The Awakening by Kate Chopin Written in 1899, it was controversial for its day. It brought to light the issues facing married women of the time and told the story of a woman liberating herself from her husband and from the oppressive society of New Orleans.
Edna Pontellier has a loving but distant husband and two sons. They are a wealthy family living in the Creole (French) community in New Orleans. Edna starts to realize she isn’t happy as a wife and mother after meeting a man named Robert Lebrun and starts taking steps to becoming her own person, going against the social norms of Creole society. Chopin was one of the first writers to talk about marriage infidelity in such an open way and she helped pave a path for future writers.
You can read the full novel at https://www.katechopin.org/the-awakening-text/
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman This is technically a short story but it deserves a place on this list. The Yellow Wallpaper is a terrifying insight into postpartum psychosis. Written in 1892 it is one of the first works that deals with women’s mental health. Based on Gilman’s personal experience with the primitive mental health treatments at the time, the narrator tells her diary about her three month stay in an estate far from the city. She was prescribed rest and relaxation and told not to write so she doesn’t exhaust herself. With no outlet and unable to leave the estate, she is forced to spend hours alone in the old nursery they converted into a bedroom and is slowly driven insane.
Beloved by Toni Morrison Sethe, a former slave, is haunted by the ghost of her dead child. When a young woman shows up at her door bearing the name carved on the child’s headstone, Beloved, Sethe takes her in and cares for her along with her daughter Denver. Soon the ghost gets more and more possessive of Sethe and she takes control of their lives. Morrison tells a beautiful story of trauma and hardship, based on the life of former slave Margaret Garner. It details life as a slave and as black women and men in Ohio, post Civil War. Morrison is an acclaimed author who weaves intersectionality into her stories in a wonderfully unique way.
p.s. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook, Morrison herself reads it and she does an amazing job.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Esther Greenwood is a smart and talented writer whose life is on track to marriage and career success, but she is gradually collapsing. A deep look into the mind of a depressed and suicidal woman of the 60s, The Bell Jar is brutally honest and real. Published a month before Plath’s own death, it came from one of the darkest times in her life. Plath belonged to the confessional poet genre and often wrote about taboos such as suicide and mental illness. The Bell Jar was the last thing she published before her death and interest in it and the works published post-mortem skyrocketed after her suicide, making her one of the most influential writers in history.
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay This is a collection of essays about Gay’s life and experiences. She talks about everything from her experience with sexual assault, to society’s obsession with the sexuality of celebrities, to her scrabble nemesis (personally, my favorite essay). She has an honest and intimate voice that receives rave reviews for almost everything she writes. Gay is open about her love of rap music, despite the fact that she knows it’s offensive. She makes it clear that she is a bad feminist and, in a way, that makes her the best. Reading her work makes you feel incredibly human and comfortable. This is a life-changing book, and one that is bound to be a classic.
Honorable Mention: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood A major book in women’s literature since its publication in 1985,The Handmaid’s Tale has gotten a lot more attention since the 2016 election and the creation of the show in 2017. The book takes place in a dystopian society where fertile women are rare and those who can have children are forced into service as child-bearers for the high up officials of Gilead. Offred is a handmaid sent to work for Commander Fred Waterford and his wife Serena Joy. You follow her as she survives emotional, physical and sexual abuse and remembers the time before Gilead, when she was a free person.
p.s. Another book that is great on audio, narrated by Claire Danes she fits perfectly into the role of Offred.