Books in the Women's Leadership Library

Along with this great selection of books, we have compiled some self-guided reading lists that provide a comprehensive introduction to gender and feminist studies. All the books referenced in these syllabi are available in the Women's Leadership Library. Click here to download the reading list.

Author

Title

Category

Call Number

Madsen, Axel

Hearts and Minds: The Common Journey of Simone de Beuvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre

Autobiography & Biography

BIO M5

Quinn, Susan

Marie Curie: A Life

Autobiography & Biography

BIO Q5

Chicago, Judy

Through the Flower: my struggle as a woman artist

Autobiography & Biography

BIO C8

Shulman, Alix Kates

Red Emma Speaks: an Emma Goldman Reader

Autobiography & Biography

BIO S15

Goldman, Emma

Living My Life

Autobiography & Biography

BIO G5a

ed. Walker, Alice

I Love Myself When I Am Laughing: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader

Autobiography & Biography

BIO W

Ireland, Patricia

What Women Want: A Journey to Personal and Political Power

Autobiography & Biography

BIO I10

Mandela, Winnie

Part of My Soul Went With Him

Autobiography & Biography

BIO M10

Morgan, Robin

Going Too Far: The Personal Chronicles of a Feminist

Autobiography & Biography

BIO M35

Bacon, Margaret Hope

Valiant Friend: The Life of Lucretia Mott

Autobiography & Biography

BIO B4

Rubinstein, Charlotte Streifer

American Women Artists

Autobiography & Biography

BIO R

Sanger, Margaret

Margaret Sanger: An Autobiography

Autobiography & Biography

BIO S10

Seagraves, Anne

High-Spirited Women of the West

Autobiography & Biography

BIO S

Nagel, Gunther

Iron Will: The Life and Letters of Jane Stanford

Autobiography & Biography

BIO N5

Banner, Lois W

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Autobiography & Biography

BIO B

Stein, Gertrude

The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas

Autobiography & Biography

BIO S25

Bennett, Joan

Virginia Woolf: Her Art as a Novelist

Autobiography & Biography

BIO B10

Beilenson, Evelyn L and Ann Tenenbaum

Wit and Wisdom of Famous American Women

Autobiography & Biography

BIO B

Balser, Diane

Sisterhood and Solidarity: Feminism and Labor in Modern Times

History

HIS B

Friedan, Betty

The Second Stage

History

HIS F

Friedan, Betty

It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women’s Movement

History

HIS F

Firestone, S

The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution

History

History F

Lerner, Gerda

The Female Experience: An American Documentary

History

HIS L10

Ehrenreich, Barbara and Deirdre English

Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers

History

HIS E15

Ehrenreich, Barbara and Deirdre English

For Her Own Good: 150 Years of the Experts’ Advice to Women

History

HIS E10

Ehrenreich, Barbara and Deirdre English

Complaints and Disorders: The Sexual Politics of Sickness

History

HIS E5

Brownmiller, Susan

In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution

History

HIS B

Bright, Susie

The Sexual State of the Union

History

HIS B

Showalter, Elaine

The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture 1830-1980

History

HIS S

Robinson, Jo Ann Gibson

The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It

History

Autobiography & Biography

HIS R

BIO R

Richardson, Laurel and Verta Taylor

Feminst Frontiers III

Nonfiction

NF R

Papachristou, Judith

Women Together: A History in Documents of the Women’s Movement in the United States

History

HIS P5

Klagsbruin, Francine ed.

The First Ms. Reader

History

HIS F

Hole, Judith and Ellen Levine

Rebirth of Feminism

History

HIS H15

Bell, Susan Groag and Karen M Offen, eds

Women, the Family, and Freedom: The Debate in Documents Volume 1: 1750-1880

History

HIS B

Bell, Susan Groag and Karen M Offen, eds

Women, the Family, and Freedom: The Debate in Documents Volume 2: 1880-1950

History

HIS B

Gornick, Vivian and Barbara K Moran, eds

Woman in Sexist Society: Studies in Power and Powerlessness

History

HIS G

Gordon, Linda

Pitied but not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare

History

HIS G

Stone, Elizabeth

Women and the Cuban Revolution

History

HIS S

Solomon, Barbara Miller

In the Company of Educated Women

History

HIS S

Harris, Anne Southerland and Nochlin, Linda

Women Artists: 1550-1950

History

HIS H

Weatherford, Doris

American Women’s History: An A-Z

History

HIS W

Wilson, Harriet E.

Our NIG; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black

History

HIS W

Wollstonecraft, Mary

Vindication of the Rights of Woman

History

HIS W

Wollstonecraft, Mary

MARIA or The Wrongs of Woman

History

HIS W

Yalom, Marilyn

Blood Sisters: The French Revolution in Women’s Memory

History

HIS W

Barreca, Regina

Perfect Husbands (& Other Fairy Tales): Demystifying Marriage, Men and Romance

Sex and Sexuality

SEX B

Berube, Allan

Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two

Sex and Sexuality

SEX B

Dworkin, Andrea

Intercourse

Sex and Sexuality

SEX D

Grahn, Judy

Another Mother Tongue: Gay Words, Gay Worlds

Sex and Sexuality

SEX G

Greer, Germaine

The Female Eunich

Sex and Sexuality

SEX G

Cahil, Susan

Women & Fiction:

Short Stories By and About Women

Fiction

FIC C

Carter, Angela

The Second Virago Book of Fairy Tales

Fiction

FIC C

Cather, Willa

O Pioneers!: A Classic Novel of the American Prairie

Fiction

FIC C

Cather, Willa

Five Stories

Fiction

FIC C

Colette

Cheri and the Last of Cheri

Fiction

FIC C

Colette

Journey For Myself

Fiction

FIC C

Lessing, Doris

The Golden Notebook

Fiction

FIC L

Kincaid, Jamaica

Lucy

Fiction

FIC K

Jagger, Alison M. and Struhl, Paula Rothenberg

Feminist Frameworks: Alternative Theoretical Accounts of the Relations Between Women and Men

Fiction

FIC J

French, Marilyn

Her Mother’s Daugher

Fiction

FIC F

Emecheta, Buchi

The Bride Price

Fiction

FIC E

Emecheta, Buchi

The Joys of Motherhood

Fiction

FIC E

Eliot, George

The Mill on the Floss

Fiction

FIC E

McRobbie, Angela & McCabe, Trisha

Feminism for Girls: An Adventure Story

Fiction

FIC M

Nin, Anais

The Novel of the Future

Fiction

FIC N

Ragan, Kathleen

Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sistsers

Fiction

FIC R

Shange, Ntozake

Three Pieces

Fiction

FIC S

Stein, Gertrude

Tender Buttons

Fiction

FIC S

Woolf, Virginia

Three Guineas

Fiction

FIC W

Woolf, Virginia

A Room of One’s Own

Fiction

FIC W

Woolf, Virginia

To the Lighthouse

Fiction

FIC W

Buck, Claire

Guide to Women’s Literature Throughout the World

Fiction

FIC B

Gilbert, Sandra M. & Gubar, Susan

The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Tradition in English (volume 1)

Fiction

FIC G

Gilbert, Sandra M. & Gubar, Susan

The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Tradition in English (volume 2)

Fiction

FIC G

Gilbert, Sandra M. & Gubar, Susan

The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Tradition in English (volume 3)

Fiction

FIC G

Allen, Paula Gunn

The Sacrred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

Women of Color

WOM A

Moraga, Cherrie & Anzaldua, Gloria

This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color

Women of Color

WOM M

Brettell, Caroline B. & Sargent, Carolyn F.

Gender in Cross-Culural Perspective (2nd edition)

Women of Color

WOM B

Carras, Mary C.

Indira Gandhi in the Crucible of Leadership

Women of Color

WOM C

Croll, Elisabeth

Chinese Women Since Mao

Women of Color

WOM C

Davis, Angela Y.

Women, Race and Class

Women of Color

WOM D

Delamotte, Eugenia & Meeker, Natania & O’Barr, Jean

A Global Anthology of Women’s Resistance From 60 B.C.E. to Present

Women of Color

WOM D

Dubois, Ellen Carol & Ruiz, Vickie L.

Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader In U.S. Women’s History

Women of Color

WOM D

Erdrich, Louise

Tracks

Women of Color

WOM E

Frankenberg, Ruth

The Social Construction of White Women, Whiteness Race Matters

Women of Color

WOM F

Raheja, Gloria Goodwin & Gold, Grodzins, Ann

Listen to the Heron’s Words: Reimagining Gender and Kinship in Norh India

Women of Color

WOM R

Hafkin, Nancy & Bay, Edna G.

Women in Africa: Studies in Social and Economic Change

Women of Color

WOM H

Honig, Emily & Hershatter, Gail

Personal Voices:

Chinese Women in the 1980’s

Women of Color

WOM H

Hooks, Bell

Feminist Theory From Margin to Center

Women of Color

WOM H

Hooks, Bell

Ain’t I A Woman: Black women and feminism

Women of Color

WOM H

Hurtado, Aida

The Color of Privilege: Three Blasphemies on Race and Feminism

Women of Color

WOM H

Lebra, Joyce & Paulson, Joy & Powers, Elizabeth

Women in Changing Japan

Women of Color

WOM H

Lute, Aunt

Our Feet Walk the Sky

Women of Color

WOM L

Mernissi, Fatima

Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society

Women of Color

WOM M

Morgan, Robin

The International Women’s Movement Anthology: Sisterhood is Global

Women of Color

WOM M

Nakano, Mei

Japanese American Women: Three Generations 1890-1990

Women of Color

WOM N

Noble, Jeanne

Beautiful, Also, Are the Souls of My Black Sisters: A History of the Black Woman in America

Women of Color

WOM N

Opposing Viewpoints

Race Relations

Women of Color

WOM O

Gomez, Alma & Moraga, Cherrie & Romo-Carmona, Mariana

Cuentos: Stories by Latinas

Women of Color

WOM G

Rothenberg, Paula S.

Race, Class, and Gender In the US (third ed)

Women of Color

WOM R

Sanghatana, Stree Shakti

We Were Making History: Women and the Telangana Uprising

Women of Color

WOM S

Schipper, Mineke

Unheard Words: Women and Literature in Africa, the Arab World, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America

Women of Color

WOM S

Shostak, Marjorie

NISA: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman

Women of Color

WOM S

Sinclair, April

Coffee Will Make You Black

Women of Color

WOM S

Solinger, Rickie

Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe V. Wade

Women of Color

WOM S

Adams, Carol J.

The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory

Non-Fiction

NFIC A

ACT UP

Women, AIDS & Activism

Non-Fiction

NFIC A

Washington, Mary Helen

Invented Lives: Narratives of Black Women 1860-1960

Non-Fiction

NFIC W

Ward, Martha C.

A World Full of Women

Non-Fiction

NFIC W

Walker, Alice

In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens

Non-Fiction

NFIC W

Walker, Alice

The Color Purple

Non-Fiction

NFIC W

Thompson, Becky W.

A Hunger So Wide And So Deep: A Multiracial View of Women’s Eating Problems

Non-Fiction

NFIC T

Tanaka, Yukiko & Hanson, Elizabeth

This Kind of Woman: Ten Stories by Japanese Women Writers 1960-1976

Non-Fiction

NFIC T

Bonavoglia, Angela

The Choices We Made: 25 Women and Men Speak Out About Abortion

Non-Fiction

NFIC B

Berry, Wendell

Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community

Non-Fiction

NFIC B

Berger, John

Ways of Seeing

Non-Fiction

NFIC B

Benokraitis, Nijole V. & Feagin, Joe R.

Modern Sexism: Blatant, Subtle, and Covert Discrimination

Non-Fiction

NFIC B

Belenky, Mary Field & Clinchy, Blythe McVicker & Goldberger, Nancy Rule & Tarule, Jill Mattuck

Women’s Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice and Mind

Non-Fiction

NFIC B

Women’s Liberation Movement

Liberation Now!

Non-Fiction

NFIC W

Allen, Pamela

Free Space: A Perspective on the Small Group in Women’s Liberation

Non-Fiction

NFIC A

AAUW Educational Foundation

Gaining A Foothold: Women’s Transitions Through Work and College

Non-Fiction

NFIC A

Breitbart, Vicki

The Day Care Book: The Why, What, and How of Community Day Care

Non-Fiction

NFIC B

Capek, Mary Ellen S.

