16 Empowering Books for Women

Female empowerment is meant to inspire, uplift, and encourage women in a world catered to men. Women’s physiology is considered an afterthought to men when new medical treatments and prescription drugs are introduced to the market. Women in the workplace face sexism, discrimination, and lower pay. Women of all backgrounds and cultures experience sexual assault and femicide due to domestic violence at alarming rates, and in all of this, women are still being told to smile. Empowering books for women offer a safe space for women to understand, encourage, and regain a sense of peace in knowing that they are more than what the world is showing them. Whether you need inspiration or a simple pick-me-up reminder of your strength, the books below can offer solace through the stories of women in varying life circumstances who found their voices and stepped into their power.

The Best Books for General Female Empowerment

The books in this category offer an excellent starting point for understanding female empowerment, self-confidence, and personal growth. We often learn unintentional lessons through storytelling as we sympathize and, on those rare, beautiful occasions, empathize with the true stories of others. These books give insight into how other women have used their voices, passion, or most heartbreaking moments as a catalyst for something great.

1. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

A young woman at her breaking point sets out on a harrowing and impulsive thousand-mile-plus trek that collapses what she has left and then heals her. This Oprah’s Book Club title was made into a major motion picture in 2014 with an 88% Rotten Tomatoes rating, showing how much women relate to her story. You’ll join the author as she hikes the Pacific Crest Trail at 22 without training. Without exposing yourself to the danger, you’ll see your own story, breaking point, and lessons on healing through her journey.

2. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

With nearly 20,000 reviews and a 4.5 Amazon rating, it is clear that this story touches essential depths in women’s empowerment literature. Beautifully written by the youngest recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize, I Am Malala tells the true story of a girl who refused to stay silent about her right to education.

At age 15, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school. Her survival wasn’t likely, yet her miraculous recovery took her across the globe to stand up for education rights for girls and share this empowerment with others who championed her. This is a must-read in women’s empowerment literature.

3. Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life

Sharing the stories of disabled Asian American artists, Alice Wong carries out her mission as an activist, media maker, and director who founded the Disability Visibility Project.

This compilation of art, essays, graphics, and conversations adds to essential discussions in women’s empowerment literature about disabilities and Asian American presence. Wong thoughtfully considers access, power, care, and the future, among other indispensable topics in these pages.

4. In Search of Hope: The Global Diaries of Mariane Pearl

Journalist Mariane Pearl logs over 100,000 miles to meet with 12 courageous women across the globe who, despite their trials, have become agents of change in their communities. With beautiful photography to accompany each story, this book follows her conversations with these women of varying cultures and life experiences.

We meet an Inuit woman in the Canadian Arctic working to reverse global warming, a former child sex slave in Cambodia who rescues girls from the same fate, and a Mexican reporter who exposes violence against women despite the danger it poses to her life. This National Headliner Award winner, recognized by CNN and The New York Times, is a must-have on any women’s empowerment list, inspiring hope through courage.

Best Books for Female Empowerment in the Workplace

While women’s experiences have made quite a lot of progress due to the brave souls who fought for and continue to fight for gender equality, female empowerment in the workplace remains an important and timely topic that needs our attention. As women seek professional success, women’s mental health can benefit from a boost as they navigate the terrain of working and living their desired lives. These empowering books for women focus on empowerment for women in the workplace and aim to provide valuable insights, strategies, and inspiration for women navigating work-related challenges and pursuing career growth.

5. #Girlboss

It’s, unfortunately, all too common for women to fall into the trap of not feeling worthy of what they want. Whether it’s due to education, experience, or life circumstances, women often undersell their value while their male counterparts boldly oversell to get what they want.

Sophia Amoruso knows this firsthand from when she only saw herself as a dropout and petty thief, working odd jobs and dumpster diving for food. Now she lays claim to Nasty Gal, a popular retail company she founded when she found her voice. In this book, she delivers hope for any woman who wants to live up to their potential in whatever work they do or business venture that they feel called to do.

6. Men Explain Things to Me

One of the most insidious experiences of women in the workplace and beyond is what pop culture has deemed as “mansplaining.” This phenomenon occurs when men often subconsciously assume that a woman has less knowledge or experience than they do or what is required to get the job.  To remedy this, they provide a lengthy, often patronizing, explanation to bestow their knowledge.

With good humor and a straightforward take, Rebecca Solnit shares how conversations go wrong between men and women and offers solace and solutions for working women who have dealt with this.

7. Unbound: A Woman’s Guide to Power

While the quote’s origins have been controversial, women in the workplace often contend with the idea, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

In this life-changing book, Kasia Urbaniak channels her experience as a Dominatrix, training to be a Taoist nun to help women thrive in the workplace and anywhere they please. She shares her insights with working women to expand their influence and answers why women often feel like they are too much and not enough all at once.

Best Empowering Books With Strong Female Characters

Witnessing strong female leads and characters in books inspires readers, as they see these characters overcoming challenges, defying societal norms, and pursuing their dreams. The books below offer strong fiction and non-fiction stories with strong women who share stories of romantic love, athleticism, and mental health concerns. These stories will fortify your spirit with humor, truth, and perseverance through pain.

