Feminism has been around for a while and can mean different things to different people. Sure, some might think of it as a dirty word (sad, but all too common) or have used it to promote hate towards our trans sisters (ridiculous, given how much we owe to trans women).
At its core, however, feminism is all about establishing the political, social, and economic equality of the sexes. Even among those who might not want to call themselves feminists, many still support gender equality — and rightly so.
But of course, not everyone gets to major in Gender Studies or engage with feminism beyond mainstream conversations, particularly during Women’s Month this March. So if you’re looking to engage in literature that centers the female experience and its complicated, constantly evolving nature, the feminist authors listed below might be a good place to start.
(Trigger warning: Abuse, violence, and suicide are lightly mentioned in some of the women’s stories below.)
Mary Wollstonecraft: The First Feminist Author
Considered by many as the first feminist author and philosopher, Mary Wollstonecraft was born in April of 1759 in Spitalfields, London. She had a difficult childhood, marred by financial instability and a violent father.
But she had a dream — inspired by childhood friends Jane Arden, with whom she attended lectures and read books, and Fanny Blood, who Wollstonecraft credits for opening her mind.
In her late 20s, after working as a lady’s companion and later on as a governess, she decided to set out as a writer. This was uncommon at the time, and in a letter dated 1787, Mary wrote to her sister Everina that she wanted to become “the first of a new genus.”
And that she became, though not until the 20th century.
She passed away too young at 38 years old, shortly after giving birth to her daughter Mary Shelley (yup, that Mary Shelley, who would grow up to write the influential novel Frankenstein). Upon Wollstonecraft’s death, her memoirs were published by her husband William Godwin, who claimed that he had written of her life with love and compassion. But his efforts backfired, and the poor depiction of Mary Wollstonecraft and her life shattered her reputation for too long after her death.
It wasn’t until the 20th century, with the advent of the feminist movement, that people began to engage with her ideas more than the more scandalous aspects of her life. People have also loosened up a little, and aren’t as quick to judge when it comes to illegitimate children and suicide attempts.
Today, she’s known as an innovative social and political feminist author, and one of the first women to publish books under her own name instead of a pseudonym.
Suggested readings:
- A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women deserve the same fundamental rights as men do. That’s a belief that more of us have by now, except that this was written nearly a century before the term “feminist” came to be.
- If political philosophy isn’t your thing, then Mary: A Fiction (1788) might be a better option. In it, the eponymous protagonist escapes a loveless marriage, which she was forced into, to find love and affection with two romantic friendships — one with a woman, and another with a man.
Jane Austen: Defying Gender Norms
One contemporary of Wollstonecraft that did engage with her ideas is celebrated novelist Jane Austen. Though she never mentioned Wollstonecraft by name, her novels allude to the older woman’s work. For instance, Sense and Sensibility takes some notes from Wollstonecraft’s Mary.
Born in Steventon, Hampshire in December 1775, Austen developed a love for reading and writing early on, supported by her father and brothers. From age 11, she was writing poems and stories to entertain herself and her family.
Though her name and novels are familiar to most of us today — thanks to English teachers across the globe — she didn’t have a chance to enjoy her fame while she lived. At the time, writing full-time as a woman was considered degrading to one’s femininity, and so most books by women authors were published anonymously. Her name never appeared in her books during her lifetime, and people only began to learn about her a decade after she died.
Austen’s novels served as social commentary, often ironic and hinting at the need for gender equality. Her heroines, among them Elinor Dashwood and Elizabeth Bennet, quietly defied the strict gender norms of her time, pushing for more agency in their own lives.
Suggested reading:
- Pride and Prejudice (1813), a critique of marriage, wealth, and class, as well as an exploration of the role of attention in romance. Its opening sentence, which reads, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife,” served as my eighth-grade intro to irony. It also helps that the 2005 film, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, is fun to watch.
- If you’re looking for something not usually found in middle school reading lists, then Northanger Abbey (1818), is a good choice. In it, Catherine Morland learns to separate real life from her love of Gothic fiction.
Louisa May Alcott: An Early American Feminist
Another name familiar to many of us thanks to English class is Louisa May Alcott.
An early American feminist and abolitionist, she was born in Germantown in modern-day Philadelphia in November 1832. As a child, she learned from the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, thanks to her father’s links to the Transcendental Club.
But her family was poor, and she had to work from an early age as a teacher, governess, domestic helper, seamstress, and a writer. At age 11, she wrote: “I wish I was rich, I was good, and we were all a happy family this day.”
