22 amazing non-fiction books by women

A few months ago, I entered the WHSmith bookshop in Leeds train station with the idea of grabbing a non-fiction book by a woman on my way to work. I'd been reading a lot by men and wanted to even my shelves out, hear some female voices. I didn’t have any other criteria, and yet as time ticked nearer to 9 o’clock I stared at the shelves, baffled. I could see barely a handful of possibilities.

The absence was so stark that I returned at lunch time to count the books. Of the 47 'bestselling non-fiction' books, over 89% were by men. There were 202 books in the popular science section, 88% of which were written by men. If you don't count the ones that are women writing about sexism, 90% were by men. 90%!

WHSmith isn't exactly a pillar of literary taste, so I went to count some books in my beloved Nottingham Waterstones. It wasn't much better. 80% of the books in the 'new non-fiction' display were by male writers, and male writers took up 77% of the 178 books in the nature writing section, as well as 67% of the 'new natural history' shelves.

It's important that we hear women's voices. We have a far higher chance of reaching our full potential, solving political crises, avoiding war, restoring the environment, fixing climate change - anything - if we take the best of the experience, opinions, insights, skills, research, and approaches of all of us.

Wanting to do the subject justice, I shelved this post to write when I had a huge compendium of amazing non-fiction books by women to recommend. The thing that forced it out of the ice box was an email from Waterstones.

Waterstones publish 'best of' lists every year, and they're brilliant for finding Christmas presents. When I read The Best Books of 2022: Politics I was thrilled to find a list of fascinating books but disappointed that 70% of them are by male authors. I turned to the Nature & Travel and Popular Science lists but they were even worse: each 74% men.

This post is a salve. Let's celebrate some great non-fiction books by women! Let me know what you think of the recommendations below, and send me your recommendations so I can read them and build the list.

In no particular order...

1. Wilding, Isabella Tree

Generally accepted as the book on rewilding, this book is the antidote to eco anxiety. Tough it through the history of the destruction of farmland in England before relaxing into the beautiful success story of Tree's Knepp Estate. A glimpse of hope for the future. You can read my full review here.

2. The Authority Gap, Mary Ann Sieghart

The expression 'must-read' is overused, but deservedly applied to The Authority Gap. We're more likely to be happy about a man having authority than a woman. We're more likely to speak to a man first if a man and a woman are standing together. We're more likely to follow and retweet men on Twitter. Men are more likely to read books by other men. We interrupt women more, challenge them more, and give them the benefit of the doubt less often. Why? What can be done about it?

Whether you're burning with fury at the way your authority is undermined or a sceptic that the authority gap exists at all, this book is fascinating, easy to digest, and will provide you with practical tools to make the world a better place. Check out my full review.

3. Spider Woman, Lady Hale

An autobiography of an incredible woman. From 2017 to 2020 Lady Hale was the President of the Supreme Court, the highest judicial office we have. This role of extraordinary importance is only one of an incredible career of academic and judicial appointments.

The book is a wonderful mix of personal history, exploration of some of the cases that the author gave judgement on, and insight into wider issues in the legal system, particularly with respect to the treatment of women in and by the law.

Trigger warnings: Lady Hale was a family law judge for many years, so some of the cases before her involved sexual assault, domestic abuse, and child abuse. There are explanations of the facts of the cases in the book.

I listened to the audiobook of Spider Woman, which I reviewed in my list of audiobooks with great narrators.

4. Bitch, Lucy Cooke

I'd love for you to read my full reviews of all the books on this list, but especially this one. Bitch represents a sea-change in the way that we think about the natural world. For far too long, we've laboured under the inherited prejudices of theories created when society thought incredibly poorly of women. Have we, in our devotion to Darwin, been perpetuating biased and therefore unscientific views for more than a century?

A thrilling exploration of what we are learning about often-ignored female animals, this book is required reading for anybody with an interest in natural history.

5. Jog On, Bella Mackie

I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who loves running or is thinking of taking it up. Mackie tells us how running saved her life, how it can act as a salve, how we can break down barriers to running and how we can liberate it from expectation and appearance.

