Feminist Texts

A list of 12 books (plus one to grow on!) containing essays, theory, novels and poetry from important feminist writers.

Are you looking for a great feminist memoir? Many women s liberation movement activists have written books recollecting their lives and what drew them to feminism . This list of feminist memoirs will help you learn more about the personal and political change of the 1960s and 1970s.

User contributed quotes about feminism, from a wide variety of sources.

Book review of "Betty Friedan: Her Life" by Judith Hennessee. Is Betty Friedan: Her Life, a critical and flippant biography, worthy of the stalwart feminist leader?

Audre Lorde writes about her personal experience in "The Cancer Journals." Her writing combines memoir, essay and her poetic vision to explore wholeness, identity and healing in "The Cancer Journals."

Audre Lorde's book 'Coal' brought her poetry to a growing audience in 1976. 'Coal' was a continued exploration of Audre Lorde's black feminist identity.

Frances M. Beal's 1969 essay "Double Jeopardy" explained the struggles faced by black women in the United States. Read this review of 'Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female' for a look at the emerging theory of black feminism.

"The Dynamics of Marriage and Motherhood" is an essay by Beverly Jones about the feminist analysis of expectations, assumptions and struggles women faced in their marriages.

The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood was published in 1969. Read about the this early feminist novel and the questions of self-identity in The Edible Woman.

Description of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan and the impact of the book. How Betty Friedan explored women's unhappiness in The Feminine Mystique and inspired the Women's Liberation Movement.

Feminist Art Journal asked what it meant to be a woman artist. The Feminist Art Journal analyzed women, their art and the Feminist Art Movement.

Feminist utopia and dystopia novels can be imaginative, visionary or even frightening. Explore the significance of feminist utopia/dystopia in science fiction.

Free to Be...You and Me epitomizes the activism and whimsy of the 1970s. Marlo Thomas and friends invite children to come with them to a land where all are "free to be you and me."

The Golden Notebook influenced many feminists in the 1960s. See how Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook reflected and contributed to feminism.

Heresies examined the intersection of art and politics. The Heresies Collective began the feminist art journal in 1977.

Laura Furman takes a look at the sexism faced by women who worked in publishing during the mid-20th century.

A review of "The Left Hand of Darkness," which takes readers to a world without gender. An award-winning examination of sex roles in society, Ursula Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" is often considered a feminist classic.

Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen was a feminist novel that shocked many readers. Alix Kates Shulman's bestseller Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen delved into important issues of feminism.

Motherlines is a feminist novel of a future world without men. 'Motherlines' is part of Suzy McKee Charnas' series 'The Holdfast Chronicles.'

Essay by Crystal Eastman (1920) on where feminism should go, after suffrage was won.

Adrienne Rich brings the "personal is political" perspective to motherhood, pregnancy and childbirth. She draws on her own experience, and also extensively on political and cultural history.

Outrageous Acts - Gloria Steinem's Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions

Book review of 'Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life.' Follow 'Reading Women' author Stephanie Staal as she returns to her college women's studies class to reread the feminist classics.

In Reading Women, Stephanie Staal goes back to her college women's studies class to reread classic feminist texts and books of the feminist canon. Here's a list of the feminist classics read in the revisited Feminist Texts class.

Description of Sexual Politics by Kate Millett. Read about Kate Millett's revolutionary 1970 work of feminist theory and the response to the controversial Sexual Politics.

Sisterhood Is Powerful is the classic feminist anthology edited by Robin Morgan. Learn about feminist issues and the feminist writings on sisterhood, discrimination, and theory that were collected in Sisterhood Is Powerful.

Marge Piercy's Small Changes was published in 1973, reflecting the new feminist consciousness of the times. Read about the themes in Small Changes, an emotional exploration of women's relationships.

Review of Tidal Wave: How Women Changed America at Century's End by Sara M. Evans. Tidal Wave is a clear, comprehensive history of the women's liberation movement and what happened to feminism after the 1970s.

Lindsy Van Gelder's essay on women in journalism was one of five personal testimonies from professional women that appeared in the 1970 anthology 'Sisterhood Is Powerful.'

'The Wanderground' tells the story of women who thrive without men. Sally Miller Gearhart's 'The Wanderground' looks at what it means to be female.

Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time explores what a post-gender future might bring. Read about the classic feminist novel Woman on the Edge of Time.

In The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston explores her identity as an Chinese-American woman. Read about the feminist importance of The Woman Warrior.

Read about Sheila Smith Hobson's essay 'Women and Television' from the feminist anthology 'Sisterhood Is Powerful.'

A look at the essays on women in the professions gathered in the 1970 feminist anthology 'Sisterhood Is Powerful.' What did women experience as they worked in medicine, journalism, publishing, television and the military?

In the essay "Women in Medicine," Miriam Gilbert, R.N., wrote about her experiences as a nurse and the sexism she faced in the profession. Read about the women's liberation perspective on women in nursing.

Learn more about her women's liberation perspective on women in the armed forces, which was published in the 1970 anthology 'Sisterhood is Powerful.'

Connie Brown and Jane Seitz wrote the classic "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" essay.

Carol Glassman wanted to expand inclusion of women who worked with welfare rights organizations in the women's liberation movement.

Book review of "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name." Audre Lorde's biomythography "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name" explores the relationships, identity and self-awareness of the black feminist poet.

Women and Art was a feminist journal that explored women artists and the art world. The short-lived Women and Art was the one of the first of many feminist art journals to appear in the 1970s.

A list of essential Audre Lorde books. The feminist poet Audre Lorde's books include poetry, memoir and powerful explorations of identity.

Rachel Speght was the first woman known to have published a women's rights pamphlet in English under her own name. Here are some works by or about Rachel Speght and her writings.

A collection of books representing various trends in feminism in the last two decades of the 20th century.