Women's History Past and Present: Adult

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

Updated January 27, 2025
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Beware of the woman artist
Adler, Laure
Paper Book
Traversing decades and continents, these fifty gorgeously illustrated profiles celebrate pioneering women who at once fought against and transformed the male-dominated artistic establishment of their time. From mystic and groundbreaking color theorist Hilma af Klimt to the multi...
The voyage home : a novel
Barker, Pat
Paper Book
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Regeneration Trilogy comes the powerful third installment to the Women of Troy series. In The Voyage Home, Pat Barker skillfully reimagines Greek mythology, chronicling a perilous journey undertaken by the enslaved healer Ritsa and her cruel...
The movement : how women's liberation transformed America, 1963-1973
Bingham, Clara
Paper Book
A comprehensive and engaging oral history of the decade that defined the feminist movement, including interviews with living icons and unsung heroes--from former Newsweek reporter and author of the "powerful and moving" (The New York Times) Witness to the Revolution.<...
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...
She-wolves : the untold history of women on Wall Street
Bren, Paulina
Paper Book
First came the secretaries from Brooklyn and Queens--the "smart cookies" who saw that making money, lots of it, might be within their grasp. Then came the first female Harvard Business School graduates, who were in for a rude awakening because an equal degree did not mean equal opportunity. But...
Twice as hard : the stories of Black women who fought to become physicians, from the Civil War to the 21st Century
Brown, Jasmine
Paper Book
Black women physicians' stories have gone untold for far too long, leaving gaping holes in American medical history, in women's history, and in black history. It's time to set the record straight No real account of black women physicians in the US exists, and what little mention...
How to be a Renaissance woman : the untold history of beauty & female creativity
Burke, Jill
Paper Book
An alternative history of the Renaissance--as seen through the emerging literature of beauty tips--focusing on the actresses, authors, and courtesans who rebelled against the misogyny of their era. Beauty, make-up, art, power:
The Turtle House : a novel
Churchill, Amanda
Paper Book
"A heartbreakingly resonant debut, The Turtle House is a tender, big-hearted story about women, family, and the complicated history of Texas. These characters, and their tentative, flawed stumblings toward grace, will stay with me."--Elizabeth Wetmore, author of Valentine ...
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...
Queens of a fallen world : the lost women of Augustine's Confessions
Cooper, Kate
Paper Book
FINALIST: THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2023 The vibrant and surprising lives of the women in Augustine's Confessions While many know of Saint Augustine and his Confessions, few are aware of how his life and thought were influenced by women....
Courageous women of the Civil War : soldiers, spies, medics, and more
Cordell, M. R.
Paper Book
At the outbreak of the Civil War, nearly everybody was caught up in patriotic fervor--men and women, Union and Confederate. Many women supported soldiers through knitting and sewing needed items, growing food, making bandages, gathering medical supplies, and more. But others wished they could...
Redwood court : fiction
Dameron, DéLana R. A.
Paper Book
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * "[A] richly textured and deeply moving debut" (The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice) about one unforgettable Southern Black family and its youngest daughter's coming of age in the 1990s. "A triumph . . . Redwood Court is storytelling...
The women behind the door
Doyle, Roddy
Paper Book
"A showdown between mother and daughter that is about as emotionally painful as it gets." --Fiona Maazel, The New York Times A powerful, moving mother-daughter story filled with struggle and redemption by Booker-Prize winning author Roddy Doyle At sixty...
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."<...
The girls who fought crime : the untold true story of the country's first female investigator and her crime fighting squad
Eder, Mari K.
Paper Book
For fans of Margot Lee Shetterley and Liza Mundy comes an inspiring feminist tale of a woman who dedicated her entire life to the New York Police Department, upending the patriarchy and the status quo for women working in public service. Corsets, Crime, and the Woman to Change Modern...
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...
The American women's almanac : 500 years of making history
Felder, Deborah G.
Paper Book
Celebrate the vital roles and vibrant experiences of women in America! The most complete and affordable single-volume reference on women's history available today, The American Women's Almanac: 500 Years of Vitality, Triumph and Excellence is a unique and valuable resource...
