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6 Nonfiction Books to Read for Women’s History Month
By Mary Kay McBrayer
For Women’s History Month, why not learn a few aspects that might have been hidden to us before now? Here are six books to round out your knowledge during Women’s History Month.
What does it mean to be someone’s “muse”? Historically, to be called a “muse” among artistic circles has been marketed as a flattering title. It is a commendation that most often refers to a woman whose vivacity and beauty are the source of inspiration for a (usually) male artist or creator. Perhaps her inspiring presence is even credited in the story of his success. But the very concept of a muse underestimates these women and their abilities. At its root, muse is a support role, the title a consolation prize that claims to recognize a woman’s greatness—but only in her support of another.
I’m Not Your Muse reclaims the narrative of 31 of these extraordinary women, from “The Mother of the Movies” Alice Guy-Blaché to Modernist designer Eileen Gray, prima ballerina Maria Tallchief, storied Harlem Renaissance editor Jessie Redmon Fauset, and many more. Each of these women advanced the narrative of culture and society, pushing the boundaries of visual arts, dance and movement, commercial architecture, music, journalism, and the performing arts. Whether by historical accident or cruel design, their contributions have historically been overshadowed by those of their male counterparts, and often collaborators.
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around February 25, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
From the 1910s to the 1960s, the Katharine Gibbs School trained women for executive secretary positions… at least, that’s what it billed itself as doing. In reality, the iconic institution was training women to assume positions of power on the other side of the desk. This book is a deep dive into how the school rose in prosperity and success, from Katharine Gibbs’ own professional story to the graduates her school produced who worked alongside Walt Disney and Marilyn Monroe, to name a few.
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around March 4, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Here, the historian Helen King explores the relationship between religion and medicine, especially regarding the four key organs that have been used to define “woman”—breasts, clitoris, hymen, and womb—and how the conception of them has changed over time.
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around January 28, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Amid controversy over the relentless scrutiny of women’s bodies (“Is she too strong? Too masculine? Is she even really a woman?”), Maggie Mertens transports us to Greece in 1896, where a woman ran in the very first modern Olympic marathon. Without permission. Mertens goes inside the lives and victories of various women who have redefined the images of strength and power.
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around June 18, 2024. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Scholar Kyla Schuler argues that some of the most celebrated feminist leaders fought for the liberation of the few. Yet their names are the ones we remember as feminist, while the heroes like Frances Harper, Harriet Jacobs, and Pauli Murray who have united to dismantle systemic injustice for Black, Indigenous, Latina, poor, queer, and trans women go unrecognized. Schuler explains the two-hundred-year counter history of feminism of all stripes in this book.
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 5, 2021. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
For so long, women’s worthiness has been attached to their status as mothers. Although we’re currently in an era of falling birth rates, it seems like an anomaly, or that this generation invented the idea of being a childless woman. But history is actually full of women without children, and many of the reasons for it are the same: whether it’s infertility, lack of support, or the desire to live a different kind of life, Peggy O’Donnell Heffington chronicles how long it’s been normal to not have children, with the goal of rebuilding kinship between mothers and non-mothers.
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around April 18, 2023. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Speaking of historical chronicles, check out this tale of two iconic, rebellious empresses: one married to Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, and the other to Napoleon III of France. They were personally involved in every major international confrontation, and in this book, their private and public stories come to life.
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around February 25, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Mary Kay McBrayer is the author of Madame Queen: The Life and Crimes of Harlem’s Underground Racketeer, Stephanie St. Clair and America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster. You can find her short works on history, true crime, and horror at Oxford American,Narratively, Mental Floss, and FANGORIA, among other publications. She hosts the podcast about women in true crime who are not just victims, The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. Follow Mary Kay McBrayer on Instagram and Twitter, or check out her author site here.
