Women's History Past and Present: Adult NonFiction

Nonfiction titles for adults that chronicle the lives of extraordinary women, examine historical movements, and address feminist issues.

Updated January 8, 2026
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Black Panther woman : the political and spiritual life of Ericka Huggins
Phillips, Mary Frances
Paper Book
The first biography of Ericka Huggins, a queer Black woman who brought spiritual self-care practices to the Black Panther Party. In this groundbreaking biography, Mary Frances Phillips immerses readers in the life and legacy of Ericka Huggins, a revered Black Panther Party...
The six : the untold story of America's first women astronauts
Grush, Loren
Paper Book
"Vivid." --The Guardian * "Engrossing." --Booklist * "Suspenseful, meticulously observed, enlightening." --Margot Lee Shetterly, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Figures In this account of America's first women astronauts "Grush...
Formidable : American women and the fight for equality, 1920-2020
Griffith, Elisabeth
Paper Book
"An essential history of the struggle by both Black and white women to achieve their equal rights."--Hillary Rodham Clinton The Nineteenth Amendment was an incomplete victory. Black and white women fought hard for voting rights and doubled the number of eligible voters, but the...
Fearless Women: Feminist Patriots from Abigail Adams to Beyoncé
Elizabeth Cobbs
Paper Book
This passionate and inspiring book by the New York Times bestselling author of The Hello Girls shows us that the quest for women's rights is deeply entwined with the founding story of the United States. When America became a nation, a woman had no legal existence...
Eve : how the female body drove 200 million years of human evolution
Bohannon, Cat
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION FINALIST * THE REAL ORIGIN OF OUR SPECIES: a myth-busting, eye-opening landmark account of how humans evolved, offering a paradigm shift in our thinking about what the female body is, how it came to be, and how this evolution...
Black women taught us : an intimate history of Black feminism
Jackson, Jenn M.
Paper Book
A reclamation of essential history and a hopeful gesture toward a better political future, this is what listening to Black women looks like-from a professor of political science and columnist for Teen Vogue. "Jenn M. Jackson is a beautiful writer and excellent scholar....
Forgotten warriors : the long history of women in combat
Percy, Sarah
Paper Book
The definitive history of women in war, revealing how women have always been an essential part of combat  From Boudicca's rebellion to the war in Ukraine, battlefields have always contained a surprising number of women. Some formed all-female armies, like...
The missing thread : a women's history of the ancient world
Dunn, Daisy
Paper Book
One of The Smithsonian's 10 best history books of 2024 One of BBC History Magazine's best books of 2024 "Thoroughly researched and sprightly.... a complete history of the [Mediterranean world] with the women added back in, as they always should have been."<...
No stopping us now : the adventures of older women in American history
Collins, Gail
Paper Book
The beloved New York Times columnist "inspires women to embrace aging and look at it with a new sense of hope" in this lively, fascinating, eye-opening look at women and aging in America (Parade Magazine). "You're not getting older, you're getting...
Women and the piano : a history in 50 lives
Tomes, Susan
Paper Book
Women are an essential part of the history of the piano--but how many women pianists can you name?   Throughout most of the piano's history, women pianists lacked access to formal training and were excluded from male-dominated performance spaces. Even the modern...
Mother tongue : the surprising history of women's words
Nuttall, Jenni
Paper Book
"A fascinating look at how we talk about women. . . . Dense with information and anecdotes, Mother Tongue touches on the hilarious and the devastating, with ample dashes of an ingredient so painfully absent from most discussions of sex and gender: humor." ―Lisa Selin Davis, The...
Femina : a new history of the Middle Ages, through the women written out of it
Ramirez, Janina
Paper Book
THE #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 CUNDIL HISTORY PRIZE A "Next Big Idea Book Club" Must Read? A groundbreaking reappraisal of medieval femininity, revealing why women have been written out of history and why it matters ...
Fly girls : how five daring women defied all odds and made aviation history
O'Brien, Keith
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Exhilarating." --New York Times Book Review "Riveting." --People "Keith O'Brien has brought these women--mostly long-hidden and forgotten--back into the light where they belong. And he's...
Fearless and free : a memoir
Baker, Josephine
Paper Book
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: The TODAY Show, Vanity Fair, Financial Times, W Magazine, Oprah Daily, LibraryReads Praised as "funny and witty" by Kwame Alexander on the TODAY show, now published in the US for the first time, Fearless and Free is the...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.