commenting on the state of feminism today. The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture. Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better.
The 200+ Additional Best Books For And About Feminism
| # | Books | Authors | Lists |
| (Books Appear On 1 List Each) | |||
| 38 | A Disability History of the United States | Kim E. Nielsen | BuzzFeed |
| 39 | A Good Time To Be A Girl | Helena Morrissey | Independent |
| 40 | A House Full of Females | Signature Reads | |
| 41 | A Is for Activist’ | She Knows | |
| 42 | A Lady Has the Floor: Belva Lockwood Speaks Out for Women’s Rights | Kate Hannigan | Today |
| 43 | Ada Twist, Scientist | Andrea Beaty | Today |
| 44 | Ada’s Ideas | Fiona Robinson | Today |
| 45 | Against Our Will | Susan Brownmiller | Kettle Mag |
| 46 | Alabama Spitfire: The Story of Harper Lee and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ | Bethany Hegedus | Today |
| 47 | Alias Grace | Signature Reads | |
| 48 | An American Marriage | Tayari Jones | Electric literature |
| 49 | Anesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and the Mystery of Consciousness | Signature Reads | |
| 50 | Anne of Green Gables | Lucy Maud Montgomery | Stylist |
| 51 | Assata | Audible | |
| 52 | Babygate: How to Survive Pregnancy and Parenting in the Workplace | Dina Bakst, Phoebe Taubman, and Elizabeth Gedmark | Bustle |
| 53 | Beautiful | Stacy McAnulty | Today |
| 54 | Beloved | Toni Morrison | Stylist |
| 55 | Betty Before X | Ilyasah Shabazz & Renée Watson | Electric literature |
| 56 | Big Little Lies | Signature Reads | |
| 57 | Bitch Doctrine | Laurie Penny | Independent |
| 58 | Black Feminist Thought | Wikipedia | |
| 59 | Black Girl Dangerous on Race, Queerness, Class and Gender | Charis Books And More | |
| 60 | Black Wave | Michelle Tea | BuzzFeed |
| 61 | Bliss and Other Stories | Katharine Mansfield | Stylist |
| 62 | Blood Poems | Eliana Wong | The Odyssey Online |
| 63 | Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Fourth Edition | Charis Books And More | |
| 64 | Born with Teeth | Audible | |
| 65 | Brave | Rose McGowan | Independent |
| 66 | Burial Rites | Hannah Kent | Stylist |
| 67 | But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women’s Studies | Charis Books And More | |
| 68 | C is for Consent’ | She Knows | |
| 69 | Cannibal | Safiya Sinclair | Electric literature |
| 70 | Charlotte the Scientist is Squished | Camille Andros | Today |
| 71 | Chelsea Girls | Eileen Myles | Standard |
| 72 | Chicana Feminist Thought | Alma M. Garcia | The Odyssey Online |
| 73 | Citizen | Claudia Rankine | BuzzFeed |
| 74 | Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism | Charis Books And More | |
| 75 | Cunt: A Declaration of Independence | Charis Books And More | |
| 76 | Daughters Who Walk This Path | Yejide Kilanko | Book Riot |
| 77 | Dear Girl | Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Paris Rosenthal | Today |
| 78 | Dear Ijeawele: A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Independent |
| 79 | Dear Sisters: Dispatches from the Women’s Liberation Movement | Charis Books And More | |
| 80 | Deeds Not Words: The Story of Women’s Rights, Then and Now | Helen Pankhurst | Independent |
| 81 | Delusions of Gender | Audible | |
| 82 | Devotions | Signature Reads | |
| 83 | Dragon Ladies: Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire | Sonia Shah | BuzzFeed |
| 84 | Electric Arches | Signature Reads | |
| 85 | Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels | Stylist | |
| 86 | Elizabeth Leads the Way’ | She Knows | |
| 87 | Emma | Jane Austen | Stylist |
| 88 | Every Day Is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women | Electric literature | |
| 89 | Everything Good Will Come | Sefi Atta | Book Riot |
| 90 | Fear of Flying | Erica Jong | Five Books |
| 91 | Feminism and the Mastery of Nature | Wikipedia | |
| 92 | Feminism in Our Time: The Essential Writings, World War II to the Present | Charis Books And More | |
