Astonishingly, Herland was written in 1915

From infamous works of analysis to contemporary pieces of literature, we’ve chosen ten texts which have helped shape feminism and the women’s movement throughout history. Spanning several centuries and covering a range of emotive issues, these books offer modern women so much to reflect on today.

Herland - Charlotte Perkins Gilman

This utopian novel by American author Charlotte Perkins Gilman describes an isolated world of women only, who procreate via asexual reproduction and live harmoniously in an idyllic and independent society. And when three male explorers discover this supreme female land, they are soon forced to alter their assumptions about the role of women. Although she writes with a humorous slant, Gilman places women in an ideal light to point out that women can run the world just as well as men and, in fact, if they did, society would only benefit. A work of extreme feminist idealism, Herland was, astonishingly, written in 1915. It was originally published as a magazine serial, before eventually being published in book form in 1979.

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women -  Naomi Wolf

In her captivating 1991 best-seller The Beauty Myth, American writer Naomi Wolf examines the extent to which beauty has affected women’s struggle for equality, both personally and professionally. With beauty, sexuality, intelligence and power all competing with one another, the ‘myth’ makes it utterly unattainable for women to possess them all. Wolf powerfully explains how strongly the beauty myth has seeped into women’s eating habits, sexuality, financial decisions, reading material, emotional beliefs, and relationships. Although it was published almost 20 years ago, with the advent of 24/7 media and internet – alongside the relentless debates on size zero and cosmetic surgery – this book is more relevant than ever.

A Serious Proposal to the Ladies – Mary Astell

Often referred to as the ‘first English feminist’, Mary Astell wrote her booklet A Serious Proposal to the Ladies back in 1694 (yes, 1694, really) and essentially called for intellectual equality among the sexes. Astell was a conservative and highly religious woman, who took an unequivocal feminist position and stressed the importance of nurturing women’s intellectual abilities, and broadening their career options beyond just mother and nun. Through her pioneering works of literature, Astell asked: “If all men are born free, why are all women born slaves?” This was a voice that had the courage to speak up when many didn’t dare.

The Second Sex - Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir

The Second Sex is a truly revolutionary book by the French author and social theorist Simone de Beauvoir. It was first published in French as Le Deuxième Sexe in 1949, followed by publication in English four years later, and Beauvoir’s text largely draws on extensive interviews with countless women of all ages. Beauvoir’s fundamental statement in the book is “one is not born, but becomes a woman”, and she primarily focuses on the concept of woman as ‘The Other’ – citing this invisible label as the main reason for women’s oppression in every aspect of life, from politics to sex. Beauvoir was famously the lover and companion of French existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Sartre – they were together for 52 years, but were never monogamous.

The Feminine Mystique – Betty Friedan

The Feminine Mystique was published in 1963 after American activist Betty Friedan gave a questionnaire to her fellow college students about a woman’s place. Friedan’s sharp authoritarian tone implies that the ‘mystique’ is the insignificance most women feel in roles which need them to be financially and emotionally dependent upon men – smashing the myth of the happy housewife. The book courted controversy when some critics complained this ‘feminine mystique’ was only an issue for well-off suburban housewives, overlooking the rest of the female population – including the poor.

A Room of One’s Own – Virginia Woolf

Originating from two essays legendary English writer Virginia Woolf read to audiences at women’s colleges in 1928, A Room of One’s Own calls for women’s independence in all creative undertakings. At the time, many women were not even allowed into certain universities and libraries, let alone allowed the opportunity to creatively express themselves. Woolf asks why men have the opportunity to create works of genius? Because, she proposes, they have their own income and ‘a room of their own’.

Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

Although Sylvia Plath is widely known as a poet, this semi-autobiographical novel remains one of her best-known and most brilliant works. Originally published under the pseudonym ‘Victoria Lucas’ in 1963, The Bell Jar tells the tale of a talented young woman’s mental breakdown during a summer magazine placement in 1950s New York. Plath committed suicide the same year as the book’s publication, leaving behind a heart-rending, honest and beautifully written tome. The Bell Jar’s main themes of lack of control, gender defining ‘inferiority’ and women stereotypes have led this novel to be a feminist favourite.

The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution – Shulamith Firestone

Canadian-born feminist Shulamith Firestone was just 25 years old when her first book, The Dialectic of Sex – a radical manifesto of modern feminism – was published in 1970. Most famously in this book, Firestone calls not only for the abolition of the conventional family, but for the end of pregnancy itself. She proposes that in order to achieve equality, women must do away with their role as the sole biological producers of children – instead looking to the use of cybernetics to carry out human reproduction in laboratories.

The Vagina Monologues -  Eve Ensler

The Vagina Monologues began life in 1996 as a play by American writer, feminist and activist Eve Ensler. It soon became a runaway success and, subsequently, a book. Every monologue relates to the vagina in some way – be it through sex, love, birth, its variety of names, or simply as a physical feature of a woman’s body. Eve Ensler wrote the first draft of the monologues following interviews she conducted with over two hundred women about their views on sex, relationships and violence against women, and one of the recurring ideas is the vagina as a tool of ‘female empowerment’. The monologues are liberating, funny and at times deeply poignant.

The striking cover image of The Female Eunuch

The Female Eunuch – Germaine Greer

This notorious feminist analysis, written by Australian academic Germaine Greer and published in 1970, is seen by many as a classic landmark text. The Female Eunuch focuses on how the traditional and consumerist nuclear family inhibits women sexually, which in turn totally represses them, leaving them as eunuchs. Greer calls on women to reject the conventional expectations of them, and insists sexual liberation is the key to women’s liberation. At one stage, Greer even likens marriage to slavery. This book is direct, frank and pulls no punches but, unlike other feminist literature published before, The Female Eunuch was widely available to a huge international readership, prompting its enormous success and place in history.

‘If a woman never lets herself go, how will she ever know how far she might have got?’ – Germaine Greer in The Female Eunuch.