A Women’s Thesaurus

Non-Fiction

NFIC C

Carden, Maren Lockwood

The New Feminist Movement

Non-Fiction

NFIC C

Cassel, Joan

A Group Called Women: Sisterhood and Symbolism in the Feminist Movement

Non-Fiction

NFIC C

Chadwick, Whitney

Women, Art and Society

Non-Fiction

NFIC C

Cowan, Ruth Schwartz

More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave

Non-Fiction

NFIC C

Mill, John Stuart

The Subjection of Women

Non-Fiction

NFIC M

Davies, Miranda

Women Travel: Adventures, Advice, and Experience

Non-Fiction

NFIC D

DuBois, Ellen Carol

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony: Correspondence, Writings, Speeches

Non-Fiction

NFIC D

Dworkin, Andrea

Woman Hating

Non-Fiction

NFIC D

Eisenstein, Hester

The Future of Difference

Non-Fiction

NFIC E

Enloe, Cynthia

Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics

Non-Fiction

NFIC E

Felman, Jyl Lynn

Never a Dull Moment: Teaching and the Art of Performance

Non-Fiction

NFIC F

Findlen, Barbara

Listen Up: Voices From the Next Feminist Generation

Non-Fiction

NFIC F

Jardine, Alice & Smith, Paul

Men In Feminism

Non-Fiction

NFIC J

Holland, Dorothy C. & Eisenhart, Margaret A.

Education In Romance: Women, Achievement and College Culture

Non-Fiction

NFIC H

Fout, John C. & Tantillo, Maura Shaw

American Sexual Politics: Sex, Gender, and Race Since the Civil War

Non-Fiction

NFIC F

French, Marilyn

Beyond Power: On Women, Men and Morals

Non-Fiction

NFIC F

Freedman, Estelle B.

Maternal Justice: Miriam Van Waters and the Female Reform Tradition

Non-Fiction

NFIC F

McAllister, Pam

Reweaving the Web of Life: Feminism and Nonviolence

Non-Fiction

NFIC M

Mahony, Rhona

Kidding Ourselves: Breadwinning, Babies and Bargaining Power

Non-Fiction

NFIC M

Maginnis, Patricia & Phelan, Lana Clark

The Abortion Handbook

Non-Fiction

NFIC M

Lederer, Laura

Take Back the Night: Women on Pornography

Non-Fiction

NONF L

Kleinfeld, Judith S. & Yerian, Suzanne

Gender Tales: Tensions in the Schools

Non-Fiction

NONF K

Rich, Adrienne

Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution

Non-Fiction

NONF R

Read, Phyllis J. & Witlieb, Bernard L.

The Book of Women’s Firsts

Non-Fiction

NONF R

Commission on Human Rights

Women’s Role in Contemporary Society

Non-Fiction

NONF C

Morgan, Robin

The Anatomy of Freedom: Feminism, Physics and Global Politics

Non-Fiction

NONF M

Millett, Kate

Sexual Politics

Non-Fiction

NONF M

McCormick, Dale

Against the Grain: A Carpentry Manual For Women

Non-Fiction

NONF M

Richardson, Laurel & Taylor Verta

Feminist Frontiers III

Non-Fiction

NONF R

Reeves, Nancy

Womankind: Beyond the Stereotype

Non-Fiction

NONF R

Rowland, Robyn

Women Who Do & Women Who Don’t: Join the Women’s Movement

Non-Fiction

NONF R

Shepherd, Linda Jean

Lifting the Veil: The Feminine Face of Science

Non-Fiction

NONF S

Shockley, Ann Allen

The Black and White of It

Non-Fiction

NONF S

Spain, Daphne & Bianchi, Suznne M.

