NYPL’s Essential Reads on Feminism by Hypelist - Hypelist
NYPL’s Essential Reads on Feminism
Hypelist - Updated 12/12/25
A powerful reading list curated by the New York Public Library, spotlighting essential works that have shaped feminist thought across history. From trailblazing memoirs to radical theory, these books trace the movements, voices, and ideas that continue to influence culture today.
Ranked from 1-15 (highest to lowest)
Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith (SUNY series in New Political Science)
Alethia Jones, Virginia Eubanks · 2014
America's Women 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines
Gail Collins · 2009
Because of Sex One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women's Lives at Work
Gillian Thomas · 2017
The Black Woman An Anthology
Toni Cade Bambara · 2005
A Black Women's History of the United States
Daina Ramey Berry, Kali Nicole Gross · 2020
Ain't I a Woman
bell hooks · 2014
Becoming
Michelle Obama · 2019
Antigone Rising The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths
Helen Morales · 2020
Bad Feminist: Essays
Roxane Gay · 2014
Beyond Trans Does Gender Matter?
Heath Fogg Davis · 2017
The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory (Weatherhead Books on Asia)
Lydia Liu, Rebecca Karl, Dorothy Ko · 2013
Black Feminist Thought Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment
