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15 Must-Read Books for Women’s History Month 2026
At a time when women’s rights face renewed challenges in the United States, it is especially important to recognize and celebrate the women who have led with courage, vision, and determination. In honor of this year’s Women’s History Month theme, “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future,” we’ve curated a reading list that highlights remarkable women—from political leaders and entrepreneurs to scientists and writers—while also exploring the sacrifices and systemic barriers they worked to overcome. These books examine the fight for political voice, property and economic rights, representation in the sciences and the arts, and global movements for equity and peace. Together, they tell stories of persistence, collaboration, and hard-won progress that continue to shape our communities and institutions today.
Biography and Memoir
The Remarkable Madame Pandit
Champion of India, Citizen of the World
Manu Bhagavan
A pioneering politician and diplomat, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900–1990) was an Indian icon, admired worldwide for her brilliance and glamour. The Remarkable Madame Pandit is the definitive biography of India’s greatest modern diplomat. Manu Bhagavan chronicles Pandit’s life and times, from her upbringing in an illustrious family to her role in her country’s fight for independence, and through her globe-trotting career bridging East and West. Based on eight years of research using material in five languages from seven countries, this book tells Madame Pandit’s gripping story in full—and in so doing, retells the history of India and the world in the twentieth century. Watch a video about one of the first milk funds in India.
If I Am Right, and I Know I Am
Inge Lehmann, the Woman Who Discovered Earth’s Innermost Secret
Hanne Strager
In the 1930s, the pioneering Danish scientist Inge Lehmann (1888–1993) made a groundbreaking discovery about Earth’s interior. Analyzing earthquake data, she determined that the planet’s inner core is a solid. If I Am Right, and I Know I Am provides a powerful portrait of an extraordinary woman while guiding readers through the fascinating history of earth science. Hanne Strager tells the story of Lehmann’s life and accomplishments, recounting how she battled inner demons and a mental breakdown and overcame pervasive prejudice to forge her own path in a male-dominated scientific world. The first biography of Lehmann, this book seamlessly weaves together her personal life and scientific achievements, highlighting her resilience and brilliance. Watch a video about Inge Lehmann’s discovery.
Colored Insane
Slavery, Asylums, and Mental Illness in the Nineteenth Century
Diana Martha Louis
The nineteenth century in the United States witnessed the end of slavery and the expansion of another form of confinement: the asylum. In Colored Insane, Diana Martha Louis explores Black experiences and views of mental disability in the nineteenth century, shedding light on the lives and struggles of the “colored insane.” Louis considers the lives and writings of Black intellectuals and cultural figures including James McCune Smith, Harriet Jacobs, Harriet Tubman, and Charles Chesnutt, as well as a group of Black women who were incarcerated in Georgia Lunatic Asylum, showing how mental disability was entangled with questions of freedom, spirituality, and self-determination. Combining literary and historical analysis, this book is a rich account of nineteenth-century Black Americans’ experiences of mental illness and wellness. Discover what Louis’s research revealed about Black experiences and views of mental disability in the nineteenth century in this Q&A.
The Souths in Her
Black Women Writers and Choreographers and the Poetics of Transmutation
Nicole M. Morris Johnson
Since the Middle Passage, the intellectual and physical freedom of Black women in the United States and the Caribbean has been constrained. In The Souths in Her, Nicole M. Morris Johnson shows how key Black women artists transformed the enclosing narrative frames imposed on them, developing new forms of creative expression informed by the lived experiences and submerged histories of women across the Africana southern world. Considering the violence routinely inflicted on Black women alongside their artistic innovations, this book reveals a transmuted South that is rich in techniques for weaving liberatory works. Illuminating Black women’s singular contributions to Black modernity, it offers new frames for understanding their embodied and textual creative expression.
Mary C. McCall Jr.
The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s Most Powerful Screenwriter
J. E. Smyth
A screenwriter, novelist, labor leader, Hollywood insider, and feminist, Mary C. McCall Jr. was one of the film industry’s most powerful figures in the 1940s and early 1950s. In this book, J. E. Smyth tells McCall’s remarkable story for the first time, spotlighting her trailblazing career and crucial influence. She explores McCall’s life and work, from her friendships with stars such as Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, and James Cagney to her authorship of the hit Maisie series about a working-class showgirl’s adventures. Colorful and compelling, this biography offers new insight into screenwriters’ struggle for equality and recognition, through a robust account of how one extraordinary woman shaped golden-age Hollywood. Read more about McCall Jr.’s unfinished battle for women’s rights in this blog post.
Her Truth and Service
Lucy Diggs Slowe in Her Own Words
Lucy Diggs Slowe. Edited by Amy Yeboah Quarkume
Lucy Diggs Slowe (1885–1937) was one of the most remarkable and accomplished figures in the history of Black women’s higher education. In 1922, Slowe was appointed the first Dean of Women at Howard University, making her the first Black woman to serve as dean at any American university. Her Truth and Service showcases Slowe’s speeches, articles, and letters, illuminating her multifaceted accomplishments and her unwavering dedication to the quest for equality and justice. It is an inspiring testament to her lifelong struggles and successes. Read more about Slowe, the role of the university, and democracy in this blog post.
