UVA Library celebrates Women’s History Month with book and film suggestions, discussed below. These selections from Library staff are intended to inspire learning about the accomplishments of women.
Reading Challenge: Four Centuries of Women’s Gothic
It’s not too late to participate in UVA Library’s reading challenge for 2025! Join other UVA students, faculty, and staff, as well as folks from around the nation, in reading Gothic literature written by women authors. The challenge begins with an early Gothic novel written in the 18th century and will move chronologically to end with contemporary 21st-century Gothic fiction. There’s a different book each month and the opportunity to engage in discussions and special events. Readers will be able to earn a customized bookplate for each book they read.
There are two ways to participate:
- Join the Facebook group to follow and participate in the conversation.
- OR, join our email list! We will send content to your inbox in one convenient monthly email.
Novels
“A Pair of Wings: A Novel Inspired by Pioneer Aviatrix Bessie Coleman” by Carole Hopson (Henry Holt and Company, 2024)
UVA alumna and airline pilot Carole Hopson recreates the emotional life and the times of a woman “who forced two distinct but parallel phenomena that came to define America —ingenuity and racial intolerance — to intersect.” Denied training in the United States because of her race, Coleman expatriated to France and then Germany, where she won the esteem of pioneer aviators initially skeptical of her abilities because of her sex. Hopson’s novel wonderfully describes Coleman’s love of flight and her feelings for the people she encounters. It compellingly introduces many early 20th-century figures likely to be unfamiliar to most readers.
— Keith Weimer, Librarian for History and Religious Studies
“Dead in Long Beach, California” by Venita Blackburn (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2024)
A mysterious narrator(s?) recounts one momentous week of Coral’s life. They pepper the text with Coral’s memories, excerpts from her recently published post-apocalyptic graphic novel, fan fiction of that novel, truth bombs, and insights from various “clinics,” such as the Clinic for Telling Lies to Avoid Pending Death. It’s a lot, but it’s also a sparing, jolting ride into one woman's grief for her brother. One more thing: if you have a long afternoon, you can read this in one sitting. Don't you just love when that happens?
— Leigh Rockey, Librarian for Collections Management and Video Resources
“The Courageous Six Triple Eight; The All-Black Female Battalion of World War II” by Dr. Artika R. Tyner (Capstone Press, 2023)
This children’s graphic novel explores the experiences of the first female all-Black battalion in United States history. Dr. Artika R. Tyner takes the reader through the life of Lieutenant Charity Adams Earley from childhood to the newly formed Women’s Army Corps (WAC), where Earley rose to unprecedented ranks and led her troops through several overseas deployments. While the book highlights the incredible successes of the 6888th, it juxtaposes these achievements against Jim Crow laws and racism within the military. The 6888th faced a unique challenge: operating the military postal service while standing up for their own rights in the face of both sexism and racism. With great persistence, they flourished. The book and its design are uplifting and inspiring, as well as a great remembrance of soldiers and women previously excluded from the American historical narrative.
— Evelyn Garey, Senior Administrative Assistant to the Office of the Dean of Libraries
Non-fiction
“Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter of Monticello: Her Life and Times” by Cynthia A. Kierner (University of North Carolina Press, 2012)
Cynthia Kierner’s award-winning biography of Martha Jefferson Randolph adds an enriching complexity to the Jefferson family and their life at Monticello. As the daughter of Thomas Jefferson, Martha received an education beyond that of most women of her time. She excelled at math and financials and was known as her father’s most treasured child. While rearing 11 children and supporting a husband struggling with his mental health, Martha maintained Monticello and upheld the Jefferson reputation in social and political circles. Martha worked to keep her family and her home at a central place in United States history, and her unknown contributions are seen in the wide breadth of scholarly material and historical sites dedicated to her father. Kierner’s writing is approachable and makes the reader feel as if they know Martha Randolph, and the biography is a rare opportunity to study a historical woman with a large array of primary sources. Martha Jefferson Randolph’s personal correspondence can also be found in UVA Library’s Special Collections.
— Evelyn Garey, Senior Administrative Assistant to the Office of the Dean of Libraries
Documentary films
“Voices: Our Stories Before Roe v. Wade” (Roco Films, 2024)
Women in a senior living center in California banded together in 2023 to create and perform a play depicting true experiences of abortions, many of them their own stories, in the United States before 1973. This short, impactful film listens to the women involved and serves as a revelation of the joy they have found in their long lives, despite being subjected to the horror of secret, demeaning, often brutal, and always life-threatening abortion procedures when they were young. When the Dobbs v. Jackson decision by the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, these women stepped forward to tell us things they had never told anyone. Will we pay attention?
— Leigh Rockey, Librarian for Collections Management and Video Resources
“Groundbreakers” (PBS, 2023)
Trailblazing athletes from several generations engage each other in revealing, occasionally shocking interviews about their remarkable accomplishments amidst adversity. Legendary tennis player and equity advocate Billie Jean King hosts this series as Suni Lee, Chloe Kim, Naomi Osaka, and Diana Flores speak with Julie Foudy, Nancy Lieberman, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and King, respectively. There is progress in building parity with men’s sports, especially in the U.S., but it remains true that girls and women experience many hurdles like unequal playing conditions and massive pay gaps. Just last year, for example, WNBA No. 1 draft pick Caitlin Clark signed for $76,000 in her first year while the NBA No. 1 draft pick received $10 million for one year.
— Leigh Rockey, Librarian for Collections Management and Video Resources