Women’s History Month is ending soon, but it’s okay because empowered and amazing women will still be around for the other 11 months of the year, this month is just to celebrate them. The easiest way for you to do this is by supporting female representation. Representation means not giving every single role and job to straight white men, so I’ve compiled a list of lists of things for you to enjoy that were created by women, starring women, showcasing women, and celebrating women.
Movies and shows with female leads
The lists I’ve found include older movies like “She’s Gotta Have It” (1986) to newer movies like “Frances Ha” (2013). Some titles to look forward to include “Bend It Like Beckham” (2002), “The Color Purple” (1985), “Serenity” (2005), “The Queen Of Katwe” (2016), “Girlhood” (2015), “Suffragette” (2015), “The Trouble With Angels” (1966), “A League Of Their Own” (1992), “Iron Jawed Angels” (2004), “Nine To Five” (1980), and “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry” (2014). Check these out at Business Insider’s article Netflix shared a list of 15 great movies with strong female leads you can stream right now, Harper Bazaar’s 30 Essential Feminist Movies You Need to See, and Buzzfeed’s 33 Feminist Films Every Girl Should See In Her Lifetime.
Also worthy of checking out is Elle’s list of 20 Strong Women Who Kick Ass on TV to get you inspired to try new shows. And if that somehow doesn’t interest you in starting a show with a powerful female role, Buzzfeed’s 21 TV Shows Every Woman Needs To Watch covers more, including “Harlots”, “Chewing Gum”, “Cable Girls”, “Call the Midwife”, “The Bold Type”, “Bomb Girls”, and “Jessica Jones”. And if all else fails, Buzzfeed’s got a great list catered for you called Here’s What Women-Centric Netflix Movies And TV Shows You Should Watch This Month.
Books written by women
I’ve gotten many lists (mostly by Buzzfeed) centered around awesome female books. Here are 19 Books Coming Out This Year That You Seriously Need To Read all written by women, including “The Bride Test”, “Red, White, and Royal Blue”, “Queenie”, “SHOUT”, “City of Girls”, and many more!
Another place women need representation is in the world of science, so here’s Buzzfeed’s 17 Science-Fiction Novels By Women That Are Out Of This World, including “The Book of M”, “How Long ‘Til Black Future Month”, “Red Clocks”, “The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August”, “The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet”, and more.
If you’re into feminist books (which you should be) more than just books written by women, Buzzfeed also has 18 YA Authors Recommend Their Favorite Feminist Books, which lists awesome reads like “Iron Cast”, “Saving Francesca”, “The Female Of The Species”, “How To Suppress Women’s Writing”, “Dark Eden”, and a few more worthwhile reads.
Okay, if you’re not interested in female authors or feminist themes, it’s okay because I also have a list of 29 Awesome Books With Strong Female Protagonists from Buzzfeed. And to end this list of lists to encourage you to read awesome female books to support representation, here’s Vulture’s 10 Women Writers Share Their Must-Read Books for Women’s History Month list, which includes books written by women and for women.
Movies directed by females
We covered movies starring amazing women, but let’s not forget about the makers of the movie that led to the cast’s amazing roles. Here’s IndieWire’s The 100 All-Time Greatest Films Directed by Women. And if you’re interested in looking at the directors names’ first, then their work, here’s Studiobinder’s list of The Best 67 Female Film Directors You Need To Know About.
Female artists
“Artist” is such a broad term, that I just couldn’t stop collecting lists of female artists for you. To begin, I found creators of art all across generations. Harper Bazaar covers #TheLIST: The 10 Female Artists You Need to Know from the 1700s to the 1900s. ACA Galleries covered 12 Relevant Female Artists You Should Probably Know About from the 1900s. If you’re looking for artists who are still around today, don’t worry because Graphic Design found the 30 Most Influential Women Artists Alive Today, from fashion designers, to painters, photographers, performance artists, and sculptors. Also super relevant to 2019 is Fashionista’s list of 25 Women Designers Who Changed Fashion Forever. Okay, maybe you don’t have time to look at tons of artwork online, so Buzzfeed created a list of 19 Female Illustrators You Need To Follow On Insta ASAP, so it’s super easy to support some female creativity.
The next type of artists I looked into were musical creators. I wanted to introduce you to new and underappreciated female artists, not just talk about how amazing Lady Gaga and Rihanna are. Hence, Telegraph has 10 amazing female singers you haven’t heard of yet, including Rae Morris, Yuna, Nadine Shah, and more lovely women. Also check out Ravishly’s 7 Female Singers You Don’t Want To Miss and American Express Esstential’s 7 Amazing Female Musicians You Need to Know. And if that’s not enough, Spinditty went all out with their list of The Top 50 Modern Female Vocalists You Should Know. Buzzfeed also wrote about This Ladies-Only Pop Mix Is The Best Thing You’ll Hear Today, created by Kitty Cash, a hella feminist DJ who made the playlist to commemorate iconic women in the music industry.
Female scientists
Sometimes the best way to support someone is to just acknowledge their contributions by their name, something our science textbooks aren’t too good at. At least that’s what I found out after reading Buzzfeed’s 23 Black Female Scientists Who Changed The Damn World. Also worth reading are 17 Top Female Scientists Who Have Changed the World by Global Citizen, and Women Who Dared to Discover: 16 Women Scientists You Should Know by A Mighty Girl. And you have to at least read ListVerse’s super interesting 10 Groundbreaking Women Scientists Written Off By History.
Remember there’s no face of Women’s History Month. It isn’t just Susan B. Anthony, or Princess Diana or Anne Frank. Remember women who don’t make up the majority, including women of color, women of Asian descent, Native American women, disabled women, women born into poverty, and transgender women. Women who are young, old, poor, wealthy, single, married, princesses, soldiers, politicians, students, teachers, mothers, and sisters. We will all be celebrated. So do your part this Women’s History Month and support female representation in your everyday life by watching a new show, binging some movies, reading an awesome book, following some artists online, downloading new music, and appreciating all the things women are capable of.