UK academics vote on most influential books in history written by women

In the UK, academics, booksellers, publishers and librarians have voted on a list of the top 20 ‘books by women that changed the world’.

Covering a variety of topics such as politics, feminism, race and photography, the list features Australian academic Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch (Harper Perennial), alongside titles by Malala Yousafzai, Anne Frank and Reni Eddo-Lodge.

Feminist writers on the list include bell hooks, Simone de Beauvoir and Judith Butler, and the top 20 also includes classic fiction such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.

The public can now vote on which of the 20 books in the list have been the ‘most influential’. Voting closes on 26 April, and the winner will be revealed on 27 April as part of Academic Book Week which, through a week-long series of events and initiatives, aims to make academic books more accessible to a wider general audience.

To see the full list of books, click here.

Category: International news