6. The Edge of the Sea, Rachel Carson

Carson is famous among readers of nature books as the author who wrote Silent Spring, widely credited with kick starting the environmental movement.

She also wrote three lesser-known books about marine life. They're a hidden treasure. All of the natural history knowledge with all of the love and wonder but none of the filler. Find out why I loved The Edge of the Sea so much in my review.

7. Invisible Women, Caroline Criado Perez

Did you know that women are more likely to die in car accidents because most crash test dummies are men? That women are taking drugs that don't work or cause them serious harm because they're not tested on female cells, female animals, or female subjects? Or that women are suffering life-threatening diseases at work because PPE is designed for men? Perez explores the gendered data gaps that exist around the world, and the negative effects of those gaps on women through city planning, health and safety, education, healthcare, employment, business, infrastructure, and tech. A fascinating (and worrying) exploration of the biases we are building into algorithms and AI and the way that tech amplifies those biases.

8. Etta Lemon, Tessa Boase

Etta Lemon follows the life of the woman responsible for the formation of the Royal Protection for the Society of Birds. The RSPB today is one of our biggest conservation charities, often described as a behemoth. And it started with women.

This book is a treasure. Meticulous research through archives, interviews, and even knocking on people's doors led to a depth to the narrative that I've never experienced before.

9. Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer

Braiding Sweetgrass is a wonderful exploration of indigenous knowledge and ways of thinking about the natural world. It brought tears to my eyes and warmth to my heart throughout. Much of the book opened my eyes to knowledge and spirituality that I didn’t have before, but just as special were the sections that felt like coming home.

Read this book and let love, gratitude and wonder for the natural world wash over you.

10. Hidden Histories, Mary-Ann Ochota

How old is that hedge? How was this dry stone wall made? Why is there a stone circle? Is that rock art? What's a hermit, anyway? If you've ever wandered the British countryside and wondered about the history of your surroundings this book will be a joy.

I don't count myself as a Time Team fan yet two days after buying this book I was off up the moor, OS map and compass in hand, ready to find some four thousand year old rock art and wonder at the human history beneath my fingertips.

Sign up to my mailing list to get the full review for Hidden Histories in your inbox when I publish it.

11. Dear Dolly, Dolly Alderton

A collection of agony aunt letters from Alderton's column, this book is a treasure trove of genuinely useful, insightful advice. Considering the advice you'd give those who ask Dolly for help gets the gears turning, but to my surprise I agreed with Alderton's advice on most topics and learnt some things along the way.

I listened to this as an audiobook - the perfect companion for a long drive.

12. Rock Pool, Heather Buttivant

If you want a holiday full of wonder and new discoveries, take Rock Pool to a rocky shore in the UK and marvel at everything Buttivant reveals to you. This book inspired me to listen to limpets, peer into constellations of sea squirts and look into the eyes of a green shore crab. It is truly a delight.

13. Brotopia, Emily Chang

What's life like for women working in Silicon Valley? And when are we going to get rid of the stereotypes of the 'genius' male creator who bats around in turtle necks and the 'goblin coder' who lives in his mum's basement, coding all night and eating nothing but Doritos?

These ridiculous stereotypes hurt women in tech but they also hurt men in tech and the tech sector as a whole. Isn't it time we recognised other approaches?

14. Finding the Mother Tree, Dr Suzanne Simard

Trees are connected in a big way, and Aboriginal knowledge has taught of this for a long time. Simard's groundbreaking research showed that they share water, nutrients, even information.

This book is a fantastic introduction to the Wood Wide Web (the way that trees are connected) – technical and scientific enough to give you a real grounding in the matter, but without overwhelming you with studies and charts.

The best thing about this book is Simard's compassion. Here is an internationally respected scientist, who has furthered our understanding of the forest in ways that open a whole new world of scientific discovery, saying that it’s alright – it’s necessary – for us to recognise trees and plants have agency and for us to show them respect and compassion.

