Literature hasn’t always been kind to women. Male writers have abused, infantilized, degraded, and ignored women characters for as long as stories have been told. Great writing was long considered something only a man can produce. Generations of women were barred from reading and writing, and some, until the 19th century, were even expelled to psychiatric hospitals for spending too much time with a book or newspaper.
Still, remarkably, some of the world’s greatest works of literature have come from a woman’s pen. From Murasaki Shikibu’s 11th century “The Tale of Genji,” considered the world’s first novel; to Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights”; to Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”; the best books by women authors have shaped culture for millennia, despite what can feel like insurmountable hurdles that women writers have to clear just to get half the recognition of their male peers.
While women’s literacy is taken for granted today, misogyny continues to infiltrate culture. Since the #MeToo movement highlighted modern institutional sexism on a massive scale, there’s been a concerted effort from politicians and lobbyists to roll back women’s rights and freedoms. The media assault on Planned Parenthood, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the re-election of Donald Trump – whose political allies reject reproductive freedom and in some cases even higher education and suffrage for women – represent just some of the cultural backslide pushing women deeper into the margins. Regardless, women continue to make innumerable contributions to society in every field, including literature.
That it’s subversive to read books by women authors might seem absurd in an era of unprecedented progress, but women thinkers, intellectuals, and dreamers need our support now more than ever. Scroll on for a round-up that only scratches the surface of the best books by women authors that everyone should read in their lifetime.
– Additional reporting by Haley Lyndes and Hilary White
