Reading Changes Everything.
Our curated list of books by and about women who dared to ask questions, challenge the rules and reshape the world through science.
#
Name
Author
Category
01
Lessons in Chemistry
Being the only female chemist at Hastings Research Institute in the 1960s is no easy feat — especially when your male colleagues refuse to take you seriously. Elizabeth Zott is brilliant, unapologetic and completely uninterested in playing by the rules. When life takes an unexpected turn and she ends up hosting a cooking show, she uses it to teach women something far more radical than recipes: to think for themselves. Warm, funny and quietly furious — this book is essential reading.
Why we love it: It's set in a lab, it's set in a kitchen, and it burns the patriarchy in both.
Bonnie Garmus
Fiction
2022
03
Get Good with Money
Ten simple steps to becoming financially whole from Tiffany The Budgetnista Aliche, a New York Times bestselling author who has helped millions of women improve their financial lives.
Why we love it: Because financial literacy is power and every woman deserves it.
Tiffany Aliche
Non-fiction
2021
04
Femmes Puissantes Saison 2
Lea Salame continues her series of intimate conversations with powerful women who have shaped politics, culture and society.
Why we love it: Proof that power has a feminine face.
Lea Salame
Non-fiction
2021
05
Intelligenza Emotiva
Daniel Goleman reveals why emotional intelligence not IQ is the strongest predictor of success in life and work.
Why we love it: Because soft skills are the hardest to master and the most powerful to have.
Daniel Goleman
Non-fiction
1995
06
7 Rules of Power
Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer delivers surprising but true advice on how to get things done and advance your career.
Why we love it: Because understanding power is the first step to wielding it wisely.
Jeffrey Pfeffer
Non-fiction
2022
07
Le Conflit: La Femme et la Mere
Elisabeth Badinter challenges the myth of the all-natural self-sacrificing mother and argues that modern motherhood ideology threatens equality.
Why we love it: A necessary and brave provocation about identity, choice and motherhood.
Elisabeth Badinter
Non-fiction
2010
08
Man and His Symbols
Carl Jung last major work, an accessible introduction to his theories of the unconscious, archetypes and symbols, illustrated with art and dreams from around the world.
Why we love it: To understand the hidden forces that shape who we are.
Carl G. Jung
Non-fiction
1964
09
More Than a Woman
Caitlin Moran frank, funny and deeply honest account of middle age, love, loss, family and feminism, written with her trademark wit and radical warmth.
Why we love it: Hilarious, heartfelt and utterly refreshing.
Caitlin Moran
Non-fiction
2020
10
The Fix
Michelle P. King exposes the invisible barriers holding women back at work and shows that fixing the workplace not women is the key to true equality.
Why we love it: Because the system needs fixing, not us.
Michelle P. King
Non-fiction
2020
11
PNL: Tecniche Proibite di Persuasione
Steve Allen explores NLP techniques of persuasion, manipulation and influence, how language patterns shape behaviour and how to use them effectively.
Why we love it: Know the game so you can play it on your own terms.
Steve Allen
Non-fiction
2019
12
Women Who Run With the Wolves
Clarissa Pinkola Estes uses myth, fairy tale and story to reclaim the instinctive wild nature of women. A million-copy bestseller and a feminist classic.
Why we love it: A book that honours everything tough, smart and untamed in women.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Non-fiction
1992
13
A Brief History of Time
Stephen Hawking takes us on a journey through the universe from the Big Bang to black holes, making the most complex ideas in physics accessible to everyone.
Why we love it: The cosmos belongs to all of us.
Stephen Hawking
Non-fiction
1988
14
Just Listen
Mark Goulston reveals the secret to getting through to absolutely anyone, a practical guide to persuasion, empathy and communication that transforms relationships.
Why we love it: Because truly listening is the most underrated superpower.
Mark Goulston
Non-fiction
2009
15
A Room of One Own
Virginia Woolf extended essay arguing that women need financial independence and a space of their own to write fiction. One of the most important feminist texts ever written.
Why we love it: Written in 1929, still radical today.
Virginia Woolf
Fiction
1929
16
Happy Becomes You
Tina Turner shares the Buddhist philosophy and spiritual practices that guided her extraordinary life, a deeply personal guide to transforming pain into joy and purpose.
Why we love it: Because resilience is a practice, not a trait.
Tina Turner
Non-fiction
2020
02
Hidden Figures
The true story of the Black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations literally launched astronauts into space — and whose names were almost erased from history. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson worked at the intersection of racial and gender discrimination, and still managed to change the course of human space exploration.
Why we love it: Because this is exactly the kind of story that should have been taught in school — and wasn't
Margot Lee Shetterly
Non-fiction
2016
Have a recommendation?
We're always looking for the next great read. If you've discovered a book that changed how you see women in science — tell us about it.
Hidden Figures — Margot Lee Shetterly
