The Best Feminist Writers

When doing an English degree the word "feminism" does not fade no matter what class you take. Eventually, there will be either a professor or a theme of a book that mentions feminism. There is no escaping this. I decided to compile a list of female writers that were feminists. These female writers are ones that made an imprint on the past. So, I will not bore with more information and dive right into the list of female feminist writers that influenced the past.

7. Jane Austen

Author of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma. She wrote some of the famous works that are studied in classes today. The book Pride and Prejudice is more feminist than pop culture believes. The Bennett sister Mary goes beyond the social norms of what an educated woman should be. Charlotte marries the overbearing Mr. Collins, but yet she still has a degree of independence when one would expect for her to lose all autonomy, especially during the time period that the book was taking place. Jane Austen is definitely a feminist that tends to be overlooked.

6. Virginia Woolf

The author that was an outsider from the social norms. She was a writer and a journalist. She encouraged many women to become writers and journalists in the 19th century. Woolf was what some people call "the pioneer for feminism". Individuality did not exist in her time and Woolf was a woman that stood up to those social norms. One of her novels begins with the words "what does a room for the emancipation of women?" She saw women as being that wanted to evolve in education, but could not due to the restrictions that society had decided upon.

5. Aphra Behn

One of the first professional female writers of the 17th century. Behn was known for her poetry, and plays. She is one of the biggest impacts of modern day writing. For Behn it was not that writing gave her money, but it gave her a sense of independence and freedom, to write what she wanted to. She also started the idea of what it would be like for woman to do as much as men could do. That is why she is known as one of the greatest feminists of all time, because it was not just her writing that brought out feminism.

4. Mary Shelley

Starting with Frankenstein, she was one of the first writers to create science fiction. Now, some may argue that she was not truly feminist. Her writing Frankenstein was a way of escaping everything that was happening around her, but she created a science fiction novel that everyone read and thus creating an entirely new genre of books that would probably not exist if it were not for her writing.

3. Mary Wollstonecraft

I would be shocked if you never heard of Mary Wollstonecraft.

"I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves. "

"Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison. "

"Virtue can only flourish among equals."

All of the above quotes were all said by Mary Wollstonecraft and if that is not enough proof for you that she was a feminist then, you need to read a book of hers, just one and you will see the themes in the book appear as feminist writing. She was a big advocate for equality rather than women pushing to be greater than men.

2. Emily Dickinson

"My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -

In Corners - till a Day

The Owner passed - identified -

And carried Me away -

And now We roam in Sovreign Woods -

And now We hunt the Doe -

And every time I speak for Him

The Mountains straight reply -

And do I smile, such cordial light

Opon the Valley glow -

It is as a Vesuvian face

Had let it’s pleasure through -

And when at Night - Our good Day done -

I guard My Master’s Head -

’Tis better than the Eider Duck’s

Deep Pillow - to have shared -

To foe of His - I’m deadly foe -

None stir the second time -

On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -

Or an emphatic Thumb -

Though I than He - may longer live

He longer must - than I -

For I have but the power to kill,

Without - the power to die -

Source: The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition ed by Ralph W. Franklin (Harvard University Press, 1999)

This poem on its own should tell you that it is all feminism. She speaks that women have power too, that they too can hold a loaded gun and not only men are made to protect women, but women can protect the man. Her poems can be dark and foreboding, but she unravels the poem and it turned into feminism.

1. Kate Chopin

she was known for her short stories and it seems the reoccurring theme of feminism rings in a lot of her short stories. The story of the hour is one of her most prominent works that she wrote. One of the moments that Chopin focuses on is when Mrs. Mallard's emotions after her husbands death. Rather than telling the reader the story of her and her husband, she focuses mostly on the feeling that Mrs. Mallard has towards him. We can see that the man is not the most important character of the plot, even though it is his death. Chopin writes the feelings that women feel.