Strong Female Characters Written by Female Authors

There are many books out there, old and new that were written by women. Most of these great authors write about strong female protagonists.
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1,676 books · 1,392 voters · list created May 20th, 2010 by Linda (votes) .
172 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Linda 165 books
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Nicholas 264 books
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Megan 1088 books
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Kay 882 books
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Comments Showing 1-18 of 18 (18 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Lynn (new)

Lynn Marston I'm not sure who made this list, but just so they know. Terry Pratchett is a guy.


message 2: by Lynn (new)

Lynn Marston So is Steig Larsson for that matter. I think someone lost sight of the point of the list.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Removed, on account of the author being male:

The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larsson


message 4: by Ki (last edited Oct 27, 2012 07:14PM) (new)

Ki Longfellow Nathanael West is a male. He wrote The Day of the Locusts. William Styron is also male.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Removed, on account of the author being male:

The Secret Hour, by Scott Westerfeld


message 6: by Kelley (new)

Kelley Laura Ann Gilman's "Flesh and Fire" (no. 611) does not belong on this list. Though written by a woman, it is a deliberately male-centric book with women relegated to very minor roles.


Theresa~OctoberLace #352 - Under the Dome by Stephen King? How did that get on this list?


message 8: by Books4life12 (new)

Books4life12 How did Twilight get on the list?


message 9: by Kelley (new)

Kelley That book turns up on nearly every "strong female" list, despite having one of the weakest heroines of the past three decades -- so weak that her name can be used as a synonym for "weak heroine." I don't get it either.


message 10: by Books4life12 (new)

Books4life12 Kelley wrote: "That book turns up on nearly every "strong female" list, despite having one of the weakest heroines of the past three decades -- so weak that her name can be used as a synonym for "weak heroine." I..."
It really is sad what girls of this generation view as "strong" :(


message 11: by CS (new)

CS Under the Dome by Stephen King (Goodreads Author) needs to be removed.


message 12: by Willow (new)

Willow Crystal Starr Light wrote: "Under the Dome by Stephen King (Goodreads Author) needs to be removed."

Stephen King isn't a female? lolol


message 13: by Linda (new)

Linda Wow, I added this list a while ago and you guys have exploded it!! There are a lot of books to try out and I keep finding great female authors to add. Thank you for regulating the list and keeping it with strong women by strong women!


message 14: by Kelley (new)

Kelley "IQ84" (#852) needs to be removed. Its author is male (VERY male, if reviews are accurate).


message 15: by Juniper (new)

Juniper 8 duplicates found and removed (automatic function in 'edit list' settings, list of titles not given and i wasn't quick thinking enough to note them down as i was encountering them. i am sorry about that. 'the bell jar' for sure was one duplicate.)


message 16: by Elyse✨ (new)

Elyse✨ Should we list non-fiction biographies and memoirs? The list creator says strong female CHARACTERS. I take the word characters as meaning women a female author created - not real women. I have many biographies and memoirs I could list but I'm not sure that's what the list creator wants.


message 17: by Kelley (new)

Kelley I’m pretty sure Daniel Woodrell (#299, Winter’s Bone) is a man.


message 18: by Chris (new)

Chris Should we remove the nonfiction books? I love that this list has so much fiction but not sure the nonfiction books should be here as I am thinking this is just a fiction list.


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