How women made music : a revolutionary history from NPR Music
Fensterstock, Alison
Paper Book
Drawn from NPR Music's acclaimed, groundbreaking series Turning the Tables, the definitive book on the vital role of Women in Music--from Beyoncé to Odetta, Taylor Swift to Joan Baez, Joan Jett to Dolly Parton--featuring archival interviews, essays, photographs, and illustrations.<...
Witchcraft : a history in thirteen trials
Gibson, Marion
Paper Book
National Bestseller A New Yorker Best Book of 2024 A "thought-provoking and timely" (The Times, London) global history of witch trials across Europe, Africa, and the Americas, told through thirteen distinct trials that illuminate a pattern of...
The bluestockings : a history of the first women's movement
Gibson, Susannah
Paper Book
One of the New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2024 A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice One of The New Yorker's Best Books of 2024 An illuminating group portrait of the eighteenth-century women who dared to imagine an active life for...
Normal women : 900 years of making history
Gregory, Philippa
Paper Book
"Lively, timely and gloriously energetic. Each page bursts with life, and every chapter swirls with personalities left out of traditional narratives of Britain's past. Philippa Gregory has produced something rare and wonderful: a genuinely new history of [Britain], with women at its beating heart...
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...
In the shadow of Quetzalcoatl : Zelia Nuttall and the search for Mexico's ancient civilizations
Grindle, Merilee Serrill
Paper Book
The gripping story of a pioneering anthropologist whose exploration of Aztec cosmology, rediscovery of ancient texts, and passion for collecting helped shape our understanding of pre-Columbian Mexico. Where do human societies come from? The drive to answer this question...
Crow Mary : a novel
Grissom, Kathleen
Paper Book
The New York Times bestselling author of the book club classics The Kitchen House and Glory Over Everything returns with a sweeping and "richly detailed story of a woman caught between two cultures" (Sandra Dallas, New York Times bestselling author) inspired by the...
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...
The life and times of Hannah Crafts : the true story of The Bondwoman's Narrative
Hecimovich, Gregg A.
Paper Book
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography A groundbreaking study of the first Black female novelist and her life as an enslaved woman, from the biographer who solved the mystery of her identity, with a...
The queens of animation : the untold story of the women who transformed the world of Disney and made cinematic history
Holt, Nathalia
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls, the untold, "richly detailed" story of the women of Walt Disney Studios, who shaped the iconic films that have enthralled generations (Margot Lee Shetterly, New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Figures...
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....
Althea : the life of tennis champion Althea Gibson
Jacobs, Sally H.
Paper Book
In 1950, three years after Jackie Robinson first walked onto the diamond at Ebbets Field, the lily white, upper-crust National Lawn Tennis Association opened its door just a crack to receive the powerhouse player who would integrate "the game of kings": Althea Gibson. A street-savvy young woman from...
Grown women : a novel
Johnson, Sarai
Paper Book
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year "This is a tender, deeply perceptive tale of what kin owes kin, and how we might work to mend old wounds together."--Elle In this stunning debut novel, four generations of complex Black women contend with motherhood and daughterhood, generational...
The lion women of Tehran
Kamali, Marjan
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER An "evocative read and a powerful portrait of friendship, feminism, and political activism" (People) set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran--from nationally bestselling author Marjan Kamali. In 1950s Tehran,...
The story is in our bones : how worldviews and climate justice can remake a world in crisis
Lake, Osprey Orielle
Paper Book
It's time to rewild ourselves and our dominant worldviews to build Earth-centered communities for all These pages summon from our bones our commitment to defend this living Earth. --Joanna Macy, author, Coming Back to Life and Active Hope The dominant cultural worldview is...
The mother of all things : a novel
Landau, Alexis
Paper Book
A daring novel from the acclaimed author of Those Who Are Saved: female rage, grief, and creativity collide in the present and animate the past, when a woman reconnects with her essential self during a summer journey, and discovers an ancient female world that offers parallels to her own<...
On our best behavior : the seven deadly sins and the price women pay to be good
Loehnen, Elise
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A groundbreaking exploration of the ancient rules women unwittingly follow in order to be considered "good," revealing how the Seven Deadly Sins still control and distort our lives and illuminating a path toward a more balanced, spiritually complete way to live<...
