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14 of The Best feminist Books to read in 2021
What is feminism? How do I understand it? How do I know if I am a feminist?
Read at least one of the books on this list because they are books that every woman should read. The list consists of books to understand feminism, to assimilate feminism, and to be the judge of whether you think what is being said is right or not?
The term was first coined in the late 1800s but some works date back even earlier. The list also covers books that take a modern view of feminism.
This is by no means an exhaustive list but the writers on this list have bravely written about sexuality, abuse, mythology (essentially rewriting it) from the woman’s perspective and carved out their identities in literary spaces that were conventionally controlled, by men. I thought their writing was impactful enough to answers all questions related to feminism and make us understand the depth of what it means to be a woman.
Unique Book Recommendations to help you find your next read
Best Feminists books of all time
Now a popular TV show on Amazon Prime, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale takes us through a dystopian Republic of Gilead where fertile women, termed Handmaids, are designated to have children for elite couples, by force. The women are controlled by the Commanders and their wives and they’re forced to have sex with them. It's an eerie and haunting reminder as well as a warning to a foreseeable future where children are the world's most sacred resources and so women are worth just that.
Many people have believed and continue to believe even today that Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a timeless tale. This story has been adapted through many varied mediums and has been rethought and analyzed in different contexts. If we are to use a feminist lens, the original novel, and adaptation, both works represented the female characters, the Benett Sisters, primarily. Whether it was Lizzie’s rejection of her uncle’s marriage proposal or her bold thoughts to help her father earn livelihood for the family, it is clear that Alcott’s characters apply the 21st-century ideology effortlessly and, more notably, flourish from the move.
Though feminism is not the central theme of the story of the courageous and kind March sisters living in the 1860s, Alcott has swayed numerous generations of intrepid, caring, and unusual women. Following Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy as they grow into wonderful young women, find love, pursue their passions, and survive the loss, Little Women shows the many ways to be a woman. It rightly earned a place in the hearts of feminists of all feathers.
Published in 1929, Woolf’s essay-length book took on the reputable literary disapproval of the time, which claimed women were naturally minor writers and authors because of their gender. Disagreeing with this opinion, Woolf pointed to the systemic education and economic failures that subdued women writers of the time.
As one of the foundational pieces of feminist literary criticism, you might think that Woolf’s words lost their effectiveness over the years, but her shrewd, keen perspective remains just as inspiring today as it was when it was published.
The semi-autobiographical story of a woman in the 1950s begins with glamour and beauty but slowly descends into doom and despair and mental illness. The Bell Jar has become a model coming-of-age story for young feminists. Moody and sometimes abrupt, the writing stunningly captures a moment in the female experience—the desire, disillusionment, and fear of being young, confused, and stifled by the role that society has prescribed.
The Bluest Eye (1970), is author Toni Morrison's debut novel, that won the Pulitzer Prize. It essentially explores society's long-challenging beauty ideals through its pivotal character, Pecola—a young black girl ridiculed for the color of her skin. After her traumatizing experiences with physical assault and harassment, she must confront what it means to follow the world around her.
Best Modern Feminist Books
This title should be enough to tell you what the book talks about.
A book of funny but honest essays written by the cultural critic, Roxane Gay promotes the idea of imperfect feminism through this collection.
Pointing out the mockery of holding our icons up to difficult-to-meet standards of thought and behavior, Gay takes on trigger warnings, the problems of admitting catchy songs despite their humiliating lyrics, and explores ways in which the media negatively impacts women and people of color.
This short essay is based on a TEDx talk Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave in 2012. It talks about how we need to raise our sons and daughters, differently to begin creating a fairer world for everyone. Exemplified by the author’s own experiences of gender inequality throughout her life in Nigeria, this is a brief, well-argued, and exquisitely written book. At only 52 pages, this is a book you should’ve read already.
In one of 2018's most widely held books, Miller retells the Greek goddess Circe's story—a goddess, who regardless of a life of abuse and neglect at the hands of men and women alike, found the courage to live on her terms.
This book narrates everyday life and everyday events in the life of a Korean woman, Kim Jiyoung. But in the process, it highlights the systematic destruction of women’s rights and lives. This work although fiction is recognizable anywhere in the world. It's witty yet disturbing, it's commonplace and yet ground-breaking. Through the shape-shifting journey of the central character we are led to women’s problems that women are lead to believe are because of them being a woman.
Best Indian Feminist books everyone should read
This book that affords a unique perspective into the character of Sita, the wife of Rama, from the Indian epic Ramayana, is translated from a Telugu short-story collection Vimukta Kadha Samputi, and also won the Sahitya Akademy Award in 2015. There were many influential women characters in Ramayana, now forgotten – Urmila, Renuka, Ahalya, and Surpanakha. Through their stories, and the feminist undertones of each story the book leaves a mark on the reader. Not only does Volga introduce these characters as women who freed themselves from everything and everyone that held them back, but she also empowers Sita to relook at her own experiences through this sisterhood.
The Greatest Indian Epic, the Mahabharata, told through the perspective and outlook of the one most elementary and feminine character to the epic – Draupadi aka Panchali. Did we ever think about what Draupadi must have gone through in her world with five royal husbands, 100 brothers-in-law, and so many more gurus and uncles and grandfathers and brothers, and Krishna who were all men? It is her possession that the fight is for, her honor to guard and her curse to live, but no one before this thought of speaking about her as beautifully as this novel.
Shashi Deshpande explores the ups and downs of a marriage in The Long Silence. Jaya’s life’s reality begins to make sense to her when her husband loses his job over allegations of fraud. She realizes the truth that she’s been living a suffocating life in her small suburban flat in Bombay.
She ponders over her dream of being a writer, where she had taken a few steps but the disapproval of her husband had oppressed her talent.
Through Deshpande’s beautiful writing Jaya works towards finding herself and freeing herself from a man’s control after 17 years of marriage and attempts to end the long silence that started in her childhood and controlled her throughout her life.
The radiant Kamala Das, distinguished writer of prose and poetry in Malayalam and English and Nobel prize nominee, published this book, the story of her life in 1973. While speaking poetically and frankly of her struggles, and her adorations, she offers her readers an imperative insight into many important struggles that continue to be pivotal to the lives of women everywhere even today.
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