Women's history...

[iheartshoes]

Can anyone recommend any good books on women's history? Have just finished Mistresses : A history of the other woman , by Elizabeth Abbott and it was fascinating, looking for something similar (ish) to sustain me over the coming week's of my maternity leave!!

I'm particularly fond of:

The Aristocrats by Stella Tillyard (This is my absolute favourite and they made it into a TV series too)
Can Any Mother Help Me by Jenna Bailey
The Fishing Fleet by Anne De Courcy
The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton by Diane Atkinson
The Weaker Vessel by Antonia Fraser
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
The Mitford Girls by Mary Lovell
The Good Women of China by Xinran
Joanna by Nancy Goldstone
Factory Girls by Leslie Chang
The Girls who Went Away by Ann Fessler (warning heartbreaking)
No One but a woman knows by Margaret Llewelyn Davies
A History of Women's Bodies by Edward Shorter
The Female Malady by Elaine Showalter
For her own good by Ehrenreich
The Floating Brothel by Sian Rees
Eve By Petrina Brown
Harris' List of Covent Garden Ladies by Hallie Rubenhold
The Gentleman's Daughter by Amanda Vickery

That list is brill, will try and work through! Thank you

No problem .

Its a bit of a mish mash of types of women's history, countries and time periods etc, but they are all books that I go back to regularly due to content or readability. I much prefer looking at history from the female perspective.

Try Antonia Fraser:

Warrior Queens
The Weaker Vessel, women's lot in the 17th century
Mary Queen of Scots
The 6 Wives of Henry VIII
Marie Antionette

It's a bit of a brick, but Olwen Hufton's The Prospect Before Her is incredible. Looks at Western Europe 1500-1800. She's been working on a sequel to it pretty much since the book came out in 1995, but no sign as yet

Faith, Duty, and The Power of Mind by Gillian Sutherland is worth a read. Although I have to admit I started it & then went into hospital (two things not connected!) & when I came out the book had vanished into the dreaded Safe Place & has still not (6.5 years later!) re-emerged.

Oooh, and Jane Robinson's Bluestockings is fantastic, too!

Brill thank you lots of great suggestions... Trip to the library is in order tomorrow methinks!

Women's History of the World by Rosalind Miles is a good overview.

Just wanted to say I've started reading the Mitford girls and it is fascinating, thanks for the recommendation

No problem, glad you are enjoying it.

Damn rebel bitches by Maggie Craig. It's about women and the Jacobite rebellion(s).

Margaret Beaufort by Elizabeth Norton. Margaret was Henry VII's mother and was a seriously impressive woman.