“I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because I deserve to be.”
~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists

An important part of our work is creating social change, which means shifting attitude, behavior, and culture.

In celebration of our 35th anniversary, we kept the conversation going about disruptors who were changing the power dynamics with discussions of the 35 books below. Each remains just as relevant today, so we invite you to read all 35 of skim just one!

35 Books to Read are available on Bookshop where you can support Independent Book Sellers

Bookshop is an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. If you want to find a specific local bookstore to support, find them on the map and they’ll receive the full profit of your order. Otherwise, your order contributes to an earnings pool that is evenly distributed among independent bookstores (even those that don’t use Bookshop.)

LIST OF 35 BOOKS TO READ

Title Secondary Title Author or Editor
An American Sunrise A Collection of Poetry Joy Harjo
Broad Band The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet Claire L. Evans
Burn It Down Women Writing About Anger Lilly Dancyger
Fair Play   Eve Rodsky
Funding Feminism Monied Women, Philanthropy, and the Women’s Movement, 1970-1967 Joan Marie Johnson
Girl, Woman, Other A Novel Bernardine Evaristo
Good and Mad The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger Rebecca Traister
Hood Feminism Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot Mikki Kendall
I Am Malala The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings   Maya Angelou
In Search of Our Mother’s Garden   Alice Walker
Know My Name   Chanel Miller
Lakota Woman   Mary Crow Dog
Moving Beyond Words Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking Boundaries of Gender Gloria Steinem
No One is Too Small to Make a Difference   Greta Thunberg
Notorious RBG The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Irin Carmon and

Shana Knizhnik

Playing Through the Fence Stories from 19 Women Who Challenged Stereotypes, Prejudice and Other Barriers to Achieve Career Success Mary J. Dowell
Purposeful Hustle Direct Your Life’s Work Towards Making a Positive Impact Deanna Singh
Song of Solomon   Toni Morrison
Spiderwoman’s Web Traditional Native American Tales About Women’s Power Susan Hazen-Hammond
All About Love   Bell Hooks
The Bell Jar   Sylvia Plath
The Book Woman of Troublesome County   Kim Michele Richardson
The Education of an Idealist A memoir Samantha Power
The Feminine Mystique    Betty Friedan
The Latehomecomer A Hmong Family Memoir Kao Kalia Yang
The Purpose of Power How We Come Together When We Fall Apart Alicia Garza
The Undocumented America   Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Unbought and Unbossed   Shirley Chisholm
Vanguard How Black Women  Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All Martha S. Jones
We Should All Be Feminists   Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
What I Told My Daughter Lessons from Leaders on Raising the Next Generation of Empowered Women

Nina Tassler with

Cynthia Littleton

When Everything Changed The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present Gail Collins
Women of the Suffrage Movement Women Who Dare

Janice E. Ruth and

Evelyn Sinclair

Women, Culture, & Politics   Angela Davis