Balancing Act: Motherhood, Marriage, and Employment Among American Women

Non-Fiction

NONF S

Steinem, Gloria

Moving Beyond Words - Age, Race, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking Boundaries of Gender

Non-Fiction

NONF S

Steinem, Gloria

Revolution From Within: A Book of Self-Esteem

Non-Fiction

NONF S

Valian, Virginia

Why So Slow? The Advancement of Women

Non-Fiction

NONF V

Webb, Jim & Houseman, Bart

The Women’s Guide To Confident Home Repair

Non-Fiction

NONF W

Wittels, Anne

Ms.ery

Non-Fiction

NONF W

Yalom, Marilyn

Maternity, Mortality, and the Literature of Madness

Non-Fiction

NONF Y

Zandy, Janet

Calling Home: Working-Class Women’s Writings

Non-Fiction

NONF Z

Paulsen, Kathryn & Kuhn, Ryan A.

Woman’s Almanac: 12 How-To Handbooks in One

Non-Fiction

NONF P

Christ, Carol P. & Plaskow, Judith

Womenspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion

Religion and Spirituality

REL C

Wong, Nellie

Dreams in Harrison Railroad Park

Poetry

POE W

Tennyson, Lord Alfred

Selected Poems

Poetry

POE T

Swann, Brian

Native American Songs and Poems — An Anthology

Poetry

POE S

Dodsworth, Martin

William Shakespeare

Poetry

POE D

Marsh, Jan

Christina Rossetti

Poetry

POE M

Rexroth, Kenneth & Chung, Ling

Women Poets of China

Poetry

POE R

Rattiner, Susan L.

Great Poems by American Women

Poetry

POE R

Causley, Charles

Poetry Please!

Poetry

POE C

Negri, Paul

English Victorian Poetry — An Anthology

Poetry

POE N

Millay, Edna St. Vincent

Renascence and Other Poems

Poetry

POE M

Lawrence, D.H.

Snake and Other Poems

Poetry

POE L

Keats, John

Lyric Poems

Poetry

POE K

American Poetry & Literacy Project

Songs For The Open Road

Poetry

POE P

Crane, Stephen

War is Kind and Other Poems

Poetry

POE C

Bowers, Faubion

The Classic Tradition of Haiku — An Anthology

Poetry

POE B

Blake, William

Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

Poetry

POE B

Angelou, Maya

Poems

Poetry

POE A

Warner, Carolyn

The Last Word: A Treasury of Women’s Quotes

Religion & Spiritualism

REL W

Stibbs, Anne

A Woman’s Place: Quotations About Women

Religion & Spiritualism

REL S

Daly, Mary

Gyn-Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism

Religion & Spiritualism

REL D

Gilligan, Carol & Ward, Janie Victoria & Taylor, Jill McLean

Mapping The Moral Domain

Religion & Spiritualism

REL G

Pagels, Elaine

The Gnostic Gospels

Religion & Spiritualism

REL P

Ranke-Heinemann, Uta

Eunichs For The Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality and the Catholic Church

Religion & Spiritualism

REL R

Ruether, Rosemary Radford & Keller, Rosemary Skinner

In Our Own Voices: Four Centuries of American Women’s Religious Writing

Religion & Spiritualism

REL R

Spretnak, Charlene

The Politics of Women’s Spirituality

Religion & Spiritualism

REL S

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady

The Original Feminist Attack on the Bible

Religion & Spiritualism

REL S

Nin, Anais

House of Incest

Rape & Sexual Assult

RAP N

Joeres, Ruth-Ellen Boetcher & Laslett, Barbara

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (Winter 1995, v 20, no. 2)

   

Joeres, Ruth-Ellen Boetcher & Laslett, Barbara

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (Autumn 1994, v 20, no. 1)

   

Joeres, Ruth-Ellen Boetcher & Laslett, Barbara

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (Winter 1994, v 19, no.2)

   

Joeres, Ruth-Ellen Boetcher & Laslett, Barbara

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (Spring 1993, v 18, no. 3)

   

Joeres, Ruth-Ellen Boetcher & Laslett, Barbara

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (Winter 1993, v 18, no. 2)

   

Tanebaum, Leora

Slut! Growing Up Female With a Bad Reputation

Sex and Sexuality

SEX T

Brumberg, Joan Jacobs

The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls

Sex and Sexuality

SEX B

Haley, Alex

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Non-Fiction

NONF H

Allison, Dorothy

Bastard Out of Carolina

Fiction

FIC A