March is Women’s History Month—an opportunity to celebrate women’s achievements throughout history. With the help of our friends at Chirp Audiobooks, we’ve selected five audiobooks written by women about women that will entertain, educate, and inspire. You’ll find most of these titles are currently discounted by Chirp for a limited time. You can get an additional 30% discount with our exclusive promo code: AUDIOBOOKADDICTS30
Audiobooks for Women’s History Month
1. Women: Our Story by DK
Audiobook Summary:
Reexamining history from a female perspective, this audiobook celebrates the pivotal but less well-known roles women have played in culture and society.
Packed full of evocative details, this audiobook reveals the key events in women’s history—from early matriarchal societies through women’s suffrage, the Suffragette movement, 20th-century feminism, and gender politics, to recent movements such as #MeToo and International Women’s Day—and the key role women have had in shaping our past.
Learn about the everyday lives of women through the ages as well as the big names of women’s history—powerful, inspirational, and trailblazing women such as Cleopatra, Florence Nightingale, Emmeline Pankhurst, Eva Peron, and Rosa Parks—and discover the unsung contributions of lesser-known women who have changed the world, and the “forgotten” events of women’s history.
Placing women firmly center stage, Women: Our Story shows women where they came from, and in celebrating the achievements of women of the past, offers positive role models for women of today.
Why we love it!
This must-listen audiobook highlights trailblazing women who have played a key role in shaping our past, present, and future — including Cleopatra, Florence Nightingale, Rosa Parks, and more!
Click here to learn more about Women: Our Story audiobook.
2. Visionary Women by Andrea Barnet
Audiobook Summary:
Four influential women we thought we knew well—Jane Jacobs, Rachel Carson, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters—and how they spearheaded the modern progressive movement.
This is the story of four visionaries who profoundly shaped the world we live in today. Together, these women—linked not by friendship or field, but by their choice to break with convention—showed what one person speaking truth to power can do. Jane Jacobs fought for livable cities and strong communities; Rachel Carson warned us about poisoning the environment; Jane Goodall demonstrated the indelible kinship between humans and animals; and Alice Waters urged us to reconsider what and how we eat.
With a keen eye for historical detail, Andrea Barnet traces the arc of each woman’s career and explores how their work collectively changed the course of history. While they hailed from different generations, Carson, Jacobs, Goodall, and Waters found their voices in the early sixties. At a time of enormous upheaval, all four stood as bulwarks against 1950s corporate culture and its war on nature. Consummate outsiders, each prevailed against powerful and mostly male adversaries while also anticipating the disaffections of the emerging counterculture.
All told, their efforts ignited a transformative progressive movement while offering people a new way to think about the world and a more positive way of living in it.
Why we love it!
A fascinating and thoughtful account of four women who have changed our world.
Click here to learn more about Visionary Women audiobook.
3. Maya Angelou by Collected Authors
Audiobook Summary:
Maya Angelou’s memoirs, essay and poetry collections, and cookbooks have sold millions of copies. Now, Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration offers an unusual and irresistible look at her life and her myriad interests and accomplishments.
Created by the people who know her best-her longtime friends Marcia Ann Gillespie and Richard A. Long, and her niece Rosa Johnson Butler-it captures Angelou at home, at work, and in the public eye. Listeners who have come to know and love Maya Angelou will be surprised and delighted by this personal portrait of the renowned poet, author, playwright, and humanitarian.
Why we love it!
Written by her niece and longtime friends — and featuring a foreword by Oprah Winfrey — this intimate portrait of acclaimed writer, activist, and poet Maya Angelou is both a tribute and a rare glimpse of the artist’s inner world.
Click here to learn more about Maya Angelou audiobook.
4. Terrible Virtue by Ellen Feldman
Audiobook Summary:
In the spirit of The Paris Wife and Loving Frank, the provocative and compelling story of one of the most fascinating and influential figures of the twentieth century: Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood—an indomitable woman who, more than any other, and at great personal cost, shaped the sexual landscape we inhabit today.
The daughter of a hard-drinking, smooth-tongued free thinker and a mother worn down by thirteen children, Margaret Sanger vowed her life would be different. Trained as a nurse, she fought for social justice beside labor organizers, anarchists, socialists, and other progressives, eventually channeling her energy to one singular cause: legalizing contraception. It was a battle that would pit her against puritanical, patriarchal lawmakers, send her to prison again and again, force her to flee to England, and ultimately change the lives of women across the country and around the world.
Why we love it!
A captivating account of Margaret Sanger’s transformation from a working-class wife into a leading advocate for women’s rights who founded Planned Parenthood and fought to legalize contraception.
Click here to learn more about Terrible Virtue audiobook.
5. Queen of Bebop by Elaine M. Hayes
Audiobook Summary:
Sarah Vaughan, a pivotal figure in the formation of bebop, influenced a broad array of singers who followed in her wake, yet the breadth and depth of her impact—not just as an artist, but also as an African-American woman—remain overlooked.
Drawing from a wealth of sources as well as on exclusive interviews with Vaughan’s friends and former colleagues, Queen of Bebop unravels the many myths and misunderstandings that have surrounded Vaughan while offering insights into this notoriously private woman, her creative process, and, ultimately, her genius. Hayes deftly traces the influence that Vaughan’s singing had on the perception and appreciation of vocalists—not to mention women—in jazz. She reveals how, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Vaughan helped desegregate American airwaves, opening doors for future African-American artists seeking mainstream success, while also setting the stage for the civil rights activism of the 1960s and 1970s. She follows Vaughan from her hometown of Newark, New Jersey, and her first performances at the Apollo, to the Waldorf Astoria and on to the world stage, breathing life into a thrilling time in American music nearly lost to us today.
Equal parts biography, criticism, and good old-fashioned American success story, Queen of Bebop is the definitive biography of a hugely influential artist. This absorbing and sensitive treatment of a singular personality updates and corrects the historical record on Vaughan and elevates her status as a jazz great.
Why we love it!
A fascinating account of one of the most influential and innovative musicians of the twentieth century and a pioneer of women’s and civil rights.
Click here to learn more about Queen of Bebop audiobook.
More Audiobooks for Women’s History Month
Are you looking for more audiobooks that highlight the achievements of women? The following are some selections from our favorite audiobook services:
