Ripping yarns with a feminist flavour please

[SilkStalkings]

Really loved Michel Faber's The Scarlet Petal & The White. Any more suggestions?

Anything by Sarah Waters?

Sparkle Hayter's stuff is good ...

Thanks. I do like Sparkle Hayter but I'm after more than just a feisty heroine. Some sort of deliberate feminist message/lesson/something to think about.

Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway has the best female character in Edie Banister.
The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall - male characters very much walk on parts, some interesting things to say about female strength.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and sequels.

The White Masaai
www.goodreads.com/book/show/8787.The_White_Masai

Any Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace maybe?

The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

In fact most Persephone Books are female writers & female protagonists www.persephonebooks.co.uk/

I Am Malala - not a yarn but v interesting.

Louise doughty 's apple tree yard. A thriller, harrowing in parts and a feminist thought experiment.

I've just read Sarah Water's Fingersmith. I would say that meets your spec pretty well :)

Sheri S. Tepper is great if you are willing to branch out into fantasy or Sci-fi.

If you don't mind autobiography rather than fiction, I loved Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine for a book about a strong feminist figure.

Anything by Faye Weldon, I have loved:

The Presidents Child
Life and Loves of a She Devil
The Cloning of Joanna May

Also The Children's Book by AS Byatt is a great book and has some excellent feminist characters (eg a girl who wants to train as a doctor in the days when this was v unusual).

Riding in cars with boys- a memoir rather than a novel but fits the bill

Woman on the edge of time

The women's room

Brilliant. Thanks all.

If auobiographies are allowed try Bossypants by Tina Fey and How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran!

autobiographies

Really enjoying The Margarets by Sherri S Tepper - thx for the recommendation.
Tried Angelmaker but gave up, seemed to be a slim Terry Deary/Robert Rankin paperback padded up in an extra inch of unnecessary printed paper.

David Weber - Honour of the Queen.

A diplomatic mission from a progressive egalitarian society to a planet with a highly sexist culture. Features one of the strongest female characters in sci-fi, Honor Harrington.

Oh how I loved 'How to be a woman' by Caitlin Moran. Hilarious

Two people have already mentioned Sarah Waters but definitely Fingersmith. It was probably the best of all the many books I read last year and it fits your requirements perfectly.

It's a bit naff to recommend one's own books but if you're up for Young Adult (lots of action rather than literary language) you might enjoy mine - it's historical set during the Pilgrimage of Grace (rebellion against Henry VIII) from the point of view of a teenager caught up in the revolt. I wanted to show Cromwell's religious changes and the reaction to them from the point of view of the people who believed in holy relics rather than the reformers whose viewpoint we normally see, and it is very definitely women's history/feminist in focus.
Five Wounds

Kinflicks by Lisa Alther.

I am so glad to meet other people who enjoy Sheri Tepper, I think she's a wonderful writer.