The Sisterhood
How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture
Courtney Thorsson
The Sisterhood tells the story of a remarkable community of Black women who transformed American writing and cultural institutions. Calling themselves “The Sisterhood,” the group—which came to include Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, Audre Lorde, Paule Marshall, Margo Jefferson, and others—gathered once a month for two years, creating a vital space for Black women to discuss literature and liberation. Highlighting the organizing, networking, and community building that nurtured Black women’s writing, this book demonstrates that the Sisterhood offers an enduring model for Black feminist collaboration. Learn about some of the lesser-known members of the group.
Business and Corporate History
We Are Each Other’s Business
Black Women’s Intersectional Political Consumerism During the Chicago Welfare Rights Movement
Nicole M. Brown
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Welfare Rights Movement organized at both local and national levels, advocating for poor people’s inclusion, dignity, and autonomy. We Are Each Other’s Business examines Black women’s leadership within the Chicago Welfare Rights Movement, recasting their consumer activism as a form of Black feminist technology. Bringing together historical sociology, computational methods, and intersectional Black feminist theory, this book offers innovative and generative insights into Black women’s struggle for political and economic equity. Read an interview with Brown about the book.
The Rise of Corporate Feminism
Women in the American Office, 1960–1990
Allison Elias
In the 1960s, ideas about sex equality spurred some clerical workers to organize, demanding “raises and respect,” while others pushed for professionalization through credentialing. By the 1990s, corporate support for professional women resulted in an individualistic feminism that focused on the needs of those at the top. The Rise of Corporate Feminism examines changes in the workplace regarding affirmative action, human resource management, automation, and unionization, as pursued by groups such as 9to5.
Banking on Freedom
Black Women in U.S. Finance Before the New Deal
Shennette Garrett-Scott
Between 1888 and 1930, African Americans opened more than a hundred banks and thousands of other financial institutions. In this book, Shennette Garrett-Scott offers an unparalleled account of how Black women carved out economic, social, and political power in contexts shaped by sexism, white supremacy, and capitalist exploitation. The first book to center Black women’s engagement with the elite sectors of banking, finance, and insurance, Banking on Freedom reveals the ways gender, race, and class shaped the meanings of wealth and risk in U.S. capitalism and society. You can also learn more about five African American women pioneers in U.S. finance and early Black women investors.
Politics and Activism
Sex and World Peace
2nd edition
Valerie M. Hudson, Mary Caprioli, Rose McDermott, and Donna Lee Bowen
Previously selected for Emma Watson’s and Gloria Steinem’s book clubs, Sex and World Peace has been a go-to book for instructors, advocates, and policymakers since its publication in 2012. It is a groundbreaking demonstration that the security of women is a vital factor in the occurrence of conflict and war, unsettling a wide range of assumptions in political and security discourse. Read a book excerpt from the first edition.
The Hillary Doctrine
Sex and American Foreign Policy
Valerie M. Hudson and Patricia Leidl. Foreword by Swanee Hunt
Hillary Rodham Clinton was the first Secretary of State to declare the subjugation of women worldwide a serious threat to U.S. national security. Known as the Hillary Doctrine, her stance was the impetus for the 2010 Quadrennial Diplomatic and Development Review of U.S. foreign policy, which formally committed America to the proposition that the empowerment of women is a stabilizing force for domestic and international peace. Exploring the complexity and pitfalls of attempting to improve the lives of women while safeguarding the national interest, this book is the first to thoroughly investigate the Hillary Doctrine in principle and practice. Watch a panel discussion about the book.
The Feminist Pacific
International Women’s Networks in Hawai’i, 1820–1940
Rumi Yasutake
The Feminist Pacific examines transnational networks in Hawai‘i beginning in 1820, with the arrival of American missionary wives, and through the rise of women’s internationalism in the interwar years. It follows an array of suffragists, missionaries, maternalists, and antiwar activists in their international campaigns for peace and social justice that culminated in the formation of the Pan-Pacific Women’s Association (PPWA) and subsequent conferences. Bridging nineteenth-century Protestant churchwomen’s evangelism with twentieth-century feminist internationalism, this book recasts women’s global organizing from the perspective of the Pacific. Read more in this Q&A with Rumi Yasutake.
In Her Own Name
The Politics of Women’s Rights Before Suffrage
Sara Chatfield
Long before American women had the right to vote, states dramatically transformed their status as economic citizens. In Her Own Name explores the origins and consequences of laws guaranteeing married women’s property rights, focusing on the people and institutions that shaped them. Sara Chatfield demonstrates that the motives of male elites included personal interests, benefits to the larger economy, and bolstering state power. Learn about women’s property rights and enslavement in the pre-Civil War South.
The Bearded Lady Project
Challenging the Face of Science
Edited by Lexi Jamieson Marsh and Ellen Currano
Challenging persistent gender biases in the sciences, the Bearded Lady Project spotlights underrepresented geoscientists in the field and the lab. This book pairs portraits of the scientists after donning fake beards with personal essays in which they tell their stories. Using a healthy dose of humor, The Bearded Lady Project celebrates the achievements of the women who study the history of life on Earth, revealing the obstacles they’ve faced because of their gender and how they push back. Read the book’s foreword.