Honestly? Hard same.
She often wrote sensationalist fiction to make ends meet. She said, “Money is the means and the ends of my mercenary existence.”
But writing was also her creative and emotional outlet. When the Civil War broke out, Alcott served as a nurse in the Union Hospital in Georgetown, DC. After coming home, she published Hospital Sketches, a collection of letters she wrote during the experience, and its success marked a departure from much of the writing she had been doing.
From then on, she focused on writing what she knew. In 1868, she published Little Women, whose heroine is patterned after herself.
Alcott never married. In an interview, she said, “I am more than half-persuaded that I am a man’s soul put by some freak of nature into a woman’s body…. because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man.”
Suggested reading:
- Little Women (1868), which follows sisters Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. I’ll always have a soft spot for Jo, and her devotion to not just her sisters, but also to herself and the need to chart her own course in life. Greta Gerwig’s 2019 adaptation is also a wonderful tribute to Alcott.
- Eight Cousins (1875), which follows the story of Rose Campbell. Lonely, sickly, and recently orphaned, Rose is sent to live with her great aunts and meets her Uncle Alec, who changes her life with his unorthodox parenting.
Gertrude Stein: Queer Novelist and Art Collector
Unlike Alcott, Gertrude Stein had a comfortable upbringing and was born to upper-middle-class Jewish parents in Allegheny, Pennsylvania in February 1874. Well-educated and well-traveled, she graduated magna cum laude from Radcliffe College, an annex of Harvard University at the time.
Her mentor, William James, called Stein his “most brilliant woman student,” and encouraged her to go to medical school. She went on to enroll at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1897, even though she wasn’t all that interested in medicine.
Stein spent those years at Johns Hopkins taking long walks and attending the opera. This was partly because she was bored with her studies, but also because the idea of women doctors wasn’t particularly popular in the male-dominated school.
She also wrote about not being able to conform to the conventional female role, receiving hateful comments on her physical appearance and way of dressing herself. She dropped out by her fourth year.
In 1903, she moved to Paris with her brother Leo, who wanted to pursue an art career. On her first night, she met Alice B. Toklas, who would later on become her life partner.
Stein thrived in Paris, where she became host to a salon where modernist artists and writers like Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Henri Matisse would meet. It was also there that she began writing in earnest, publishing works like Q.E.D., now known as one of the first coming out stories, and Word Portraits, a series of descriptive essays that open with one about Alice.
Suggested reading:
- The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933), a pseudo-autobiography of her partner, Alice. Though Ernest Hemingway described it as a “damned pitiful book,” composer Virgil Thomson praised it for its clear reflection of Alice’s mind, language, and point of view. It consistently ranks among the best nonfiction books of the 20th century.
- Three Lives (1909), which follows the loosely intertwined stories of three women in the fictional town of Bridgepoint, Baltimore.
Virginia Woolf: Taking Space
Born Adeline Virginia Stephen in January 1882 to an affluent family in South Kensington, London, Virginia Woolf is considered one of the most important 20th century authors in general, and one of the most important feminist writers in particular.
Education at the time was markedly different for boys and girls — a tradition that Virginia would later on criticize in her writing. Where her brothers were sent to private schools and University, she and her sister were taught at home.
She continued her studies at the Ladies’ Department of King’s College London, taking up classics and history. It was also there that she got to meet people passionate about the growing women’s rights movement, as well as early reformers of higher education for women.
Virginia began writing professionally in 1900. She married Leonard Woolf in 1912, and together they founded Hogarth Press, which published her writing. Her work was highly regarded for her pioneering use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device, and for its feminist themes.
Though Virginia’s history of childhood abuse, mental health issues, and death by suicide sometimes overshadow her work, there’s a lot to dive into if you’re looking to explore gender, feminism, and the human condition.
Suggested reading:
- A Room of One’s Own (1929), a book-length essay highlighting the importance of women having both material and intellectual independence. Here, Woolf makes a lot of points that, unfortunately, still stand around the world: too many women are denied education, financial independence, and creative opportunities to be able to write, with their experiences and voices often devalued. Her declaration for an economic, political, and cultural space for women has had a huge impact in the feminist movement, and has inspired a foundation and even fan fiction spaces.
- If you’d rather read fiction, then Orlando (1928) might be a better pick. The novel tells the story of an English poet and nobleman who transforms into a woman across an unnaturally long lifetime. The book is said to be inspired by the wild family history of fellow writer Vita Sackville-West, who was also Woolf’s lover.
