March is Women’s History Month! Explore the moments that have shaped women’s equality in the books below.
Fiction
FICTION CHIAVERINI
Switchboard soldiers : a novel / Jennifer Chiaverini
From New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini, a bold, revelatory novel about one of the great untold stories of World War I-the women of the US Army Signal Corps, who broke down gender barriers in the military, smashed the workplace glass ceiling, and battled a pandemic as they helped lead the Allies to victory. Also available as an ebook and audiobook on Libby/OverDrive.
FICTION CHIAVERINI
The women’s march : a novel of the 1913 woman suffrage procession/ Jennifer Chiaverini
Inspired by actual events, this novel offers a fascinating account of a crucial but little-remembered moment in American history that follows three courageous women who bravely risked their lives and liberty in the fight to win the vote. Also available as an ebook and audiobook on Libby/OverDrive.
FICTION DAVIS
The lions of Fifth Avenue / Fiona Davis
It’s 1913, and on the surface, Laura Lyons couldn’t ask for more out of life-her husband is the superintendent of the New York Public Library, allowing their family to live in an apartment within the grand building, and they are blessed with two children. But headstrong, passionate Laura wants more, and when she takes a leap of faith and applies to the Columbia Journalism School, her world is cracked wide open. Eighty years later, in 1993, Sadie Donovan struggles with the legacy of her grandmother, the famous essayist Laura Lyons, especially after she’s wrangled her dream job as a curator at the New York Public Library. Things unexpectedly become personal when Sadie unearths some unwelcome truths about her own family heritage. Also available as an ebook and audiobook on Libby/OverDrive.
FICTION PHILLIPS
Family law : a novel / Gin Phillips
Set in Alabama in the early ’80s, Family Law follows a young lawyer, Lucia, who is making a name for herself at a time when a woman in a courtroom is still a rarity. She’s been the recipient of threats and vandalism for her work extracting women from painful and sometimes dangerous marriages, but her own happy marriage has always felt sheltered from the work she does. Family Law is a fresh take on what the advancement of women’s rights looks like on the ground to the ordinary women and girls who imagine a world redefined. Addressing mother daughter relationships and what roles we can play in the lives of women who aren’t our family, the novel examines how we shape each other and how we make a difference.
Nonfiction
155.333 HAC
Emotional labor : the invisible work shaping our lives and how to claim our power / Rose Hackman
Emotional labor is essential to our society and economy, but it’s often invisible. Many are asked to perform exhausting, draining work at no extra cost. In this groundbreaking, journalistic deep dive, Rose Hackman traces the history of the term and exposes common manifestations of the phenomenon. She describes the many ways women and girls are forced to edit the expressions of their emotions to accommodate and elevate the emotions of others. But Hackman doesn’t simply diagnose a problem-she empowers us to combat patriarchy and forge pathways for radical evolution, justice, and change.
TEEN 305.42 KEN
Amazons, abolitionists, and activists : a graphic history of women’s fight for their rights / Mikki Kendall ; art by A. D’Amico ; colors by Shari Chankhamma ; letters by Erica Schultz
A bold and gripping graphic history of the fight for women’s rights. This compelling book illuminates the stories of notable women throughout history–from queens and freedom fighters to warriors and spies–and the progressive movements led by women that have shaped history, including abolition, suffrage, labor, civil rights, LGBTQ liberation, reproductive rights, and more.
305.42 LES
Cassandra speaks : when women are the storytellers, the human story changes / Elizabeth Lesser
Bestselling author Elizabeth Lesser looks to the stories told about women over the ages and how they contribute to persistent misogyny and gender inequality, and offers a path towards framing new stories that honor all people. Also available as ebooks and audiobooks on both hoopla and Libby/OverDrive.
305.42 ZAK
Against white feminism : notes on disruption / Rafia Zakaria
A radically inclusive, intersectional, and transnational approach to the fight for women’s rights. Elite white women have branded feminism, promising an apolitical individual empowerment along with sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity. As Rafia Zakaria expertly argues, those promises have been proven empty and white feminists have leant on their racial privilege and sense of cultural superiority. Drawing on her own experiences as an American Muslim woman, as well as an attorney working on behalf of immigrant women, Zakaria champions a reconstruction of feminism that forges true solidarity by bringing Black and brown voices and goals to the fore. Also available as an ebook and audiobook on Libby/OverDrive.
