Books About Women in History: Non-Fiction for Women’s History Month

Book Summary

After learning more about Anna Marie Rosenberg, it’s hard to believe this is the first book about her. When she became a close advisor to FDR during the war, Life magazine called her “the most important official woman in the world”. Yet, the name of this groundbreaking woman was unrecognizable to both of us today.

Rosenberg was a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant with a high school education. She was also the power behind the policies that ended WW2 and helped America prosper afterward. By 1950, she was the assistant secretary of defense. By 1962, she was organizing the infamous JFK birthday dinner with Marilyn Monroe. And, for the rest of her life, she continued her service to the country, fighting for causes from racial integration to women’s equality to national health care.

Book Summary

In 1972, Title IX was passed to prohibit sex discrimination in federally funded education. This changed the future of education for girls both in the classroom and on the sports fields. 

Getting Title IX passed was a substantial legal and legislative battle. The book covers the history of how it was passed and then digs into impacts, both positive and negative. Some students have benefited more than others, and this book is a perfect primer on the history and current state of Title IX.

Book Summary

During WW2, over 350,000 American women served in uniform, but their efforts are often overlooked today. They served in every branch, and in 2/3rds of the available military occupations at the time. The women’s core branches include WAAC (army), WASPS (Army Air Force), SPARS (Coast Guard), MCWR (Marines), and WAVES (Navy).

From D-Day landings to peace negotiations in Paris, women worked as pilots, codebreakers, metalsmiths, chemists, truck drivers, pigeon trainers, and many more.

Now, their stories are finally being told by military analyst Lena Andrews. She completed new archival research and firsthand interviews with surviving veterans to make sure these incredible women are not forgotten.

Book Summary

In 1920, after a seven-decade crusade for the right of women to vote, thirty-five states had ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, twelve have rejected or refused to vote, and one last state – Tennessee is needed.

The suffragists face vicious opposition from politicians, clergy, corporations, racists who don’t want black women to vote, and even the “Antis” – women who oppose enfranchisement, fearing the nation’s moral collapse.

Book Summary

In this non-fiction read by the author of The Radium Girls, we learn about a pioneer of rights for women and mental health patients, Elizabeth Packard. She was sent to the Illinois State Hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois by her husband in 1860. He was tired of her independent nature and wanted to put her back in her place. 

While her marriage was bad, life inside the hospital was even worse. Elizabeth quickly realized she was only one of many women who did not need any medical care. The other women were silenced by the stigma of their gender and the labels that come with being institutionalized. But Elizabeth is different and knows she has nothing to lose by fighting back. 

Book Summary

When the male-dominated CIA launched in 1947, the only role for women was to work as clerks and secretaries. However, those women rose to become some of the shrewdest, toughest operatives. The CIA capitalized on the assumptions of the day that women were unimportant, so they were able to gather information right in front of the KGB.

It took another shift for them to rise in the ranks, despite making countless sacrifices for the agency. This book follows the journey of women in the CIA from the beginning, all the way through the close-knit network of female CIA analysts who warned about the rising threat of Al Qaeda and, even more recently, helped track down Osama Bin Laden and, later, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Book Summary

Readers who enjoyed Hidden Figures will love this astonishing, untold story of the American women who cracked Axis codes to help secure the Allied victory.

Recruited by the US Army and Navy, more than ten thousand women from small towns and elite colleges served as codebreakers during WWII. Unfortunately, their efforts were largely erased from history due to their strict vow of secrecy.

Book Summary

For more than half a century, scientists knew her only as HeLa, but the full story of Henrietta Lacks deserves to be heard. 

When Henrietta fell ill, she was treated in the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital. While hospitalized, she had a tissue sample taken without her consent. Those cells became the first “immortal” human cells grown in culture. Still alive today, the HeLa cells have been used to develop the polio vaccine, discover cancer treatments, advance gene mapping, and much more. 

It wasn’t until more than 20 years after Henrietta’s death that her family learned of her “immortality.” With the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the news was devastating to the Lacks family.

Book Summary

Throughout both WW1 and WW2, women were an essential part of spy networks across Western Europe, going as far as parachuting behind enemy lines and interrogating prisoners. The Belgian network, “La Dame Blanche,” even turned ordinary sweaters into coded messages with their knitting.

Author Helen Fry uncovered the contributions of many women in intelligence work, mostly centered at Bletchley Park, in the course of the other research. Thankfully, she decided the incredible real women involved in these activities were worth being celebrated. She gathered them into this fascinating collection of true stories that were previously at risk of being forgetten.

Book Summary

While Jennifer Douda’s high school counselor told her girls didn’t become scientists, her dad encouraged her, leaving a paperback copy of The Double Helix on her bed. This fueled her interest in getting to the bottom of how nature works. Her ongoing curiosity continued into her career, and with a collaborator, she came up with an easy-to-use tool known as CRISPR that can edit DNA. 

The development of CRISPR opened a brand new world of both healing possibilities and moral questions. How should this technology be used, and where is the line?

Book Summary

This is a remarkable non-fiction account of the Black female mathematicians – known as “human computers”. They helped calculate America’s most outstanding engineering achievements, like launching the first rockets and astronauts.

While brilliant Black women were originally relegated to teaching math in segregated public schools, many of these women suddenly found new opportunities open to them when the aeronautics industry suffered labor shortages during WWII. 

The government was in dire need of anyone who possessed high-level math skills. This book interweaves the stories of four African American women who answered the call. Over three decades – from WWII, through the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Space Race – participated in some of NASA’s greatest successes.

