Top 7 Strong Women Books

Posted by FionaDeLuna on August 16th, 2016

From virtuous Jane Eyre to adulteress Hester Prynne, from the African American poet Maya Angelou to the Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, these women show that there is no such thing as the weaker sex. You will find both, fictional characters and real women in this list.

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

The story was created over 150 years ago, when gender roles in the Western society were very far from what they are now. Jane Eyre manages to preserve her personal integrity in spite of the cruelties she suffers from, being an orphan without money. She manages to find and marry her soul mate, - something that was hardly possible to even the richest women in Victorian society.

2. I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb

A symbol of peaceful protest, Malala Yousafzai miraculously survived after being shot in the head by the Taliban. The youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate grew up in a province where Taliban did not allow girls to attend school. At the age of 11–12, she wrote a blog for BBC, describing her family’s life under Taliban occupation. It is the story of a family struggling against global terrorism and a fight for education for girls. The story that shows that even one girl's voice can inspire change in the world.

3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The first book in the row of Maya Angelou's autobiographies. It describes her memories from childhood to young womanhood. In this work poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist writes about how she met with racism, molestation, rape and survived through all this. Many of her poems deal with the same topics, including the poem Still I Rise” from her third volume of poetry.

The poem shows a strong woman who decides to stay alive and happy in spite of all sufferings. For deeper understanding of this work you may read its literary analysis on emilyspoetryblog.com.

4. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Though Hester Prynne is far from being a good wife, she’s the embodiment of a strong woman. Condemned by her Puritan community for having a child out of wedlock, she receives her punishment and goes through life with dignity.

6. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

One more classic novel from the U.S. The way irresistible Scarlett struggles against the hardships of life is very different from Jane Eyre’s. Margaret Mitchell's tale of people surviving the Civil War and its aftermath is full of vivid characters and haunting scenes.

7. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

14-year-old Esch discovers she is pregnant at the time when a hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico. Together with her brothers she is trying to stock food, but they do not have a chance to do it. Children, whose only parent drinks hard, are sacrificing for one another during the 12 days that make up the novel’s framework.