305.4209 COB
Fearless women : feminist patriots from Abigail Adams to Beyoncé / Elizabeth Cobbs
Cobbs traces the long history of American feminism, dating back to the Revolution, when the founding principle of equality became a battering ram against hierarchy. She tells this story through the public and private lives of 16 women who pushed the boundaries of their times and insisted on their right to control their bodies and their lives. Also available as audiobooks on both hoopla and Libby/OverDrive.
305.4209 GRI
Formidable : American women and the fight for equality: 1920-2020 / Elisabeth Griffith
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 amendment did not enfranchise all women, or even protect the rights of those women who could vote. A century later, women are still grappling with how to use the vote and their political power to expand civil rights, confront racial violence, improve maternal health, advance educational and employment opportunities, and secure reproductive rights. Formidable chronicles the efforts of white and Black women to advance sometimes competing causes. Also available as an ebook on hoopla.
TEEN 305.4209 OUR
Our stories, our voices : 21 YA authors get real about injustice, empowerment, and growing up female in America / edited by Amy Reed
Twenty-one YA authors get real about injustice, empowerment, and growing up female in America. Also available as an ebook and audiobook on Libby/OverDrive.
323.3409 JON
Vanguard : how black women broke barriers, won the vote, and insisted on equality for all / Martha S. Jones
According to conventional wisdom, American women’s campaign for the vote began with the Seneca Falls convention of 1848 and ended with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. The movement was led by storied figures such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. But this women’s movement was an overwhelmingly white one, and it secured the constitutional right to vote for white women, not for all women. In Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha Jones offers a sweeping history of African American women’s political lives in America, recounting how they fought for, won, and used the right to the ballot and how they fought against both racism and sexism. Also available as an ebook and audiobook on Libby/OverDrive.
344.7301 THO
Because of sex : one law, ten cases, and fifty years that changed American women’s lives at work / Gillian Thomas
The 1964 Civil Rights Act is best known as a monumental achievement of the civil rights movement, but it also revolutionized the lives of American women. Title VII of the law made it illegal to discriminate “because of sex.” But Congress gave little guidance about how much it wanted to change in a “Mad Men” world where women played mainly supporting roles. It was up to the Supreme Court, then, to endow that simple phrase with meaning, and its decisions set off seismic changes in how the nation sees working women. Also available as an ebook on hoopla.
363.9609 WAD
Birthing liberation : how reproductive justice can set us free / Sabia Wade
Sabia C. Wade, renowned radical doula and educator, speaks to the intersections of systemic issues–such as access to health care, house transportation, and nutrition–and personal trauma work that, if healed, have the power to lead us to collective liberation in all facets of life. Collective liberation rests on the idea that in order for us all to have equity in this world–from the safety of childbirth to the ability to bring a baby home to a safe community, to having access to resources, safety, and opportunities over the long term–we must all become liberated individuals. Also available as an ebook on hoopla.
613.0424 CLE
Unwell women : misdiagnosis and myth in a man-made world / Elinor Cleghorn
A trailblazing conversation-starting history of women’s health-from Ancient Greece to hormones and autoimmune diseases-brought together in a fascinating sweeping narrative.
796.082 DIC
Sidelined : sports, culture, and being a woman in America / Julie DiCaro
Covering everything from the abusive online environment at Barstool Sports to the sexist treatment of Serena Williams and professional women’s teams fighting for equal pay and treatment to looking back at pioneering women who first took on the patriarchy in sports media, Sidelined will illuminate the ways sports present a microcosm of life as a woman in America. Also available as an ebook and audiobook on Libby/OverDrive.
BIO MURRAY
Jane Crow : the life of Pauli Murray / Rosalind Rosenberg
Pauli Murray was a feminist lawyer who played pivotal roles in both the modern civil rights and women’s movements, and later become the first woman ordained a priest by the Episcopal Church. Jane Crow is her definitive biography, exploring how she engaged the arguments used to challenge race discrimination to battle gender discrimination in the 1960s and 70s. Murray accomplished all of this as someone who would today be identified as transgender but who, due to the limitations of her time, focused her attention on dismantling systematic injustices of all sorts, transforming the idea of what equality means.
Also available as an audiobook on hoopla.
BIO PAUL
Mr. President, how long must we wait? : Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the fight for the right to vote / Tina Cassidy
Examines the complex relationship between suffragist leader Alice Paul and President Woodrow Wilson, revealing the life-risking measures that Paul and her supporters endured to gain voting rights for American women. Also available as an audiobook on hoopla.
AI: March 2024
