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The Great Book of Badass Women: 15 Fearless and Inspirational Women that Changed History

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There have been countless badass women who have changed the world for the better, yet most people have never even heard of them.

Women throughout history have fought for their rights and the rights of others, defended their countries during wartime, healed the sick and the wounded, invented new technologies, led countries, made inspiring art, and so much more.

This collection of biographies and quick trivia facts will tell the stories of the courageous and tenacious women who have paved the way for the women of the future.In The Great Book of Badass Women you’ll get to

Ching from Prostitute to Pirate QueenRuth Bader Notorious Supreme Court JusticeFrida Trailblazer, Artist, IconThe Mirabal Revolutionaries and MartyrsHedy Inventor and Beauty QueenAnd 10 other extremely badass women!There have been so many badass women in history, that it was nearly impossible to choose only 15 of them.

Although women—especially women of color—have largely been excluded from our history books, these unsung heroes have always been there, kicking ass. By telling their stories, we preserve their legacies and inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

Grab a copy now and get ready to be inspired by the stories of some of history’s most badass women!

143 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 4, 2020

143 people are currently reading
118 people want to read

About the author

Rachel Walsh

6 books

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5 stars
97 (36%)
4 stars
78 (29%)
3 stars
66 (24%)
2 stars
21 (7%)
1 star
4 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
Profile Image for Sascha Cornelius.
7 reviews1 follower
December 27, 2020
Incredibly poorly written and injects biographies of inspirational feminist figures with unfeminist messages such as “she had no time for marriage and children because she spent her life working”, “it’s rare to be both beautiful and smart”, and “she starred in movies because she was beautiful (not a talented actress)”.

Good concept poorly executed; try Vashti Harrison’s Visionary Women Around The World instead.
Profile Image for Tracy.
698 reviews55 followers
June 19, 2024
This book covers some women I knew nothing about and others I did know of. I enjoyed certain articles about Hedy Lamarr and Nancy Wake. Two people I knew nothing about. Not the best writing but helped me tackle learning more about these people.
Profile Image for Lauren Crofts.
212 reviews5 followers
May 31, 2021
What a fantastic book, reading it made me extremely proud to be a woman.
I have only one negative which is that the book was almost written as an essay? It seemed slightly too casual, however..
I learned a lot about the women featured, some of them that i’ve heard of before and others that I have not, so reading about their journeys definitely made up for the style of writing.
These women changed history as we know it, protesting for our rights to vote, creating waves in the medical field, standing up for educational rights, and female rights altogether. I want to continue their fight until women are equal to men and have the same rights in life as they do. Let’s make these hero’s proud.
Profile Image for Madelyn Lewis.
55 reviews1 follower
December 29, 2023
great concept for a book- love the celebration of women’s contributions. i did learn from this book and am inspired to consume more media about some of these women. however it was quite poorly written and read like a 5th grader’s essay.
Profile Image for Jamie Bee.
Author 1 book122 followers
September 21, 2020
Awesome Book that Left Me Wanting More

I loved this book! I have read other books by Mr. O’Neill and had a feeling I would like this book as well. As a woman, I appreciated that he has now written a book about some of the incredible women in history and still living. You'll see women here that you're familiar with, like Florence Nightingale, Malala, and Marie Curie. There's even a chapter dedicated to our recently departed Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But there are also women here whom you've never heard of... but perhaps should have. I appreciate that the authors included women of color, like Sojourner Truth and Henrietta Lacks—I was particularly happy to see the latter as her story fascinated me when I took Microbiology in nursing school. Each lady has a chapter that details her life, including a look at what she did that makes her a woman of influence and note. At the end of each lady’s chapter is a short set of fun facts. My only complaint is that the authors decided to restrict themselves to just 15 women. Mr. O’Neill recently did another book on American heroes, which was 32 stories of mostly white men (just 4 women and 5 people of color). Why didn't the ladies deserve to have at least as many stories about them? Although I believe this book should have featured more women, what is here is fantastic and empowering for both women and girls. Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.

My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com
Profile Image for Nicole Geub.
987 reviews1 follower
February 12, 2021
A very good short introduction to 15 badass women. Some already known and popular and some unknown to me. It was a pleasure getting to finally learn about Nancy Wake and Huda Sha'arawi. There were a couple points in the book where phrases like "it's rare to be pretty and smart" or "bouts of depression" that kinda threw me off but aside from that i reminded myself it's a short into to these women in history.
Either way, i highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to learn more about women who lived their best lives.
Profile Image for Tegan Brinkman.
347 reviews
November 9, 2020
There are many great women so it must have been hard to limit the number
History has some great women but this focuses more on the modern era rather than the ancient

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
185 reviews
January 23, 2021
Although they were all really interesting stories it bothered me that it was on no order based on year.. The back in forth confused me on time frame. Also I think this would be a great book to use in schools if they did not use sex in the first chapter. Just my opinion.
Profile Image for Tanairis.
7 reviews1 follower
August 31, 2022
Finally a book for women of powerful women. Loved going back and reading stories about great ladies of different times and how much they came forward to help us where we are now. I wish Rachel and Bill could've picked more timeless women as well but hey maybe they'll come back with more.
Profile Image for Tomorrow.
19 reviews1 follower
September 15, 2023
Poorly written essays about strong women. I don’t recommend this text at all. It is problematic in both quality of writing and outdated (published 2020) concepts about women, enslavement, disability, etc.
8 reviews
September 10, 2020
It was a great book. It shows what you can do with determination. It was great to see how many women have made a difference in our lives.
Profile Image for Esonja.
415 reviews5 followers
October 25, 2020
A friendly all-ages little book that’s getting an extra star for being a thoughtful heart-lightening gift/boost from my guy.
Profile Image for Megan .
203 reviews2 followers
February 10, 2021
Just okay. An easy read with some good information, but I didn't feel like I had learned much after I read it.
1 review
February 25, 2021
Didn't put it down

Read this book in one burst, learned so much from it but it has also given me the boost to read more into these fantastic women and to discover others
1,017 reviews1 follower
May 1, 2022
Did you know?

15 women biographies some I did not know is filled with facts from their individual lives. I found most of them interesting.
Profile Image for Caitlin Dugdale.
18 reviews
January 24, 2023
I loved this book!! It really reminded me of “Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls” it was so inspiring! All of the 15 women were completely badass!
Profile Image for Sherry.
7 reviews
October 17, 2023
A quick read full of historical significance. Definitely recommend this book.
13 reviews
November 27, 2023
15 Fearless Women

We need these women and many more like them to be in schools history books. Payne who discovered many things in astronomy and physics.
7 reviews
October 21, 2025
Is a very bad executed book. A good concept but really poorly done. Some stories really not very woman empowering as don't really show how that particular woman did to become badass but I guess as that is a man on the team make sense. I really had notice that's two different author until later but you can physically feel the difference and how the story are tell some are really good others are terrible.
Profile Image for Tilly Kerr.
27 reviews
August 5, 2022
Really did learn about some strong empowering women. Short and concise and very factual. Great little read.
Profile Image for KATY.
191 reviews4 followers
November 29, 2024
Great opening into some of the great women of our history but the writing isn't amazing. One to lay foundations and so additional research around.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews

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