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    30 Essential Feminist Books

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    monstrete
    The document provides summaries for 30 essential feminist books that have advanced feminist thought and women's rights. Some of the notable books mentioned include A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft, which called for women's education; The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, which launched the second wave of feminism; and The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, which introduced the distinction between sex and gender. Many of the books address issues like women's independence, reproductive rights, and challenging patriarchal representations of gender.

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    30 Essential Feminist Books

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    monstrete
    1K views8 pages
    The document provides summaries for 30 essential feminist books that have advanced feminist thought and women's rights. Some of the notable books mentioned include A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft, which called for women's education; The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, which launched the second wave of feminism; and The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, which introduced the distinction between sex and gender. Many of the books address issues like women's independence, reproductive rights, and challenging patriarchal representations of gender.

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    The document provides summaries for 30 essential feminist books that have advanced feminist thought and women's rights. Some of the notable books mentioned include A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft, which called for women's education; The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, which launched the second wave of feminism; and The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, which introduced the distinction between sex and gender. Many of the books address issues like women's independence, reproductive rights, and challenging patriarchal representations of gender.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    1K views8 pages

    30 Essential Feminist Books

    Uploaded by

    monstrete
    The document provides summaries for 30 essential feminist books that have advanced feminist thought and women's rights. Some of the notable books mentioned include A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft, which called for women's education; The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, which launched the second wave of feminism; and The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, which introduced the distinction between sex and gender. Many of the books address issues like women's independence, reproductive rights, and challenging patriarchal representations of gender.

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    of 8

    Grundtvig Partnership Everybody can do it!

    (ECDI)

    30 essential feminist books


    Title A vindiction of the rights of women
    Mary Wollstonecraft is widely regarded as the first feminist. A single, financially independent mother at a time when this was entirely unheard of, she wrote a densely packed text calling for women to be educated so that they could be more than mere wives. The 1792 tome indicts men for encouraging excessive emotion in women.

    Description

    Little women
    Louisa May Alcott's novel, set at the time of the American Civil War, focuses heavily on the issue of women's independence, and many of the female characters are selfself determined, some with the support of men.

    Middlemarch
    Dorothea Brooke, the protagonist of George Eliot's 1869 novel, aims to achieve more in her life than what society tells her she is capable of.

    A room of ones own


    In the prelude to the 1929 book, Virginia Woolf explains that Shakespeare might have had an equally talented sister, but that we'll never know of her talents because she was never afforded the same education and acknowledgement he, as a man, was. The entire book explains the need for a feminine discourse in literature.

    The second sex


    Simone De Beauvoir pioneered gender studies in this 1947 text, introducing the difference between sex (our physiological state) and gender (something society tells us to do).

    The Golden Notebook

    Doris Lessing's 1962 novel raised consciousness of women, and deals with women's sexuality and questions assumptions about their relationships with men. Lessing wishes for it to be a humanist, rather than a feminist text, and was surprised that, for years women had been saying what she said, but had never written it down.

    The Feminine Mystique


    This 1963 book launched the second wave of feminism. Betty Friedan takes apart the myth of the postwar happy housewife that had been proliferated by the mass media. Everything that makes your life better than Betty Draper's started here.

    Scum Manifesto
    In 1967, the feminist movement had gained enough pace for radicals to appear. Valerie Solanas's indictment of men calls for the whole male sex to be eliminated. She is perhaps better known for her attempted murder of Andy Warhol.

    I know why the caged bird sings

    Maya Angelou's autobiography mainly deals with how knowledge and strength of character can help one overcome racism and abuse. However, the 1969 tome also shows a woman overcoming much adversity to become selfself possessed and dignified.

    Sexual politics
    Kate Millett's 1970 book was the first text of academic feminist literary criticism. Millett critiques DH Lawrence, Henry Miller and Norman Mailer's fictional representations of relationships, complaining that they discuss sex in a patriarchal way. The book caused much ire amongst men.

    The female eunuch


    In Germaine Greer's 1970 book, she says that women don't know how much men hate them, and that women are encouraged by men to hate themselves.

    Our bodies ourselves

    In 1971, the Boston Women's Health Book Collective's women's health manual was produced by women, for women. Using a friendly, familiar approach, the book includes first-person person anecdotes from women who have had all sorts of health situations. The text also caused some controversy by addressing then-taboo taboo issues such as abortion and transgenderism.

    Fat is a feminist issue


    Susie Orbach's 1978 book examines women's eating disorders and how a focus on weight is used as a way of subjugating women. A must-read read for anyone caught in a cycle of dieting and binge-eating.

