Books About Women Who Work It

Jess is the sole provider for her stepson and daughter after her husband skips town. While she works tirelessly cleaning expensive beachfront homes, she can barely afford the upkeep on her own, let alone the pricey private school where her daughter has recently been accepted. When Jess finds out about an alternative scholarship opportunity, she takes the family on a wild journey—and accidentally brings the owner of one of the homes she cleans along for the ride.

Sophie Straw knows she’s meant to be a famous actress, so she leaves her small English town before she can be crowned its beauty queen and moves to London to pursue a career on the small screen. At first, she’s stuck working as a cosmetics girl in a department store, but she eventually makes it into a pilot of a new BBC show. Luckily for her, the show gets picked up, and Sophie becomes the lead in an I Love Lucy-esque sitcom, with a dynamic cast and crew that turn her into the ultimate funny girl.

This one features two women—Mel Vaught and Sharon Kisses—who work together in the male-dominated world of animation. They first meet in college and continue collaborating for a decade until they finally get their first feature film. Delving into the characters both personally and professionally, this novel features the story of two completely different women working together toward the same goal.

No list of working women is complete without Queen Bey. She’s sold more than 100 million records and received more Grammy nominations than any woman in the award’s history. This incredible audiobook features a range of voices, including academics, cultural critics, and celebrities. It’s a meaningful and absorbing celebration of the ultimate working-woman icon.

Agnes Nixon is known as the Emmy award-winning creator of soap operas One Life to Live and All My Children. She paved her own way as a woman in television after growing up with a father who was intent on ending her dreams of becoming a writer. Not only was she a pioneer as a woman working in the industry, but she was also the first to bring many controversial issues to television. In My Life to Live, Nixon shares her experiences with some of the stars and guest stars from her shows, adding some comic elements to her inspiring story.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has worked tirelessly on the behalf of Americans—particularly women—since she was sworn in to the Supreme Court in 1993. In this profound biography that Jane De Hart spent 15 years writing (with the cooperation of RBG and her friends, family, and colleagues), we get a look into Ginsburg’s past, her passion for justice, and the incredible strides she’s made in service to gender equality.