FemRes · Research index
Search
Trace a concept across books, moving images, essays, voices, and feminist research.
- 738
- Discover feminist resources in 738 curated items
- 294
- All topics
Browse by medium
Refine
Search results
353 items
The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm
One of the most significant and controversial essays of second-wave feminism, published in 1968. It dismantles the myth of the 'mature female sexual response' as defined by Freudian psychoanalysis and argues, both scientifically and politically, for the importance of the clitoris as the true source of female physical pleasure. A historical manifesto for the struggle for bodily and sexual autonomy.
- Women's Rights
- Cultural Critique
- Social Movements
SCUM Manifesto
Valerie Solanas's infamous 1967 manifesto is a scathing, satirical, and radical feminist text that calls for the elimination of the male sex and the overthrow of the government.
- Radical Humor
- Radical Feminism
- Satire
Wide Sargasso Sea
Nearly 200 years after Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was published, it has quite rightly earned the status of a classic feminist novel. If Jane Eyre is a classic, then Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea - the 1966 novel that gives life to the abandoned woman in Brontë's story - is a masterpiece. By re-examining the character of Bertha Rochester and imagining her life before the events of the original novel, Rhys gives agency and dignity to literature's archetypal 'madwoman in the attic'.
- Decolonial Feminism
- Race and Gender
- Women's Literature
The Feminine Mystique
A foundational work of the modern feminist movement that profoundly revealed the identity crisis faced by American middle-class women in the mid-20th century, heralded as the spark that ignited the second wave of feminism.
- Second Wave Feminism
- Family Liberation
- Liberal Feminism
The Bell Jar
A 20th-century feminist literary classic that reveals the psychological predicament and social oppression faced by women in the 1950s through semi-autobiographical narrative, profoundly exploring the relationship between mental illness and gender constraints.
- Women's Literature
- Second Wave Feminism
- Patriarchy Critique
The Golden Notebook
The most famous 1962 experimental novel by 2007 Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing, telling the then-unspeakable facts: women as beings with sexual desires, who suffer from mental illness, who struggle, who climax, who menstruate. Through the perspective of writer Anna trying to integrate her life experiences and creative notes into a unified whole, Lessing explores the unbeautiful aspects of women's lives with love, anger, and a frankness almost unheard of among women writers at the time.
- Second Wave Feminism
- Women's Writing
- Women's Literature
The Second Sex
Le Deuxième SexeA foundational work of modern feminism that deeply analyzes women's status and situation in society, proposing the famous viewpoint that 'one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.'
- Existentialist Feminism
- Second Wave Feminism
- Patriarchy Critique
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Though Zora Neale Hurston's most famous novel is now considered a cornerstone work of the Harlem Renaissance, Their Eyes Were Watching God received a lukewarm reception when first published in 1937, not being rediscovered until the 1970s. The story follows a Black woman named Janie Crawford's coming-of-age in Florida, from her 'voiceless' teenage years to a more self-possessed adulthood.
- Black Feminism
- Race and Gender
- Women's Literature
A Room of One's Own
A foundational work of feminist literary criticism that explores the material and psychological conditions necessary for women's creative work with poetic and incisive insight, proposing influential theories of women's writing.
- Women's Literature
- Feminist Literary Criticism
- Women's Writing
Miss Sophia's Diary
莎菲女士的日记Miss Sophia's Diary is a groundbreaking novella by modern Chinese author Ding Ling, published in 1928. Written in diary form, the novel boldly explores the emotional world, sexual desires, and spiritual anguish of a 'New Woman.' As one of the most important feminist texts after the May Fourth Movement, it pioneered placing female desire at the center of narrative, challenging the repressive literary portrayals of women.
- Women's Literature
- Body Politics
- Feminist Theory
To the Lighthouse
A masterpiece of modern literature that captures the passage of time, lost years, and the completion of art through the innovative technique of 'stream of consciousness.' Deep insights into motherhood, marriage, and female creativity are poetically rendered alongside beautiful Scottish seaside landscapes.
- Women's Literature
- Cultural Critique
- Historical Context
Herland
A groundbreaking feminist utopian novel published in 1915 that envisions an ideal society composed entirely of women, exploring fundamental questions about gender roles, social organization, and women's potential.
- First Wave Feminism
- Radical Feminism
- Women's Literature
The Awakening
No feminist reading list is complete without this 1899 novella. This early proto-modernist story follows Edna Pontellier, a wealthy New Orleans housewife who begins to contemplate what life might offer beyond her narrow roles as wife and mother.
- First Wave Feminism
- Bodily Autonomy
- Women's Literature
Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution
A groundbreaking 1898 feminist economics work that systematically analyzes the social roots of women's economic dependency and proposes theoretical foundations for women's economic independence. Praised as an important document comparable to Mill's 'The Subjection of Women'.
- First Wave Feminism
- Economic Empowerment
- Marxist Feminism
The Memoirs of Louise Michel
Mémoires de Louise Michel, écrits par elle-mêmeThe Memoirs of Louise Michel is the autobiography of the famous 19th-century anarchist, feminist, and Paris Commune fighter Louise Michel. It chronicles her combat experiences during the Paris Commune, her subsequent exile, and her unwavering belief in social justice, women's liberation, and anarchist ideals.
- Anarchist Feminism
- Political Participation
- Social Justice
Little Women
A classic coming-of-age novel that, through the growth journey of the four March sisters, showcases diverse life choices for 19th-century women, influencing generations of female readers' values and life pursuits.
- First Wave Feminism
- Women's Literature
- Women's Writing
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
A groundbreaking work in the history of feminist thought, one of the first to systematically advocate for women's rights and educational equality.
- First Wave Feminism
- Education Equality
- Legal Equality