    The color purple


    Alice Walker's 1982 book, which was later adapted by Stephen Spielberg into an Oscar-winning winning film, tells the story of a black woman in 1930s Georgia. It deals with the struggle, both in America and in Africa, of women to gain recognition as individuals who deserve fair and equal treatment.

    The Cider House Ruler


    John Irving's story of two abortionists presents women's reproductive rights as a necessity.

    Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe


    Fannie Fligg's 1987 novel, which was adapted into a film starring Kathy Bates, is a celebration of the strength of the Southern female storytelling traditions, and shows Evelyn Couch awaken to feminism by way of a mid-life mid identity crisis.

    The Beauty Myth


    In 1991, Naomi Wolf wrote a riposte to the newlynewly burgeoning plastic surgery industry and the already huge cosmetics market. This is an intriguing analysis of just how much time, money and health is sacrificed by women to stay in step with whatever the cosmetics industry is peddling as the norm.

    Gender Trouble
    Following on from Simone De Beauvoir, Judith Butler extrapolated gender studies in 1994, with an academic text stating that women are not born to wear skirts, men are not born to wear boots, and that all gender is a performance as affected as a drag queen's stage show.

    The red tent


    Anita Diamant's story focuses on Dinah, Jacob's daughter and Joseph's sister in the Bible. Breathing life into a character who is so sidelined in the Old Testament, Diamant speaks up for all of the women forgotten by history's tendency to focus on male achievements.

    Women
    Annie Liebovitz and Susan Sontag's photobook is a celebration of women from all walks of life. Shot in Liebovitz's classic style, it captures miners, domestic abuse victims, athletes, politicians and celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor, Jerry Hall, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ellen DeGeneres.

    Feminism is for Everybody


    bell hooks' 2000 book introduces a popular, male-friendly male theory of feminism rooted in common sense and the wisdom of experience. She wishes everyone to unite in equality and tackles issues like reproductive rights, violence, race, class, and work with humour and honesty. She calls for a feminism free from divisive barriers.

    Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism and the Future


    Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richard's 2001 manifesto introduced a third wave of feminism where women are encouraged to identify themselves and feminism as they see fit.

    A lifes work

    Rachel Cusk's 2001 autobiographical book about the struggles of motherhood was greeted with much opprobrium from mothers, as she didn't follow parenting guides to the t, and referred to her daughter as a "tetchy monarch"

    Riding in cars with boys


    Beverley y Donofrio's autobiography, later adapted into a film starring Drew Barrymore and Brittany Murphy, tells the story of becoming a single mother in the early 60s and overcoming adversity to gain a masters' degree.

    The frontal feminism


    In this 2007 book, Jessica Valenti gives a sharp, poppop culture-riddled riddled insight into contemporary feminism, telling young women that there is no need to be blamed for not living up to everything the second wave sisterhood expected of the next generation.

    Bossypants
    In her memoir, Tina Fey provides further proof that women can and will be as funny, if not funnier than men, and don't give a damn if men don't agree. She also discusses the difficulties of managing a balance between her career and her family.

    The future of feminism


    Sylvia Walby's 2011 academic text neatly responds to all suggestions that feminism is dead, and provides a succinct yet comprehensive critical review of recent treatments of feminism, explaining why they have got it wrong.

    How to be a women
    The part-memoir, part-tirade tirade against 'The Man' presents a modern outlook on feminism, repackaging it to remove the stigma attached to the f word. It also tells you a lot about one of Britain's most revered columnists.

    Albertine

    Albertine is the first and so far only novel of writer and critic Jacqueline Rose. It is a parallel novel, novel using characters and events from Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time. The beautiful orphan Albertine comes into contact with the austere young Marcel at a Normandy seaside hotel, whilst on holiday with friends. She soon becomes embroiled in a destructive tructive affair with the young man, trapping them both in his Paris apartment. His jealousy and her strong will and bisexual attraction to others cause both unhappiness. A gynocentric revisiting of Proust, it is a feminist rere imagining, giving Albertine a voice she has been denied.

    The womens room

    The Women's Room is a novel by American feminist author Marilyn French, published in 1977. The Women's Room has been described as one of the most influential novels of the modern feminist movement. Its instant popularity brought criticism from some well-known feminists that it was too pessimistic about women's lives and too anti-men. The Women's Room is set in 1950s America and follows the fortunes of Mira Ward, a conventional and submissive young woman in a traditional marriage and her gradual feminist awakening. The novel met stark media criticism when published but went on to be an international best seller.

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