| 93 | Feminism Unfinished: A Short, Surprising History of American Women’s Movements | Charis Books And More | |
| 94 | Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity | Charis Books And More | |
| 95 | Feminism: A Very Short Introduction | Margaret Walters | The Daily Idea |
| 96 | Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings | Charis Books And More | |
| 97 | Feminist Baby Finds Her Voice | Loryn Brantz | Today |
| 98 | Feminist Baby’ | She Knows | |
| 99 | Feminist Theory: A Philosophical Anthology | Ann Cudd & Andreasen | The Daily Idea |
| 100 | Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction | Rosemarie Tong | The Daily Idea |
| 101 | Feminist, Queer, Crip | Alison Kafer | BuzzFeed |
| 102 | Frankenstein: The 1818 Text | Signature Reads | |
| 103 | Freedom Is a Constant Struggle | Audible | |
| 104 | Freshwater | Akwaeke Emezi | Book Riot |
| 105 | Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters | Charis Books And More | |
| 106 | Gender & Sexuality for Beginners | Charis Books And More | |
| 107 | Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls 2 | Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo | Today |
| 108 | Grace for President | Kelly DiPucchio | Today |
| 109 | Gyn/Ecology | Wikipedia | |
| 110 | Half of a Yellow Sun | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Book Riot |
| 111 | Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology | Charis Books And More | |
| 112 | Hotel du Lac | Anita Brookner | Stylist |
| 113 | How to Build a Girl | Caitlin Moran | Bustle |
| 114 | I Am An Emotional Creature | Eve Ensler | Stylist |
| 115 | I Am Enough | Grace Byers | Today |
| 116 | I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman | Nora Ephron | Stylist |
| 117 | I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings | Maya Angelou | Stylist |
| 118 | I’m Judging You | Luvvie Ajayi | BuzzFeed |
| 119 | I’m Just a Person | Audible | |
| 120 | In a Different Voice | Wikipedia | |
| 121 | Infidel | Ayaan Hirsi Ali | Kettle Mag |
| 122 | Into the Go-Slow | Bridgett M. Davis | Bustle |
| 123 | Introducing Feminism: A Graphic Guide | Charis Books And More | |
| 124 | Jane Austen, the Secret Radical | Signature Reads | |
| 125 | Jane Eyre | Charlotte Brontë | Kettle Mag |
| 126 | Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor | Patricia Valdez | Today |
| 127 | Lean In | Sheryl Sandberg | Standard |
| 128 | Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark | Mary Wollstonecraft | Stylist |
| 129 | Living a Feminist Life | Sara Ahmed | Auto Straddle |
| 130 | Lucía the Luchadora’ | She Knows | |
| 131 | Mae Among the Stars | Roda Ahmed | Today |
| 132 | Malala’s Magic Pencil | Malala Yousafzai | Today |
| 133 | Man Made Language’ | Dale Spender | Standard |
| 134 | Manifesta [10th Anniversary Edition]: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future | Charis Books And More | |
| 135 | More Than Medicine: A History of the Feminist Women’s Health Movement | Jennifer Nelson | BuzzFeed |
| 136 | Mrs Dalloway | Virginia Woolf | Five Books |
| 137 | Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump’s America | Signature Reads | |
| 138 | Native Tongue | Suzette Haden Elgin | BuzzFeed |
| 139 | Negroland | Audible | |
| 140 | No Mexicans, Women, or Dogs Allowed: The Rise of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement | Cynthia Orozco | BuzzFeed |
| 141 | On Black Sisters Street | Chika Unigwe | Book Riot |
| 142 | On Intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw | The Odyssey Online |
| 143 | On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose, 1966-1978 | Charis Books And More | |
| 144 | Paid For: My Journey Through Prostitution’ | Rachel Moran | Standard |
| 145 | Pin it! | She Knows | |
| 146 | Pornography: Men Possessing Women | Andrea Dworkin | Kettle Mag |
| 147 | Pride | Ibi Zoboi | Electric literature |
| 148 | Princesses Wear Pants | Savannah Guthrie and Allison Oppenheim | Today |
