Research Guides: Feminism &amp; Intersectionality Resources: Feminism Ebooks

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This library guide is a collaboration with UVU's Women's Success Center and includes a collection of ebooks on feminism and intersectional feminism. This is a starting reading list for this topic. Use the Library Help features in this guide to contact a librarian for assistance finding resources or for help accessing the ebooks.

What is Intersectional Feminism?

The term "intersectionality" was coined in 1989 by law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw. She describes intersectionality as "a lens, a prism, for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other. We tend to talk about race inequality as separate from inequality based on gender, class, sexuality or immigrant status. What’s often missing is how some people are subject to all of these, and the experience is not just the sum of its parts." Intersectional feminism refers to the ways in which feminism and inequality based on gender overlap with other social identities, such as race, class, and sexuality.

Source: Steinmetz, K. (2020, February 20). She coined the term ‘intersectionality’ over 30 years ago. Here’s what it means to her today. Time. https://time.com/5786710/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality/

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Feminism and Intersectional Feminism Ebooks

After the Rise and Stall of American Feminism (Ebook) by Lynn S. Chancer
Publication Date: 2019

In this book, Lynn S. Chancer takes stock of the American feminist movement and engages with a new burst of feminist activism. She articulates four common causes—advancing political and economic equality, allowing intimate and sexual freedom, ending violence against women, and expanding the cultural representation of women—-considering each in turn to assess what has been gained (or not).
Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics (Ebook) by Lynn Fujiwara and Shireen Roshanravan (Editors)
Publication Date: 2018

Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics brings together groundbreaking essays that speak to the relationship between Asian American feminisms, feminist of color work, and transnational feminist scholarship. This collection, featuring work by both senior and rising scholars, considers topics including the politics of visibility, histories of Asian American participation in women of color political formations, accountability for Asian American settler complicities and cross-racial solidarities, and Asian American community-based strategies against state violence as shaped by and tied to women of color feminisms.
Black Women's History of the United States (Ebook) by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross
Publication Date: 2021

A vibrant and empowering history that emphasizes the perspectives and stories of African American women to show how they are—and have always been—instrumental in shaping our country.
Feminism: A Very Short Introduction (Ebook) by Margaret Walters
Publication Date: 2005

This book provides an historical account of feminism, exploring its earliest roots as well as key issues including voting rights, the liberation of the sixties, and its relevance today. Margaret Walters touches on the difficulties and inequities that women still face more than forty years after the "new wave" of 1960s feminism, such as how successful women are at combining domesticity, motherhood, and work outside the house.
Feminism: Reinventing the F-Word (Ebook) by Nadia Abushanab Higgins
Publication Date: 2016

While most people say they believe in equal rights, the word feminism—America's new F-word—makes people uncomfortable. Explore the history of US feminism through pioneers such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, and Gloria Steinem. Meet modern leaders such as Rebecca Walker and Julie Zeilinger, who are striving to empower women at work, in government, at home—and in cultural and personal arenas. Learn from interviews with movement leaders, scholars, pop stars, and average women, what it means to be a feminist—or to reject it altogether. After reading this book, readers will be able to respond to "Am I a feminist?" with a confident, informed voice.
Feminism and Popular Culture (Ebook) by Rebecca Munford and Melanie Waters
Publication Date: 2014

In Feminism and Popular Culture, Rebecca Munford and Melanie Waters consider why the 21st century media landscape is so haunted by the ghosts of traditional figures that feminism otherwise laid to rest. Why, over 50 years since Betty Friedan's critique, does the feminine mystique exert such a strong spectral presence, and how has it been reimagined to speak to the concerns of a postfeminist audience? To answer these questions, Munford and Waters draw from a rich array of examples from contemporary film, fiction, music, and television, from the shadowy cityscapes of Homeland to the haunted houses of American Horror Story.
Finding Feminism: Millennial Activists and the Unfinished Gender Revolution (Ebook) by Alison Dahl Crossley
Publication Date: 2017

In Finding Feminism, Alison Dahl Crossley analyzes feminist activists at three different U.S. colleges, revealing that feminism is alive on campuses, but is complex, nuanced, and context-dependent. Offering a stunning and hopeful portrait of today's young feminist leaders, Finding Feminism provides insight into the contemporary feminist movement in America.
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot (Ebook) by Mikki Kendall
Publication Date: 2020

This book is also available in print.
In her searing collection of essays, Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women. Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hypersexualization, along with incisive commentary on politics, pop culture, the stigma of mental health, and more, Hood Feminism delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux.
I Am a Feminist (Ebook) by Monique Polak
Publication Date: 2019

What is feminism? Why does it still matter? What exactly does intersectionality mean? In order to answer these (and many other) questions, I Am a Feminist first examines the history of feminism and then addresses the issues girls and women continue to face today. The book also looks at the ways in which people, especially young people, are working together to create a world where gender equality is a reality, not a dream.
Intersectional Approach: Transforming the Academy Through Race, Class, and Gender (Ebook) by Michele Tracy Berger and Kathleen Guidroz (Editors)
Publication Date: 2009

Intersectionality, or the consideration of race, class, and gender, is one of the prominent contemporary theoretical contributions made by scholars in the field of women's studies that now broadly extends across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Taking stock of this transformative paradigm, The Intersectional Approach guides new and established researchers to engage in a critical reflection about the broad adoption of intersectionality that constitutes what the editors call a new "social literacy" for scholars.
Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings (Ebook) by Joanna Brooks, Rachel Hunt Steenblik, and Hannah Wheelwright (Editors)
Publication Date: 2016

This groundbreaking collection gathers together for the first time the essential writings of the contemporary Mormon feminist movement—from its historic beginnings in the 1970s to its vibrant present, offering the best Mormon feminist thought and writing. Collecting essays, speeches, poems, and prose, Mormon Feminism presents the diverse voices of Mormon women as they challenge assumptions and stereotypes, push for progress and change in the contemporary LDS Church, and band together with other feminists of faith hoping to build a better world.
Speaking of Feminism: Today's Activists on the Past, Present, and Future of the U.S. Women's Movement (Ebook) by Rachel F. Seidman
Publication Date: 2019

From the Women's Marches to the MeToo movement, it is clear that feminist activism is still alive and well in the 21st century. In Speaking of Feminism, Rachel F. Seidman presents insights from 25 feminist activists from around the United States, ranging in age from 20 to 50. Allowing their voices to take center stage through the use of in-depth oral history interviews, Seidman places their narratives in historical context and argues that they help explain how recent new forms of activism developed and flourished so quickly.
Transatlantic Feminisms: Women and Gender Studies in Africa and the Diaspora (Ebook) by Cheryl R. Rodriguez (Editor)
Publication Date: 2015

Transatlantic Feminisms is an interdisciplinary collection of original feminist research on women's lives in Africa and the African diaspora. Demonstrating the power and value of transcontinental connections and exchanges between feminist thinkers, this unique collection of fifteen essays addresses the need for global perspectives on gender, ethnicity, race and class. Examining diverse topics and questions in contemporary feminist research, the authors describe and analyze women's lives in a host of vibrant, compelling locations