The angel makers : arsenic, a midwife, and modern history's most astonishing murder ring
McCracken, Patricia Nell
Paper Book
The Angel Makers is a true-crime story like no other--a 1920s midwife who may have been the century's most prolific killer leading a murder ring of women responsible for the deaths of at least 160 men. The horror occurred in a rustic farming enclave in modern-day...
Wild girls : how the outdoors shaped the women who challenged a nation
Miles, Tiya
Paper Book
Harriet Tubman, forced to labor outdoors on a Maryland plantation, learned from the land a terrain for escape. Louisa May Alcott ran wild, eluding gendered expectations in New England. The Indigenous women's basketball team from Fort Shaw, Montana, recaptured a sense of pride in physical prowess...
The sisterhood : the secret history of women at the CIA
Mundy, Liza
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A "rip-roaring" (Steve Coll), "staggeringly well-researched" (The New York Times) history of three generations at the CIA, "electric with revelations" (Booklist) about the women who fought to become operatives, transformed spycraft, and tracked down Osama bin...
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...
Fly girls : how five daring women defied all odds and made aviation history
O'Brien, Keith
Paper Book
Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. Fly Girls recounts how a cadre of women banded together to break the original glass ceiling: the entrenched prejudice that conspired to keep them out of the sky.
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...
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 ...
The cure for women : Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the challenge to Victorian medicine that changed women's lives forever
Reeder, Lydia
Paper Book
"Valiant and timely ... 'The Cure for Women' reintroduces its subject as a hero for this moment." --The New York Times How Victorian male doctors used false science to argue that women were unfit for anything but motherhood--and the brilliant doctor who defied them<...
Secrets of the sprakkar : Iceland's extraordinary women and how they are changing the world
Reid, Eliza
Paper Book
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER! "Secrets of the Sprakkar is a fascinating window into what a more gender-equal world could look like, and why it's worth striving for. Iceland is doing a lot to level the playing field- paid parental leave, affordable...
In the form of a question : the joys and rewards of a curious life
Schneider, Amy
Paper Book
"Warm and funny." --The New York Times * "Refreshingly no-holds-barred." --USA TODAY * "Delightful." --San Francisco Chronicle An inspirational, witty, and bold memoir from the most successful woman ever to compete on Jeopardy!--an exploration of...
We set the night on fire : igniting the gay revolution
Shelley, Martha
Paper Book
Martha Shelley didn't start out in life wanting to become a gay activist, or an activist of any kind. The daughter of Jewish refugees and undocumented immigrants in New York City, she grew up during the Red Scare of the late 1940s and 1950s, was inspired by the civil rights and anti...
The Hazelbourne ladies motorcycle and flying club : a novel
Simonson, Helen
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * "Historical fiction of the highest order . . . an absolute joy of a book, warm and romantic, and with so much to say about the lives of women in the years following World War I."--Ann Napolitano, bestselling author of Hello Beautiful A timeless...
50 years of Ms. : the best of the pathfinding magazine that ignited a revolution
Spillar, Katherine
Paper Book
The New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice . Acelebration of Ms.-the most startling, most audacious, most norm-breaking of the magazine's groundbreaking pieces on women, men, politics (sexual and otherwise), marriage, family, education, work, motherhood, and reproductive rights,...
Unbroken : my fight for survival, hope, and justice for Indigenous women and girls
Sterritt, Angela
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER: A Globe and Mail and Toronto Star Bestseller A finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award and the Writers' Trust Hilary Weston Prize for Nonfiction. "A remarkable life story. . . Angela Sterritt is a formidable storyteller...
A place of our own : six spaces that shaped queer women's culture
Thomas, June (Journalist)
Paper Book
A "riveting" and "indispensable" (Alison Bechdel) cultural history of queer women's lives in the second half of the twentieth century, told through six iconic spaces For as long as queer women have existed, they've created gathering grounds where they can be...
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...
Dear Black girls : how to be true to you
Wilson, A'ja
Paper Book
This one is for all the girls with an apostrophe in their names.This is for all the girls who are labeled "too loud" and "too emotional."This is for all the girls who are constantly asked, "Oh, what did you do with your hair? That's new."This is for my Black girls.Despite gold medals, WNBA...

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