| 149 | Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rightsby Katha Pollitt | Bustle | |
| 150 | Purple Hibiscus | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Book Riot |
| 151 | Rad American Women A – Z’ | She Knows | |
| 152 | Rad Girls Can | Signature Reads | |
| 153 | Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundation, Theory, Practice, Critique | Charis Books And More | |
| 154 | Reading Lolita in Tehran | Azar Nafisi | The Odyssey Online |
| 155 | Redefining Realness | Janet Mock | BuzzFeed |
| 156 | Savage Coast | Muriel Rukeyser | Stylist |
| 157 | Scary Old Sex | Arlene Hayman | Stylist |
| 158 | Scribble Scribble | Nora Ephon | Stylist |
| 159 | Second Class Citizen | Buchi Emecheta | Book Riot |
| 160 | Sex Object | Jessica Valenti | BuzzFeed |
| 161 | Sex Workers Unite | Melinda Chateauvert | The Odyssey Online |
| 162 | Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World | Susan Hood and 13 illustrators | Today |
| 163 | She Persisted Around the World | Chelsea Clinton | Today |
| 164 | She Persisted’ | She Knows | |
| 165 | Sing, Unburied, Sing | Jesmyn Ward | Auto Straddle |
| 166 | Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America | Melissa Harris-Perry | BuzzFeed |
| 167 | Sour Heart | Jenny Zhang | Auto Straddle |
| 168 | Spinning | Tillie Walden | Auto Straddle |
| 169 | Stay With Me | Ayobami Adebayo | Book Riot |
| 170 | Stone Butch Blues | Leslie Feinberg | BuzzFeed |
| 171 | The Abramson Effect | Debora Spar | Bustle |
| 172 | The Age of Innocence | Edith Wharton | Stylist |
| 173 | The Argonauts | Audible | |
| 174 | The Ballroom | Anna Hope | Stylist |
| 175 | The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey | Toi Derricotte | BuzzFeed |
| 176 | The Book of Joan | Signature Reads | |
| 177 | The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam | Ayaan Hirsi Ali | Bookstr |
| 178 | The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton | Lucille Clifton | The Atlantic |
| 179 | The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou | Bustle | |
| 180 | The Country Girls | Edna O’ Brien | Stylist |
| 181 | The Creation of Patriarchy | Wikipedia | |
| 182 | The Crunk Feminist Collection | Charis Books And More | |
| 183 | The Customer is Always Wrong | Signature Reads | |
| 184 | The Dialectic of Sex | Wikipedia | |
| 185 | The Essential Feminist Reader | Charis Books And More | |
| 186 | The Eye of the Reindeer | Eva Weaver | Stylist |
| 187 | The Guy’s Guide to Feminism | Charis Books And More | |
| 188 | The H Spot: the Feminist Pursuit of Happiness | Jill Filipovic | Independent |
| 189 | The Lie Tree | Frances Hardinge | Stylist |
| 190 | The Longings of Women | Marge Piercy | Stylist |
| 191 | The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help | Charis Books And More | |
| 192 | The Man Without A Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin | Masha Gessen | BuzzFeed |
| 193 | The Millstone | Margaret Drabble | Stylist |
| 194 | The Odyssey | Signature Reads | |
| 195 | The One Hundred Nights of Hero | Isabel Greenberg | Stylist |
| 196 | The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State | Wikipedia | |
| 197 | The Origins of Totalitarianism | Hannah Arendt | BuzzFeed |
| 198 | The Politics of Reality | Wikipedia | |
| 199 | The Power | Signature Reads | |
| 200 | The Princess Diarist | Signature Reads | |
| 201 | The Secret History of Wonder Womanby Jill Lepore | Bustle | |
| 202 | The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives | Lola Shoneyin | Book Riot |
| 203 | The Sexual Contract | Wikipedia | |
| 204 | The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America | Charis Books And More | |
| 205 | The Terror Dream | Susan Faludi | Five Books |
| 206 | The War on Women | Sue Lloyd Roberts | Stylist |
| 207 | The Wife Drought | Annabel Crabb | Bustle |
| 208 | The Woman Warrior | Maxine Hong Kingston | The Atlantic |
| 209 | The Women’s Room | Marilyn French | Five Books |
