14 Extraordinary Biographies About Strong Women

For too long Abigail Adams has been best known as the wife of one president and the mother of another. This biography explores her as her own person, living through and observing the creation of America. Included are Adams’ own letters and diary entries that exhibit her poignant opinions and thoughts on the people and events around her. Readers will come away with both a more thorough and thoughtful understanding of the many facets of the American Revolution, and of this brilliant woman. 

This is the biography of Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first Native American doctor in the United States. After graduating from medical school in 1889, Picotte returned to the Omaha reservation where she grew up and became the doctor for 1,200 people over 1,350 miles of land with few roads. Picotte broke through layers of prejudice to help her people and became a lifelong social reformer. 

Sydney Ladensohn Stern provides a fully rounded portrait of the inspiring woman who was at the head of the women’s rights movement. Digging deeper than Steinem’s public persona, Stern covers the upbringing, adolescence, travels, and full career of this prominent figure, drawing from 50 hours of interviews with Steinem herself and discussions with over 200 people who have known her. Stern acknowledges the very human flaws of Steinem while celebrating her impact. 

In 1921, a team of explorers were left on the uninhabited Arctic Wrangel Island to claim the land. The group included four white men and Ada Blackjack, an Alaska Native woman. After their first year on the island, food and supplies were running low and all four men died. Ada Blackjack survived, alone, on the icy island for another eight months. Using diaries from Blackjack and other figures in her life, this book tells her life story and the tale of her survival.

A pioneer in the field of investigative journalism, Ida Tarbell was a catalyst for change in America. Born in 1857, she grew up in the Gilded Age of monopolies and tycoons. Tarbell is best known for her series of articles on the Standard Oil Trust, John D. Rockefeller’s oil empire, in which she exposed the wrongdoings and sneaky practices of the company. Tarbell grew to prominence in an industry dominated by men and was regarded for her talented writing and effect on public opinion. 

Cleopatra, the Egyptian pharaoh who went down in history for all the wrong reasons gets the spotlight in Stacy Schiff’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography. Schiff, an acclaimed biographer and guest columnist for The New York Times, goes beyond the myth to reveal a woman who was a master negotiator, a gallant leader, and nothing less than a valiant warrior. So, yeah, you go ahead and walk like an Egyptian.

She’s the unibrowed Mexican painter who swept her sable brush across countless canvases to paint self-portrait after self-portrait, so it’s only natural her biography follow suit. In a read that blurs the line between biography and autobiography, novelist Carlos Fuentes introduces Frida Kahlo’s personal journal, a portal into the mind of the a woman overcame adversity and wore her heart on her artwork.

Leave it to your best friend to really make you shine from beyond the grave. In this posthumous biography penned by Charlotte Brontë’s close childhood friend and fellow writer, Elizabeth Gaskell, we get a glimpse into the life of a literary genius who in just 38 short years became a cultural icon by creating through her words a heroine of intellect and strong moral character.

Some stories should be told only by those who have lived them. Harriet Jacobs, an African American who escaped slavery, became a writer, then went on to serve as a reformer and abolitionist speaker, shares her unflinching narrative of scathing abuse, dogged tenacity, and eventual freedom.

Another incredible firsthand account of slavery, Behind the Scenes was written by Elizabeth Keckley, a seamstress who purchased her own freedom and was so skilled that she became the personal dressmaker of Mary Todd Lincoln while she was the First Lady. Later, Keckley founded the Ladies' Freedmen and Soldier's Relief Association, with the goal of assisting recently-freed slaves.

Get to know the celebrated political leader before, during and after her long-running position as First Lady. Author Blanche Wiesen Cook paints a portrait of a woman who overcame an alcoholic family to become an activist who advanced the rights of women and gave us profound one-liners like this one: “A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water.”

Go ahead and don that tweed suit as you dive into the inspirational life and times of the world’s greatest fashion designer. An icon, Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel liberated women from that god-awful post-WWI-era corseted silhouette, grew an empire worth $19 billion at the time of her death in 1971, and remains a fashion icon even in her afterlife (we like to believe, anyway).

A magnet for life-threatening illnesses as a child, Wilma Rudolph overcame measles, mumps, scarlet fever, and even polio. They were all just hurdles in the eventual track star’s path. In 1960, Rudolph became the fastest woman alive and the first American woman to ever win three Olympic gold medals. Now, what’s your excuse again?

Born into Indian royalty that was plundered by the British in the 1800s, Sophia Duleep Singh dedicated her life to battling injustice and inequality. An unsung hero and suffragette, she’s the focus of BBC broadcaster Anita Anand’s deftly written biography, a story of exile, rebellion, and wild animals.