31 Nonfiction Books for the 31 Days of Women’s History Month

Using contemporary letters and exhaustive research, Wickenden traces the lives of Harriet Tubman, Frances Seward, and Martha Wright as they fought for the abolition of slavery and for women’s rights as the country split apart.

The authors illuminate the lives of real women to trace the experiences of Black women throughout American history.

A diverse array of women helped transform the American West: Black women escaping slavery; Chinese sex-workers sold like chattel; Native American women brutally displaced by Manifest Destiny. These were the women who settled the American West, and whose stories—until now—have remained mostly untold.

Vivid pictures and stirring prose brings history to life from the vantage point of women who lived it and the many roles–domestic, social, cultural and professional–played by women across the world before second-wave feminism took hold.

The Nineteenth Amendment was an incomplete victory: 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.

Never tell a woman where she doesn’t belong. The Society of Women Geographers scaled mountains, explored the high seas, flew across the Atlantic, and recorded the world through film, sculpture, and literature and paved the way for today’s women scientists.

Many books on this subject have either ignored or paid short shrift to the women who have shaped the genre. Iandolli gives these trailblazers their due praise, highlighting hitmakers like Nicki Minaj and Queen Latifah, as well as early pioneers like Roxanne Shante.

Rebellion explores the notoriously sexist policies that airlines forced on “Sky girls”–weight limits, no marriage or children, rigid fashion codes, and mandatory retirement at age 32– alongside the rise of female-empowerment and labor movements of the ’60s and ’70s, through the cadre of gutsy women who fought for their rights–and won.

Thompson unearths the darker side of the gilded lives of heiresses. Before the 20th century a wife’s inheritance was the property of her husband, making her vulnerable to kidnap, forced marriages, even confinement in an asylum. And in modern times, heiresses fell victim to fortune-hunters who squandered their millions.

This feminist treatise examines how witch hunts from the 1300s to 1700s targeting single women, childless women, and elderly women made an oppressive impact on those populations that can be felt in the modern day.

From the lowest rung of the judicial ladder to the Supreme Court, legal decisions that protect fundamental freedoms are under assault in existential ways. An incisive look at women who have responded to judicially-sanctioned injustice by upending their lives, careers and families to organize a new kind of resistance movement.

Known for her op-ed columns in the New York Times, Gail Collins hopes to inspire women to embrace getting older in this exploration of aging that begins in Plymouth Rock and finally lands on modern movements.

The more things change, the more they stay the same in this history that examines the role of woman in society. Blogger Eleanor Janega takes a pop-cultural approach, tracing the origin of misogynistic views of women over time, and countering with anecdotes from historical records.

A celebration of perseverance and success, Power wields data driven documentation to conclude that we are experiencing a renaissance for Black women in America.

Sometimes the most important aspect of a historical record is what is left out. This revisionist history highlights the queens and princesses who ruled Medieval Palestine with political agency and deft decision making, once influential figures who have largely been ignored until now.

The road to the ratification of the nineteenth amendment did eventually pass through Seneca Falls and eventually Washington D.C., but the trails for women’s suffrage were also blazed by groups of women from diverse backgrounds, in all American territories. By focusing on intersectionality, Recasting the Vote uncovers the unsung heroes of the suffrage movement.

Groundbreaking women of color are honored in this kaleidoscope of change makers. Mini histories of each figure are accompanied by vibrant portraits, with sidebars included to connect them to overarching social movements.

With Salty, we are invited to an imaginary dinner party with nine guests of honor; women whose artistic contributions have shaped the world we live in. This book examines the role of food in the lives of these trailblazers, nurturing them as they pushed the boundaries of cultural norms.

While the classes themselves have stopped being high school requirements, the term “Home Economics” mostly conjures up images of teens struggling with sewing machines. However, in the twentieth century Home Economics was a revolutionary field which offered opportunities for many women in institutions of learning as well as in industrial application.

A compendium of 40 real-life deadly damsels, She Kills Me appeals to the reader looking for a side of feminism with their True Crime.

Drawing on their experience as a music journalist, author Danyel Smith has crafted a history of Black women in American pop that is both personal and political, highlighting musicians as diverse as Phillis Wheatley to Mariah Carey.

While women’s place in history is often downplayed, the history of queer women has been downright ignored. Kirsty Loehr unpacks the important narrative of these strong, queer women throughout history in this humorous and wide-ranging book.

An overview of the history of women’s suffrage in America from 1848 to 1920, including a look at the movement’s roots, notable leaders, and internal schisms.

Kyla Schuller provides a trenchant examination of how the feminist movement has largely championed white, moneyed women over their Black, Indigenous, Latina, poor, queer, and trans counterparts.

Mary Tudor, Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Catherine de’ Medici: these names have resonated in history books for centuries. They have often been cast as rivals, but Maureen Quilligan takes a closer look at their relationships, showing how their mutual respect produced peace, which then led to widespread political and artistic creativity.

During the fraught time period after World War II, espionage and foreign intelligence was at an inflection point. In Wise Gals, historian Nathalia Holt presents four female agents, all at the top of their class, who forged new paths for both the intelligence field and women in the workplace as they helped to build the CIA as we know it today.

Journalist Campbell tells the story of three pioneering, Victorian-era women who earned medical degrees and established women-run hospitals amidst a sea of obstacles.

Each chapter of this book tells the story of one trailblazing Disney Imagineer. These women helped to shape the legendary theme parks that have enchanted visitors for decades and their stories highlight the importance of harnessing the power of women in visible, high-powered positions in the workplace.

The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program, which saw 1,100 women from across the country enter the skies during World War II, allowed women to serve their country and aid in the war effort in ways that had previously been unthinkable. While their valor is obvious today, they had to fight for their recognition as military veterans.

The inspiration for the iconic comedy 9 to 5 gets its own story here. Ellen Cassedy was among ten female office workers in Boston in the 1970s that gathered to discuss the problems they were facing in their offices. Their activism led to making sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination illegal, along with helping to bring greater respect to women in the workplace in general, even as these battles continue to be fought today.