International Women’s Day takes place annually on 8 March. This year’s theme of “Accelerate Action” emphasises “the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality” and calls for increased urgency in facing systematic challenges women encounter. The official website includes the frankly disappointing fact that, based on data from the World Economic Forum, it will take until 2158 to reach full gender parity if things continue at their current rate. In the desire to celebrate the courage and achievement of women who challenged traditional gender restrictions and exhibited agency, the website includes a booklist of “First of their kind: Truly pioneering women.” Mostly composed of biographies, this list commemorates a range of inspiring figures, ranging from Ada Lovelace as the First Female Computer Programmer, to Hetty Green as the First Female American Tycoon, to Sonia Sotomayor as the First Hispanic woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
In the spirit of giving deserved recognition to truly impressive women, the field of literature offers a myriad of historical, contemporary, and fictional figures worthy of celebration. Historically, female authors have broken social barriers, fought to have their works published and played seminal roles in the shaping of culture and literary tradition. A poignant example is Virginia Woolf who not only challenged social injustices forced upon women in the 1900s, but is also viewed as the pioneer of the “stream of consciousness as a narrative device” practice (exemplified in her famous essay A Room of One’s Own).
The feminist movement has now reached its fourth wave and the considerable progress over the past 100 years owes a lot to feminist authors. Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), as part of the later named “proto-feminism” movement, argued for the proper education of women, called out specific works for their sexist views and paved the way for future feminists. During First Wave Feminism, from 1848-1950s, Kate Chopin, Simone de Beauvoir, and Barbara Bodichon are just a few examples of the multiple female authors who fought for political power through writing and action. Second-wave feminists built on the work of their predecessors and accelerated debates over sexuality, reproductive rights and women’s role in the workplace. For example, Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics is one of the first feminist literary criticisms which dissects famous male authors’ patriarchal depictions of women in society. From the 1990s to 2000s Third Wave feminists adopted and evolved the arguments of those before them. Discussion of sexual harassment, gender stereotypes and intersectionality in works by Rebecca Walker, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Patricia Hill, drew significant attention to the movement and greatly aided the feminist struggle.
There are countless brilliant books by female authors, both fiction and non-fiction, which educate, inspire and entertain us, but in the interests of saving time here are a few that (I personally think) deserve attention and praise. Margaret Atwood’s famous dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale is well worth the read, incredibly intelligently crafted and triggers a deeper consideration of our contemporary and future world. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado details the author’s emotionally, mentally and physically abusive relationship with another woman through the adoption of a different narrative trope in each chapter. Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist is also deserving of the acclaim it has received as a collection of witty, smart, poignant essays which observe contemporary culture.
Whilst we celebrate International Women’s Day once a year the incredible female authors who exist throughout history deserve attention, not just for their role in accelerating action but also in simply writing beautiful works for us to enjoy.
Photo by Vonecia Carswell on Unsplash
