Women Writers

Find books written by women, largely about women and other underrepresented communities.

‘You Only Get What You’re Organized to Take’: On Sustaining Social Change From the Bottom Up

PUBLISHED 5/8/2025 by

Mainstream media, conservatives and politicians want people to believe that the poor will always be with us. But it’s a lie.

In You Only Get What You’re Organized to Take: Lessons from the Movement to End Poverty, Presbyterian minister and long-time anti-poverty organizer Liz Theoharis and writer-organizer Noam Sandweiss-Back deconstruct this fallacy and present dozens of examples of organizing by poor people to win affordable housing, accessible healthcare, high-quality public education, a living wage, nutritious food and most importantly, dignity.

Why Motherhood Is Harder in Some Countries Than Others: The Ms. Q&A With Abigail Leonard, Author of ‘Four Mothers’

PUBLISHED 5/5/2025 by

“Parenthood is shaped by the broad systems our societies have built over time,” writes award-winning journalist and mother Abigail Leonard in Four Mothers: An Intimate Journey Through the First Year of Parenthood in Four Countries. “Many of the big decisions, like how much time to spend with their children and how to divide the emotional and physical labor with their partner, are heavily determined by the social structures of the place women give birth.” 

The ways this works to reinforce or expand ideas about gender, family, reproduction and out-of-home work are at the core of Leonard’s deeply reported interrogation of the social, emotional and physical toll of parenthood in Finland, Japan, Kenya and the United States.

May 2025 Reads for the Rest of Us

PUBLISHED 5/2/2025 by

Each month, Ms. provides readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.

It’s finally springtime in the Midwest, the grass is turning green and flowers are beginning to bloom. The robins are back, the fawns are appearing and the coyotes are howling. For me, it couldn’t come too soon. These signs of life are a welcome distraction from our political, social and environmental realities right now. More importantly, they provide hope and a reason for joy. The fresh air and blue skies remind me to pause, to breathe and to acknowledge gratitude, even in times of pain and want.

The 26 books on this month’s list provide some of that much-needed hope and joy as well. They tell stories of strength and resilience, of relationships and love, of imagination and dreams. 

What It’s Like to Be Stalked by Your Neighbors—And How Gender Shapes Who Gets Believed

PUBLISHED 4/21/2025 by

An excerpt from Human/Animal: A Bestiary in Essays (out April 22 from Wilfrid Laurier University Press), Chapter 5: “On Catching and Being Caught.”

“I knew enough stories of violence to know that if I did not try and something happened, I would be to blame. … I went to the police station … The tall white man with a buzz cut who came out to talk to me was dismissive. What do you want us to do, ma’am? I wanted a restraining order. Unless our neighbors were caught in the act of trespassing, unless we could prove without a doubt that we were being followed, there wasn’t anything they would do. …

“The camera was visible from where they parked their car, no branches or shrubs hiding its location, its lens pointed directly at where they stood. … Their yelling entered through our living room window and took up all the air in the room. Since the camera only recorded image, I felt I was watching a terrible movie with surround sound, their voices not coming out of the television, but through the windows, bouncing off the plaster walls. … I didn’t want to watch them anymore. I could not stop watching them. I know you have a crush on me. You want to watch me. You want to look at me. I know it.

“This sounds familiar. When children are teased, especially when it’s boys teasing girls, adults will often use crushes to explain away the trouble. He is pestering you (or worse) because he likes you.”

Reads for the Rest of Us: The Best Poetry of 2024 and 2025

PUBLISHED 4/21/2025 by

Happy April, and Happy National Poetry Month. Since my dormant love of poetry was reignited, I’ve found it so refreshing and inspiring to read beautiful collections each year and share them with you.

Here are some of the most exciting and extraordinary poetry titles I’ve read in the last year. So I hope you enjoy and find some collections below that will have you reflecting on how poetry moves you, challenges you and represents you. 

March 2025 Reads for the Rest of Us

PUBLISHED 3/4/2025 by
The best feminist books written by women, Black, brown, AAPI, LGBTQ, Native, disabled, trans, nonbinary writers in March 2025

Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.

And so we begin a busy season for books! There are always so many new books released this time of year that it’s hard to keep up. It is even harder to narrow them all down to a list of 20.

February 2025 Reads for the Rest of Us

PUBLISHED 2/18/2025 by

Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.

I take comfort, inspiration and ideas from books. From the 20 here, I’ve learned about Sámi boarding schools, Mexican feminisms and new strategies for having courageous conversations. I’m even more convinced of the urgent need for educational and political reform. I’ve read stories of exclusion and violence, as well as hope and triumph. I’ve seen truth decimate fear, light scare away the dark, comfort prevail over capitalistic greed.  That’s what books do: They comfort us, educate us, enrage us and inspire us. Whatever books you read this month, I hope you find what you’re looking for.

‘Money, Lies, and God’: The Rise of Christian Nationalism and the Battle for American Democracy

PUBLISHED 2/14/2025 by

Katherine Stewart’s Money, Lies, and God exposes the alarming rise of Christian nationalism as a well-coordinated, anti-democratic movement seeking not just power, but the destruction of democracy itself. She describes this movement as “more political pathology than political program,” with its leaders intent on “burning down the house.” Stewart reveals how right-wing religious and political forces use disinformation, authoritarian alliances and targeted outreach—particularly through churches and media—to gain influence.

Despite internal contradictions, she warns that their strategy is effective: “A fractured and ill-informed public is easier to control than a well-informed one.”

However, she argues that a broad, pro-democracy coalition can push back, emphasizing the need to expose dark money, defend public education and strengthen the separation of church and state.

Loretta Ross on ‘Calling In’: 25 Lessons on Change, Compassion and Cancel Culture

PUBLISHED 2/4/2025 by

In Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel, activist and scholar Loretta Ross challenges us to move beyond cancel culture and embrace a more humane approach to accountability. “A call in is a call out done with love,” she explains, emphasizing that true change requires “creating the conditions for differences of opinion to be heard” rather than relying on shame and ideological rigidity. With truth and history on our side, Ross urges us to build bridges, not burn them, leading a “revolution of moral renewal” that unites rather than divides.