Book Summary

Catherine de’ Medici had a tumultuous childhood after being orphaned at a young age. But by 14, she was married to the son of the King, in a wedding arranged by her uncle, Pope Clement VII. When her husband died at 40, it was up to Catherine and her sons to reign over a tumultuous period of French history.

In 1546, Catherine gave birth to Elisabeth de Valois, who would become the Queen of Spain. In 1558, Catherine’s son Francis married Mary, Queen of Scots. Catherine, Elisabeth, and Mary had to learn to rule 16th-century Europe in a time of expanding empires, religious discord, and populist revolt. While they held the highest level of power, they also had to deal with misogyny and remained at the mercy of the state.

Book Summary

Throughout history, female authors have broken countless barriers. And their pens, typewriters, and keyboards have given readers a unique opportunity to step into someone else’s struggles.

From Jane Austen to Agatha Christie and Maya Angelou to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, this book includes 50 different mini-biographies of talented writers who overcame different forms of oppression to share their work.

Book Summary

While many men played essential roles at the forefront of the civil rights movement, many brave women took on vital roles behind the scenes. Their quiet work led to significant contributions, but few know their names.

To write this book, the author met with nine spectacular women, several now in their 90s, to gather and document their previously untold stories in the form of first-person essays. The author left the stories in the direct words of the featured women, which means you lose a little of the flow that comes with great editing, but you gain a more personal feel and history told directly from those who lived it. 

Book Summary

From Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Bryon, who turned numbers into the first program for a mechanical computer in 1842, to Stacy Horn, who ran one of the first social networks from her NYC apartment in the 1980s, women have been the unsung heroes of the internet. 

The author walks through these women and many others whose contributions over the last 180 years continue to touch our daily life each day. 

Book Summary

Over the years, home economics has gotten a bad rap, and some may associate the term with a time when women were told their place was in the home. But this stigma overlooks the true origins of the field of home economics. This book examines and uncovers the roots while exploring whether it remains relevant today.

This field of study was first developed in the late 19th century by a female chemist named Ellen Swallow Richards. The first woman to attend MIT, she defined her life’s work as “Chemistry in Relation to Household Economy,” and she was fascinated by chemistry’s application to everyday problems, such as water sanitation and testing wallpaper for arsenic. 

The concept of home economics has evolved greatly in the past century and a half, sometimes following trends in American culture and other times helping to shape them.

Book Summary

The author wrote this non-fiction book after spending more than a decade living in and reporting on women’s lives in the Arab world. During that time, she has observed dramatic changes. 

Just a decade ago, girls went straight from childhood to marriage. Now, young women are experiencing adolescence in a new way, and young Arab women outnumber male students in universities. They are more frequently delaying marriage to pursue independence and career goals. But those changes have not come about quickly, and the fight for freedom and equality is still ongoing. This book examines the role of women in multiple Arab countries over the past two decades.

Book Summary

In 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor broke one of the highest glass ceilings in the United States when Ronald Reagan appointed her as the first female member of the Supreme Court. Twelve years later, in 1993, the second woman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, was appointed by Bill Clinton. 

Despite coming from different regions, religions, and political outlooks, these trailblazing women had a special relationship and worked together in ways that benefited all American women. Sisters in Law tells stories of the changing law and culture during their time on the bench, along with personal anecdotes from their friendship.

Book Summary

In the 1920s & 1930s, the treacherous sport of air racing was extremely popular and, as you would expect, dominated by men. Female pilots existed but were met with ridicule instead of praise. 

However, once five unlikely women banded together, they reached new heights in the sport. Among the five women, you’ll find Amelia Earhart, who wasn’t a stranger to breaking glass ceilings. She wasn’t the best in racing, but along with Florence Klingensmith, Louise Thaden, Ruth Elder, and Ruth Nichols, she fought for the chance to race against the men.

Book Summary

The newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty and the wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of World War I.

Across the US, hundreds of girls toiled in the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covered their bodies from head to toe; they lit up the night like industrious fireflies.

With such a coveted job, these “shining girls” are the luckiest alive — until they begin to fall mysteriously ill. This shocking non-fiction book explores the radium craze and its lasting aftermath.

Book Summary

In the beginning, Disney Studios was a stereotypical boys’ club. However, a group of women quietly created some of the artwork and storylines that have become classics. They had to endure abuses well beyond the typical workplace sexism of the time. They persevered and fought for their own recognition and for female characters to be depicted positively. 

The book begins in 1936 with the earliest female employees and follows all the way through the 2010s and the making of Frozen, which was the first female-directed full-length film from Disney.

Book Summary

This non-fiction graphic novel tells the previously buried stories of women who planned and led revolts on both slave ships and once they arrived across Colonial America. The author, Dr. Rebecca Hall is a descendent of slaves who decided to look deeper into her history. 

As she researched, she continued to find stories of brave women. Through extensive research, the adult recreates the journey of two women who led revolts in colonial New York. At the same time, she shares how these stories have shaped her own life as an attorney and historian.

Book Summary

Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin are common names from the Civil Rights movement, but what about Alberta King, Louise Little, and Berdis Baldwin? These three women are the mothers who raised extraordinary sons.

All three black women grew up in the period of Jim Crow laws and experienced many trials and indignities of prejudices against them. Despite this hard life, each woman raised their sons to become leaders in the dream of achieving justice and dignity for all.