10 Books about women who changed the world

It was Beyoncé who once sang “Who runs the world? Girls”, and in a history (and current times) filled with men making the rules and bending them to their will, it can be easy to assume that Beyoncé might not have been entirely correct with that statement. 

However, women are the basis of life. Without them, none of you or anyone you know would be here. We all have mothers who brought us into the world, so women should be thanked for a lot of things. So yes, women are more than capable of changing or running the world, should they have the power or circumstance to do so. 

Throughout history, women have seemed to take a backseat to the men in charge, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been a lot of women changing the world for everyone. Their contributions to life as we now know it should not be diminished and should be celebrated. 

With International Women’s Day just around the corner on March 8, here are 10 books about fascinating women who changed the world for those who live in it now. 

Malala Yousafzai is an activist, television producer, and the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner in the history of the award for her work ensuring the education of girls and young women in the Swat District of Pakistan at the age of 17. Why? Because her determination to receive an education resulted in her being shot in the face at the age of 15 by the Taliban who sought to ban her and all girls in her district from attending school. 

She survived, and became the most famous teenager in the world, going on to fight for the education of young girls not only in Pakistan, but around the world. She founded the Malala Fund, a non-profit organization, and completed her education in the UK. Truly inspirational, and truly a woman who has already changed the world for millions. 

Radioactivity is a common idea in the world now. We have nuclear power plants, endless fiction about the consequences of radioactive fallout, and video games centered around the subject. Back in 1898, Marie Curie was the first person to discover it, and responsible for the discovery of Radium itself. 

Not only would fiction be a little duller without her discoveries, but her work to champion the use of radiation in medicine has directly led to the use of Radiotherapy to kill Cancer cells in patients suffering from the disease. She has saved millions, perhaps billions of lives with her discoveries and is absolutely deserving of her two Nobel prizes in both Physics and Chemistry. 

Acting over an incredible six decades, Rosa Parks is an icon of the Civil Rights Movement and best known for her choice not to give up her seat on the bus in a challenge to the racial segregation of the 1950s. Her choice sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and further action, all of which worked to spark radical changes to the way of life for all Americans, and inspired similar actions around the world. 

The 1956 federal court case Browder v. Gayle, which ruled that segregation on public transport was unconstitutional, was brought about by her decision that day. Her entire life after that point was dedicated to activism and making things better for both African Americans and women alike. When she died, she was the first non-government official to lie in honor at the U.S. Capitol. 

Now known as the mother of modern medicine, Florence Nightingale became world-renowned for her work with soldiers on the battlefields of the Crimean War. She increased survival rates by a massive degree thanks to her insistence on improving hygiene and cleanliness, and earned the nickname “The Lady with the Lamp” from her night-time observations of injured soldiers. 

After the Crimean War, upon her return to the UK, Florence established the first ever secular nursing school at St. Thomas’ Hospital, London. It’s still going on to this day, as part of King’s College London, and training millions of both men and women in the nursing career. Outside of nursing, Florence also helped to abolish hard prostitution laws, and advocated for better hunger relief in Africa. The shockwaves of her legacy are felt to this day, and life would be vastly different without her contributions. 

Regardless of whether or not you exercise your right to vote as you should, I think we can all agree that women even having the opportunity to do so is something that we should all be thankful for. That would not have been possible without the Suffragettes, spearheaded in part by the incredible Emmeline Pankhurst.

Although most known for her efforts to get women the right to vote, she also convinced the American suffrage movement to sideline their efforts to support the war effort in the lead-up to World War 1, and after eventually moving to Canada in 1922, helped women to get an equal footing in the fight against venereal diseases. Women everywhere owe much of their freedom to Emmeline and her fellow Suffragettes around the world. 

Katharine Hepburn is known for her silver screen roles, but she has a much more important legacy than her acting career alone. It’s safe to say that fashion, and societal expectations of women for that matter, have come a long way since the 1930s. Katharine Hepburn, with her independent nature and headstrong attitude, paved the way for a new breed of movie star and gave confidence to women worldwide. 

She wore pants before it was fashionable and societally acceptable for women to do so. She avoided marriage (after her first short-lived marriage, anyway), and she pushed boundaries that no longer exist because of her actions. She did not give interviews and avoided talking to fans for the most part. That’s what makes Me: Stories of my Life so important, because it offers a glimpse into the life of someone fiercely private, who changed the world in a small but meaningful way. 

If you’re outside of the UK, you’ll likely mostly know of Princess Diana from the depiction of her story in The Crown, at least if you’re from a generation born after her death. However, as a British woman, I can honestly say that her life is inspiring, and Diana: Her True Story was an absolute bomb that dropped on the Royal Family when it was published in 1992. 

She was brutally honest about her misery during her marriage to the now King Charles, admitting to suicidal ideology, depression, and eating disorders. Despite all of those issues, Diana was a devoted mother to both William and Harry, she walked into active minefields and sparked a debate about AIDS by willingly spending time with those suffering from the illness. 

She was beloved, and in my personal opinion, the only member of the British Royal Family who actually made any difference in the world during the last century at least.  

Published in 1932, before Amelia’s disappearance and presumed death in 1937, The Fun of It is a truly inspirational book written by a woman who was not afraid of chasing her dreams despite the hardship she faced. She speaks of being a “woman in a man’s world”, and that premise still rings true today, but her determination is to be applauded and her achievements celebrated. 

During her life, not only did Amelia Earheart collect firsts like it was her right in life (first female passenger to cross the Atlantic, first woman to make a non-stop solo transatlantic flight, I could go on), but she also advocated for women’s rights as a member of the National Woman’s Party. She was a faculty member at Purdue University and became a career counselor to young female students at a time when their options felt extremely limited. 

Harriet Tubman was not only instrumental in the formation and running of the Underground Railroad, but also legendary because of her work on it. She escaped the slavery that she was born into and then went on to free around 70 others, and also served as an armed scout and spy during the American Civil War. To say Harriet had guts would be a massive understatement. 

Her actions during her life directly impacted African Americans, inspiring them to fight for their rights even into the modern age. She is considered one of America’s most famous historical figures, as well as one of the most influential, and her legacy is one to respect. 

If you’re looking for a woman who truly deserves to be looked up to, look no further than Nellie Bly, pioneer of female investigative journalism and all-around badass. Her first foray into journalism was a response to an article in the Pittsburgh Dispatch that stated that women were principally for “keeping house and birthing children”. Ahead of her time in many ways, Nellie argued that not all women would marry and there simply needed to be better jobs for women. 

After that, she forged a career as an investigative journalist in a time when the role simply wasn’t societally accepted. She is most known for an exposé about the conditions inside the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island, New York (now known as Roosevelt Island), which she managed to write by pretending to be insane herself and getting herself admitted to the asylum for research purposes. Her work, documented in Ten Days in a Mad-House, forced massive reforms to the care of patients in asylums and paved the way for female journalists.

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