8. Hana Khan Carries On: A Novel

Hana Khan is a relatable romantic comedy realistic fiction novel about a young Canadian Muslim woman, Hana Khan, who wants to be a podcaster. In this coming-of-age story, Hana discovers the meaning of self-love, self-determination, love for family, and what it means to stick by one’s principles.

It is difficult not to root for the protagonist’s courage to be herself and not feel inspired to follow her heart and stick by her principles. Not only is Hana a strong female character, but she gives a glimpse of how the women in her family carry the same spirit in their ways.

9. Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World

We have all watched an athlete torpedo past obstacles and felt inspired to tackle our own. Good For A Girl gives that same feeling with the true accounts of Lauren Fleshman, one of the most decorated collegiate athletes of all time.

Both physically and emotionally, Fleshman channels strength into this book with an uncut story of personal growth, change, and a call to the sports world to rebuild with women in mind.

10. Heart Berries

It is a poetic, complex, beautiful memoir of an Indigenous woman who contends with a dual diagnosis of bipolar II disorder and PTSD by writing through her trauma. Heart Berries is a true story of a strong woman that showcases her mental state and a graphic tale of how she took back the power trauma threatened to take away. Ultimately, she reconnects with her family and place in this vast world.

Best Female Empowerment Books to Foster Confidence

Women looking to build self-esteem, overcome self-doubt, and embrace their strengths have found what they desire in the following books. These books cover the science of confidence, seeing oneself as a whole person beyond a body, and taking a different approach to life when your inclination is to clam up.

11. The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance—What Women Should Know

Journalists Katty Kay and Claire Shipman unlock the code from where confidence originates and share how women can obtain it. This book taps into the genetic and behavioral aspects of self-assurance with interviews from women leaders in the arts, politics, sports, and the military, along with psychologist expertise in the vastly expanding field of neuroscience. The code encourages less people-pleasing and perfectionism and taps into what women can do to thrive.

12. More Than A Body: Your Body Is an Instrument, Not an Ornament

While there has been a movement toward body positivity, More Than A Body asks women to look at themselves beyond their body and instead as a whole breathing, living, purposeful person. With research and as the founders of the nonprofit Body Redefined, the authors share ways women can step away from self-objectification and into self-growth and wholeness.

13. Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person

No one would have guessed that the brilliant woman behind shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal was an introvert who suffered panic attacks before media interviews and hired a publicist to avoid having to make public appearances.

In her humorous, raw, and thought-provoking memoir, Year of Yes, Shonda Rhimes reveals her life before and after the moment she decided to say yes to everything that once scared her for one year. This book is a call to action for introverts, busy moms, and ambitious women looking to step in and embrace all life offers.

Best Female Empowerment Memoirs

The following powerful memoirs are written by women who share what led them to personal growth, resilience through heartbreak and pain, and humorous daring-to-be-themselves life experiences. Whatever your political, cultural, or socioeconomic experiences, every woman is in these stories of strength, grace, and empowerment.

14. Becoming

A women’s book list wouldn’t be complete without Becoming. No matter your political beliefs, this story is timeless and a testament to women’s inner resilience. The former First Lady’s coming-of-age story reveals how her resilient spirit was fostered by her family on the south side of Chicago and carried her through Harvard Law School, the working world, and eventually the experience of becoming the First Lady.

15. A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Danny Pearl

A heart-wrenching memoir told by the wife of Daniel Pearl, the journalist kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. Though Mariane Pearl tells her husband’s story through the memoir, anyone reading the beautiful prose will feel this to be a harrowing story of one woman’s strength in an extreme crisis.

Pregnant and surrounded by violence and war in a foreign land, Pearl finds herself in a circumstance that could break most women. She is wracked with worry and fear when her husband disappears, not knowing if he is alive. When she ultimately finds out that he was murdered in the most terrifying ways, she finds compassion, hope, and a fight for peace and justice that carries her and the child she gives birth to.

16. Knocking Myself Up: A Memoir of My (In)Fertility

With current conversations about taboo topics regarding women’s choice to have children or go childless, this timely memoir touches on one woman’s journey to motherhood in an untraditional but very relevant way.

Michelle Tea’s comedic memoir shares her story of being 40, queer, uninsured, and deciding it’s time to have a baby. She opts for medical methods that include on and off-market fertility meds and magic honey, to name a few. Her story critiques the fertility industry, and her triumphs reveal that women can choose the life they want, no matter how it all comes together.

Beyond Empowerment Books: Get Support Through Therapy

While these empowerment books are great resources for hope and inspiration, you don’t have to journey toward building confidence, self-esteem, and empowerment alone. These books offer a good starting point but do not replace professional help. Whether you are struggling with issues specific to being a woman, seeking additional support, or need to tackle a particular problem in your life, or you know a woman who could use professional help, online therapy options provide convenient access to therapy, or you can use an online therapist directory to find a therapist.