| 210 | Their Eyes Were Watching God | Zora Neale Hurston | Stylist |
| 211 | There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé | Signature Reads | |
| 212 | Therese Raquin | Emile Zola | Kettle Mag |
| 213 | This Little Trailblazer’ | She Knows | |
| 214 | This Will Be My Undoing | Audible | |
| 215 | Throwing Like a Girl | Wikipedia | |
| 216 | To My Trans Sisters edited | Charlie Craggs | Auto Straddle |
| 217 | Too Much and Not in the Mood | Durga Chew-Bose | Auto Straddle |
| 218 | Toward a Feminist Theory of the State | Wikipedia | |
| 219 | Tracks | Signature Reads | |
| 220 | Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies | Charis Books And More | |
| 221 | Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir | Martha Gellhorn | Stylist |
| 222 | Under the Udala Trees | Chinelo Okparanta | Book Riot |
| 223 | Vagina | Naomi Wolfe | Bustle |
| 224 | We Were Feminists Once | Andi Zeisler | BuzzFeed |
| 225 | Wetlands | Charlotte Roche | Five Books |
| 226 | What It Means When A Man Falls from the Sky | Lesley Nneka Arimah | Electric literature |
| 227 | What Will It Take to Make a Woman President | Marianne Schnall | Bustle |
| 228 | When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down | Charis Books And More | |
| 229 | When They Call You a Terrorist | Audible | |
| 230 | Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity | Charis Books And More | |
| 231 | Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found | Cheryl Strayed | Stylist |
| 232 | Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive | Charis Books And More | |
| 233 | Woman, Native, Other | Trinh T. Minh-ha | The Odyssey Online |
| 234 | Women and Power: A Manifesto | Mary Beard | Independent |
| 235 | Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World | Rachel Ignotofsky | Today |
| 236 | Women’s Libation! | Signature Reads | |
| 237 | Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-Americanfeminist Thought | Charis Books And More | |
| 238 | Yell-Oh Girls!: Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American | Charis Books And More | |
| 239 | Yes Please | Amy Poehler | Bustle |
| 240 | You Can’t Touch My Hair | Audible | |
| 241 | You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, & Other Mixed Messages | Signature Reads | |
| 242 | You’ll Grow Out of It | Audible | |
| 243 | Zami: A New Spelling of My Name | Stylist | |
20 Best Feminist Book Sources/Lists
| Source | Article |
| Audible | Women’s History Month 2018: Intersectional Feminism Audiobooks … |
| Auto Straddle | The Top 10 Queer and Feminist Books of 2017 | Autostraddle |
| Book Riot | 10 Books by Nigerian Authors with Feminist Themes – Book Riot |
| Bookstr | Essential Books on Feminism | Bookstr |
| Bustle | 15 Feminist Books to Read In 2015 to Help You Stay Passionate All Year |
| BuzzFeed | 27 Books Every Woman In America Should Read – BuzzFeed |
| Charis Books And More | Feminism is For Everybody | Charis Books & More and Charis Circle |
| Electric literature | 9 Books to Expand Your Idea of What Feminism Looks Like |
| Five Books | The Best Books on Feminism | Five Books |
| Independent | 10 best new non-fiction feminist books | The Independent |
| Kettle Mag | Top Ten Best Books About Feminism Out There | Student journalism … |
| She Knows | The Best Kids Books for Baby Feminists – SheKnows |
| Signature Reads | 24 Best Books to Gift to the Strong Feminist in Your Life – Signature … |
| Standard | Best feminist books: The essential reads picked by female authors and … |
| Stylist | The most empowering feminist books: 35 women pick their favourite … |
| The Atlantic | A Reading List of One’s Own: 10 Essential Feminist Books – The Atlantic |
| The Daily Idea | The Seven Best Books on Feminism – The Daily Idea |
| The Odyssey Online | 10 Must-Read Books to Expand Your Feminism – Odyssey |
| Today | The best feminist children’s books for girls to get online – TODAY.com |
| Wikipedia | List of feminist literature – Wikipedia |
