Each year, International Women’s Day is celebrated across the world on March 8, but that does not mean women aren’t celebrated before or after. Beginning as Women’s History Week in 1978 in Santa Rosa, California, that week has been expanded and celebrated during all of March as Women’s History Month beginning in the 1980s.
It is important to celebrate Women’s History Month, and a great way of doing so is by reading about notable women in history. Far too often many of these women are overlooked in the education system and their stories are not told.
Here is a list of some (and there are many more) books to consider reading during March. These books include women from ancient history, as well as women in the 20th century as their stories are the ones most forgotten in the classroom.
- When Women Ruled the World, by Kara Cooney, 2018
Following the stories of six queens of ancient Egypt, UCLA professor of Egyptian art and architecture, Kara Cooney, describes in detail the lives of these women. All of the women in Cooney’s book ruled ancient Egypt at one point in history, but their reigns were long forgotten or purposely removed from Egyptian history after they died. When Women Ruled the World shows women leaders of the ancient world, and shows the reader why we need more of them today.
- Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II, by Liza Mundy, 2017
Code Girls tells the fascinating history of how some women were able to help the war effort in World War II. These women had top secret jobs, so secret they could not even tell their closest friends and family what exactly they were doing. These women were some of the brightest minds of their time. They broke enemy codes to aid the United States armed forces and were directly tied to the Allied Powers success in winning the war.
- Women Heroes of World War I, by Kathryn J. Atwood, 2016
This book tells 16 different tales of brave and courageous women who helped the war efforts of World War I. These women are all either resisters and spies, medical personnel, soldiers, or journalists. An interesting component to this book is that all of these women come from different countries. This book is also a part of the “Women in Action” series.
- Women Heroes of World War II, by Kathryn J. Atwood, 2019
This book tells 32 stories of different women who helped the war effort of WWII. Following Atwood’s book on women of WWI, there are stories about women from across Europe and the United States who were instrumental in the success of the Allies. They include tales of spies and espionage, resistance, and rescue, and many others. This book is also part of the “Women in Action” series.
- Agrippina, by Emma Southon, 2019
Agrippina is the history of “the most extraordinary woman of the Roman world.” In true Roman fashion, parts of her story were lost for centuries for the sole fact that she was a woman. The only information historians had on her was from what was written on surviving ancient documents, and even then when it only benefited her brother, the emperor, the infamous Caligula. Agrippina is an extraordinary book about a mother, sister, and wife of Roman emperors.