15. Islands of Abandonment, Cal Flyn

What happens to landscapes after we leave them?

In Japan, one in every eight homes is abandoned. Almost 100,000 properties have been abandoned in Detroit. And it's not just our homes we leave behind. Flyn travels to military buffer strips, nuclear fall out zones, abandoned islands, and overgrown botanical gardens to show us the restoration that happens after we move out.

A fascinating history of why we leave places and how nature reclaims them.

16. Gathering Moss, Robin Wall Kimmerer

This book had me crouched in the garden in my pyjamas, peering at the mosses adorning the rocks of my small retaining wall. Like when I read Rock Pool, this was non-fiction applied to real life. Just as I’d stood and discovered that I could hear limpets, so too I hunched in my garden and saw the mossy patterns that Kimmerer tells us about.

Kimmerer treasures the many roles of mosses. Water systems for the forest. Providers of humidity. Nurseries for insects. Homes for water bears. Cushions for bird eggs. Blankets for chipmunks and beds for bears. Even some uses for early humans – uses that begin as a puzzle but once revealed feel as natural as using wood to make a fire.

'It seems as if the entire forest is stitched together with threads of moss.'

17. Everyday Sexism, Laura Bates

If you're looking for a book to introduce the topic of sexism, this is it. Everyday Sexism started off as a website where women could write about the sexism they encountered in their everyday lives that often went unnoticed.

In the book, Bates catalogues the sexism that women face at work, as children, in politics, education, public spaces, the media, and in motherhood, as well as looking at double discrimination (based on more than one characteristic) and the effect on men.

Easy to read but hard to digest, Everyday Sexism is a relief for many women - who finally feel like they really weren't imagining it after all - but also a devastating account of the sexism women still have to put up with day in, day out.

18. The Genius of Birds, Jennifer Ackerman

In this delightful introduction to the lives of birds, Ackerman explores the scientific studies that have examined the intelligence of our feathered friends. It's been a long time since I read this book, but the feeling of respect it instilled has stuck with me ever since.

19. Extraordinary Insects, Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson

Split into almost independent chapters, Extraordinary Insects extols the incredible science behind how insects live - the adaptations they have, the relationships they have with other animals and plants, and the survival techniques they employ. The need to protect their diversity follows freely once you appreciate the complex roles they play in every ecosystem.

20. The Unexpected Truth About Animals, Lucy Cooke

A funny, if somewhat alarming, history of the ridiculous myths - and in many cases, outright lies - that we have been told about animals through the centuries, and how those fibs have lingered.

Check out my review, but also my revelations about anthropomorphism after reading this book.

21. 100 Nasty Women of History, Hannah Jewell

100 Nasty Women of History is an hilarious, informative account of the forgotten women of history. The way that women have been ignored and glossed over in our history books is a heavy subject that Jewell lightens with her humour and informality.

I laughed out loud at this book in the shop, so there's nothing for it but to give you a taste to prompt you to pick this up:

Hypatia c. AD 355-415. Hypatia lived thousands of years before Internet trolls existed, so sadly nobody ever informed her that actually girls are really bad at maths because their brains are too frilly and emotional, and also that she was an ugly slut. And so, without this crucial warning, she became the greatest mathematician and astronomer of her time.

22. Women Don't Owe You Pretty, Florence Given

I was drawn to this book by the title. It felt revolutionary to me to realise that women don't owe anyone pretty. We don't owe anyone a full face of make-up or an attractive dress or manicured nails or perfect hair. It's not a debt we owe to society in return for existing as a woman.

A generic description of this book - as a 'bible' or a 'must read for women' - makes it sound like a terrible 2010 Cosmopolitan tome on on how to give men pleasure and the correct method of plucking your eyebrows.

It is a bible though. It's a bible for 2022 and beyond. A guide on how you can love yourself and be true to yourself in a world that feels like being comfortable with who you are isn't allowed.

Happy reading!

I hope you enjoy these books and subscribe to receive more ad-free reviews. I'd love to hear your recommendations, too.