Women's History Month Reads: "Ordinary" Women Who Made Extraordinary Contributions

By Carrie McBride, Communications
March 3, 2020
Women workers preparing army truck for shipment overseas

Women workers preparing army truck for shipment overseas, 1946. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 4050531

Women's History Month isn't just a time to celebrate extraordinary, trailblazing women who have made a name for themselves in the history books (although huzzah to them!). It's also for honoring the contributions of everyday women who made a difference, took a stand and, often, banded together to change the world. We may not know their names, but we can learn their stories and be inspired by their resolve, their sacrifices, and their courage. The books below tell some of their stories.

Remember the Ladies book cover

Remember the Ladies: Celebrating Those Who Fought for Freedom at the Ballot Box by Angela Dodson

From the birth of our nation to the recent crushing defeat of the first women presidential candidate, this book highlights women's impact on United States politics and government. It documents the fight for women's right to vote, drawing on historic research, biographies of leaders, and such original sources as photos, line art, charts, graphs, documents, posters, ads, and buttons. It presents this often-forgotten struggle in an accessible, conversational, and relevant manner for a wide audience.

Fires of Freedom book cover

Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement by Janel Dewart Bell

During the Civil Rights Movement, African American women did not stand on ceremony; they simply did the work that needed to be done. Yet despite their significant contributions at all levels of the movement, they remain mostly invisible to the larger public. Beyond Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, most Americans would be hard-pressed to name other leaders at the community, local, and national levels. Through wide-ranging conversations with nine women, several now in their nineties with decades of untold stories, we hear what ignited and fueled their activism.

Broad Band book cover

Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet by Claire Lisa Evans

Women are not ancillary to the history of technology; they turn up at the very beginning of every important wave. But they've often been hidden in plain sight, their inventions and contributions touching our lives in ways we don't even realize. Claire L. Evans finally gives these unsung women heroes their due with her insightful social history of the Broad Band, the women who made the internet what it is today.

Glass Universe book cover

The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel

Shares the lesser-known story of the scientific contributions of a group of women working at the Harvard College Observatory from the late 1800s through the mid-20th century, tracing their collection of star observations captured nightly on glass photographic plates that enabled extraordinary discoveries.

book cover

To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America—A History by Lillian Faderman

A landmark work of lesbian history that both "sets the record straight (or unstraight)" for all Americans and "provides a usable past" for lesbians. "This is a book about how millions of American women became what they are now: full citizens, educated, and capable of earning a decent living for themselves. But it departs from other such histories because it focuses on how certain late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century women whose lives can be described as 'lesbian' were in the forefront of the battle to procure the rights and privileges that large numbers of Americans enjoy today." 

Code Girls book cover

Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy

Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.

Unite book cover

Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement by Premilla Nadasen

This groundbreaking history of African American domestic-worker organizing shatters countless myths and misconceptions about an historically misunderstood workforce. Premilla Nadasen shows how these women were a far cry from the stereotyped passive and powerless victims; they were innovative labor organizers who tirelessly organized on buses and streets across the United States to bring dignity and legal recognition to their occupation. With compelling personal stories of the leaders and participants on the front lines, Household Workers Unite gives voice to the poor women of color whose dedicated struggle for higher wages, better working conditions, and respect on the job created a sustained political movement that endures today.

Girl Friday book cover

Nobody's Girl Friday: The Women Who Ran Hollywood by J.E. Smyth

Looking back on her career in 1977, Bette Davis remembered with pride, "Women owned Hollywood for twenty years." She had a point. Between 1930 and 1950, over 40% of film industry employees were women, 25% of all screenwriters were women, one woman ran MGM behind the scenes, over a dozen women worked as producers, a woman headed the Screen Writers Guild three times, and press claimed Hollywood was a generation or two ahead of the rest of the country in terms of gender equality and employment. Nobody's Girl Friday is a revisionist history, but it's also a deeply personal, collective account of hundreds of working women, the studios they worked for, and the films they helped to make. 

Queens of Animation book cover

The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History by Nathalia Holt

From Snow White to Moana, from Pinocchio to Frozen, the animated films of Walt Disney Studios have moved and entertained millions. But few fans know that behind these groundbreaking features was an incredibly influential group of women who fought for respect in an often ruthless male-dominated industry and who have slipped under the radar for decades. Nathalia Holt shows how these women infiltrated the boys' club of Disney and fought to transform the way women characters are depicted to young audiences.

Hidden Figures book cover

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

An account of the previously unheralded but pivotal contributions of NASA's African-American women mathematicians to America's space program describes how they were segregated from their white counterparts by Jim Crow laws in spite of their groundbreaking successes.

Ojibwe Women book cover

Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of the Community by Brenda Child

Too often ignored or underemphasized in favor of their male warrior counterparts, Native American women have played a more central role in guiding their nations than has ever been understood. Many Native communities were, in fact, organized around women's labor, the sanctity of mothers, and the wisdom of women elders. In this well-researched and deeply felt account of the Ojibwe of Lake Superior and the Mississippi River, Brenda J. Child details the ways in which women have shaped Native American life from the days of early trade with Europeans through the reservation era and beyond.

Frontier Grit book cover

Frontier Grit: The Unlikely True Stories of Daring Pioneer Women by Marianne Monson

Discover the stories of twelve women who heard the call to settle the west and who came from all points of the globe to begin their journey. These are gripping miniature dramas of good-hearted women, selfless providers, courageous immigrants and migrants, and women with skills too innumerable to list. Many were crusaders for social justice and women's rights. All endured hardships, overcame obstacles, broke barriers, and changed the world.

Rocket Girls book cover

Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, From Missiles to the Moon to Mars by Nathalia Holt

In the 1940s and 50s, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate velocities and plot trajectories, they didn't turn to male graduates. Rather, they recruited an elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design, helped bring about the first American satellites, and made the exploration of the solar system possible.

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Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.