Books for Women’s Equality Day

The nail-biting climax of one of the greatest political battles in American history: the ratification of the constitutional amendment that granted women the right to vote.

In this personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from her much-admired TEDx talk of the same name—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning author of Americanah, offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century, one rooted in inclusion and awareness.

Prizewinning historian Estelle B. Freedman brings decades of teaching experience and scholarship to her selections, which span more than five centuries. Moving beyond standard texts by English and American thinkers, this collection features primary source material from around the globe, including short works of fiction and drama, political manifestos, and the work of less well-known writers.

From one of the nation’s foremost legal commentators, which tells the gripping and heroic story of the women lawyers who fought the racism, sexism, and xenophobia of Donald Trump’s presidency—and won.

No Turning Back examines the historical forces that have fueled the feminist movement over the past 200 years. Professor of History and a founder of the Program in Feminist Studies at Stanford University Estelle Freedman draws on examples from a variety of countries and cultures, from the past and the present, theory and praxis in this invaluable reassessment of feminism’s past

A feminist canon represents a long history of feminist scholarship, embraces skepticism, and invites robust discussion and debate. Selected writings include Anna Julia Cooper, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Dorothy Allison, Eileen Myles, bell hooks, Sara Ahmed, Audre Lorde, The Guerrilla Girls, and many more.

A one-of-a-kind, intersectional volume of abortion representation in American literature before Roe v. Wade that compellingly proclaims: when abortion is illegal, women’s lives are always more precarious and limited.