Simone de Beauvoir: On Sex and Gender
A French writer, philosopher, and feminist, Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris in January 1908.
Her family struggled financially after World War I, but her father encouraged her intellectual pursuits and her mother made sure she was sent to a prestigious school. Beauvoir, for her part, knew that she could no longer rely on a dowry, and so was determined to make a living for herself.
She went on to study philosophy at the Sorbonne, where she met fellow writer and literary critic Jean-Paul Sartre, who eventually became her lifelong companion. The two were also intellectual partners, and read each other’s work.
Her best-known work is The Second Sex, published in 1949. Razor-sharp in its critique and provoking in its insight, the book discussed why Beauvoir thought of herself as a woman first — everything else second. It’s the first in literary history that tackles the ideas of biological sex and the social construction of gender separately. In it, she wrote, “One is not born, but rather, becomes, a woman.”
She went on to win several accolades for her writing, including the Jerusalem Prize and Austrian State Prize for European Literature, and influenced generations of feminist writers after her. Among them are Betty Friedan (whose book The Feminine Mystique is a quintessential read from second-wave feminism) and Judith Butler (a third-wave feminist writer, whose works Gender Trouble and Bodies That Matter further explore the concept of gender and gender performativity).
Suggested reading:
- The Second Sex (1949), where Beauvoir combines personal observations with critical theory, arguing that women are regarded as the “Other.” She wrote, “Thus, humanity is male, and man defines woman not herself, but as relative to him.”
- Lovers of fiction (and a little spice) might also enjoy Beauvoir’s first novel, She Came to Stay (1943). The book is a fictional account of her and Sartre’s relationship, and how it was affected by a ménage à trois.
Audre Lorde: No Liberation Without Community
A celebrated Black feminist writer, poet, and civil rights activist, Audre Lorde was born in February 1934 in New York City to Caribbean parents.
As a child, Lorde struggled with communication, but found her voice in poetry. By age 12, she began writing her own poems, and published her first one by the time she was in high school. At this time, she often participated in workshops sponsored by the Harlem Writers Guild, but felt that she was seen as too “crazy and queer” to really fit in.
She went on to embrace the “crazy and queer” identity, connecting with other writers at the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press and Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, which she co-founded. She also supported survivors of sexual abuse and intimate partner violence by co-founding the Women’s Coalition of St. Croix.
These experiences all helped influence her work, which explores the conflicting aspects of her own identity. She writes: “I am defined as other in every group I’m part of.” But she also highlights the importance of community: “Without community there is certainly no liberation, no future, only the most vulnerable and temporary armistice between me and my oppression.”
It was because of this understanding of intersectionality that she was very critical of first-world feminism for what she argues is a downplaying of sexual, racial, and class differences. Here, I’d like to let her words shine, as they make a powerful point in a way I’d rather not paraphrase:
“Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference – those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older – know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the master’s house as their only source of support.”
Audre Lorde
Suggested reading:
- Sister Outsider (1984), a collection of essays and speeches on the complexity of oppression, and how sexism, racism, homophobia, classism, and ageism interact.
- The Black Unicorn (1978), in which Lorde explores her identity in relation to the female deities of African mythology.
bell hooks: Feminism is for Everybody
Author and social activist bell hooks was born Gloria Jean Watkins in September 1952 in a small, segregated town in Kentucky called Hopkinsville.
She went to a racially segregated public school before moving to an integrated school in the 1960s. She then completed her BA in English from Stanford University, her MA in English from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and her PhD in English at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
hooks went on to teach English, ethnic studies, and African and Afro-American studies at institutions like the University of Southern California, University of California, Santa Cruz, San Francisco State University, Yale, and City College of New York.
Outside of her teaching work, she also published poetry and non-fiction books. Her first major work, Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism, was published in 1981. It explored the specific sexism aimed towards black female slaves, and its enduring effects on black womanhood today in media, education, and the workplace, among others. The book also highlighted how this type of oppression works in what she calls the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.
hooks went on to publish over 30 more books, ranging from personal memoirs to discussions on patriarchy and black men, as well as sexuality in visual culture.
Suggested reading:
- Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (2000), in which hooks provides a discussion of feminism, how far it’s gone, and how far it can still go.
- The Will to Change (2004), which explores how the patriarchy keeps men from knowing themselves, from loving, and from being loved. The book takes on toxic masculinity and its terrible effects on men, and offers pathways of resistance.
Do you have a favorite feminist author? Sound off in the comments!
Really?? Is that true??