Women at the heart of our reading list
Discover a selection of books that highlight women’s journeys, challenges, and commitments. Through analyses of the professional world, reflections on society, and compelling narratives, these readings offer different perspectives on the place of women in society.
Women and leadership
Entrepreneurship, governance and professionnal success
Femmes et gouvernance (2023) : A key exploration of the roles women play, and should play, in decision-making processes. Bringing together contributions from the international conference of the same name, testimonials from women who completed a Doctorate in Business Administration, and reflections from engaged organizations, the book offers a wide range of perspectives and personal experiences.
Femmes et start-up (2023) : Innovative, determined, ambitious, and driving new ways of working, producing, and caring—female founders are active on every front. Women’s entrepreneurship is a source of inspiration and optimism, and we are only at the beginning of this revolution.
The pocket MBA (2023) : This book gives aspiring female leaders and business owners the strategies and tools that will help them develop their self-awareness, challenge the status quo, and adopt strategies to make sure their voice and their ideas cut through in the business world.
Take the lead (2024) : Only 26% of leadership positions in business are occupied by women. This book explores how we can close this prevailing gender gap before offering practical strategies on how you can Take the Lead as a business leader.
Women and society
Understanding inequalities and transformations in the workplace
Patriarchy(2025) : With perceptive and razor-sharp insight, award-winning author Cordelia Fine reveals how the status quo – Patriarchy Inc. – is harming us all, in our working lives and beyond.
L’entreprise du XXIème siècle sera féministe (2021) : this book explores feminist critiques of the corporate world, offering a more radical perspective on the relationship between management and feminism. It argues that it is both possible and necessary to reinvent forms of work organization that are truly feminist.
Career & Family (2021) : Claudia Goldin s’appuie sur des décennies de recherches complexes pour examiner l’écart salarial entre les sexes et la répartition inégale du travail entre les couples à la maison.
The Broken rung (2025) : the authors argue that the biggest barrier to women’s careers is not the glass ceiling but the first promotion, where women are promoted less often than men. Drawing on research and interviews, the book offers strategies to build “experience capital” and advance professionally.
Women’s stories
Novels and compelling narratives
Les victorieuses (2019) : After a burnout, Solène volunteers at the Palais de la Femme in Paris, meeting residents with difficult pasts. Parallelly, a century earlier, Blanche Peyron works to help marginalized women. A novel celebrating female resilience and solidarity.
Les chuchotantes (2022) : Fifteen women, fifteen destinies. From a seventeenth-century peasant woman to a young girl today, they belong to the same maternal lineage passed down from mother to daughter. Each story in this collection paints a portrait, inviting readers to discover the often overlooked lives of rural women, marked by resilience and extraordinary courage. The hardships of farm work, motherhood, relationships with men, and everyday joys and sorrows unfold against the backdrop of major historical events.
Le chant des oubliées (2025) : In this deeply moving novel, Kristin Hannah pays tribute to the women who served during the Vietnam War—heroes whose stories were long overlooked in American history.