Famous Female Journalists and Nonfiction Writers a to z

Joy Adamson was a conservationist who pioneered the movement to preserve African wildlife. She won renown with her books about raising the lion cub Elsa.

Nicaraguan writer Claribel Alegria, a major voice in contemporary Central American literature, was known for her volume of poetry, Flowers from the Volcano.

Isabel Allende is a Chilean author best known for penning novels in the style of magic realism. She is the niece of former Chilean president Salvador Allende.

Susan B. Anthony was a prominent American civil rights activist and leader during the women's suffrage movement of the 1800s.

Brooke Astor was a philanthropist who served on the boards of many cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian award-winning writer best known for her poetry, short-stories and novels such as The Circle Game, The Handmaid’s Tale, Snowbird and The Tent.

Daisy Bates was an African American civil rights activist and newspaper publisher who documented the battle to end segregation in Arkansas.

Valerie Bertinelli is an actress and spokesperson known for her roles in the TV sitcom One Day at a Time and Hot in Cleveland.

Maeve Binchy was the author of various literary works, including 16 novels. Her most popular books include Light a Penny Candle, Echoes, Circle of Friends and Tara Road.

The daughter of famous suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriot Stanton Blatch continued her mother's work in the women's rights movement.

Amelia Bloomer was a women's rights activist. She advocated for changes in women's fashion that would be less restrictive. "Bloomers" are named after her.

Nellie Bly was an American journalist known for her investigative and undercover reporting. She earned acclaim in 1887 for her exposé on the conditions of patients at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, and achieved further fame after the New York World sent her on a trip around the world in 1889.

Humorist, writer, columnist and journalist Erma Bombeck found the humor in the everyday experiences of being a wife and mother and shared it with her readers.

Maeve Brennan was an Irish short story writer and journalist known for her wit, charm and tragic end.

Author Paula Broadwell made headlines in 2012, when her extramarital affair with U.S. General David Petraeus was uncovered.

Dr. Joyce Brothers was a famous psychologist and multimedia personality known for dispensing frank advice on relationships, intimacy, sexuality and self-worth.

Helen Churchill Candee was a writer and a survivor of the RMS Titanic disaster.

Rachel Carson was a marine biologist, environmentalist and writer who alerted the world to the environmental impact of fertilizers and pesticides.

Judy Chicago is an American artist, educator and writer, and a leading figure in feminist art. She received critical acclaim in the 1970s for her art project "The Dinner Party."

TV chef and author Julia Child adapted complex French cooking for everyday Americans, with her groundbreaking cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Connie Chung is known as the first Asian and the second woman to anchor one of America’s major network news programs. She has worked at CBS, ABC, NBC and CNN.

Cicely Saunders was a nurse, social worker who founded the first modern hospice, St. Christopher's Hospice, in 1967 to provide palliative care to those in need.

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter has insulted Jews, 9/11 widows and a variety of Democratic politicians, yet she continues to have a loyal fan base.

Dorothy Day was an activist who worked for such social causes as pacifism and women's suffrage through the prism of the Catholic Church.

French writer Simone de Beauvoir laid the foundation for the modern feminist movement. Also an existentialist philosopher, she had a romance with Sartre.

Christine de Pisan was a prolific and versatile French poet and author whose diverse writings include love poems, a biography, and works championing women.

American dancer and choreographer Agnes DeMille further developed the narrative aspect of dance in her choreography of musical plays and ballets.

Esther Dyson, named by Forbes magazine as one of the most powerful women in American business, is regarded as one of the most influential voices in technology.

Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer and human-rights activist. She was the first female judge in Iran, and won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize.

Mary Baker Eddy was a Christian religious reformer and founder of the religious denomination known as Christian Science.

Laura Esquivel is the author of Like Water for Chocolate, an imaginative and compelling combination of novel and cookbook, as well as other books.

Author and activist Myrlie Evers-Williams was the wife of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers, and served as chair of the NAACP 1995–1998.

American feminist and journalist Susan Faludi wrote Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, which argues that the media distort news about women.

Jessie Fauset was a teacher and writer who worked as editor for The Crisis magazine, and penned the novels Comedy: American Style and Plum Bun.

Bethenny Frankel starred on the reality-TV show The Real Housewives of New York City and two spinoffs. She also launched the brand Skinnygirl.

Writer, feminist and women's rights activist Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique (1963) and co-founded the National Organization for Women.

Matilda Joslyn Gage was an author and one of the leading figures in the women's rights and suffrage movement that began in the mid-1800s.

Martha Gellhorn was a distinguished war correspondent who covered every war that occurred across the globe over a period extending nearly 60 years.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is best known for authoring biographies of American presidents, including Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Photographer and activist Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore, co-founded the Parents' Music Resource Center, and was Clinton’s mental health advisor.

Abolitionist and feminist Sarah Moore Grimké and her sister Angelina were the first women to testify before a state legislature on the issue of blacks' rights.

Maxine Hong Kingston is a Chinese American author of memoirs and fiction. Her best known work is The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among the Ghosts.

Arianna Huffington is a prolific author and international media mogul who started the award-winning news platform The Huffington Post.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault is best known as one of two African-American students first admitted to the University of Georgia and is an award-winning journalist.

Distinguished journalist and television news correspondent Gwen Ifill is one of the most successful female African-American reporters of all time.

Naturalist Terri Irwin is well-known as the widow of wildlife expert Steve Irwin. The couple co-hosted the Animal Planet show The Crocodile Hunter.

Author and activist Jane Jacobs wrote about preserving urban neighborhoods, in books like The Death and Life of Great American Cities and Dark Age Ahead.

June Jordan was an African American author who investigated both social and personal concerns through poetry, essays, and drama.

Judith Sheindlin, or Judge Judy as she is known, is a no-nonsense courtroom presence on the TV show Judge Judy.

Raden Adjeng Kartini is a Javanese noblewoman and is best known as a pioneer in the area of women's rights for native Indonesians.

American educator Helen Keller overcame the adversity of being blind and deaf to become one of the 20th century's leading humanitarians, as well as co-founder of the ACLU.

Writer and aviation pioneer Anne Morrow Lindbergh was married to aviator Charles Lindbergh. The couple’s child was kidnapped for ransom and murdered in 1932.

Lulu is a Scottish-born singer who performed "To Sir With Love" and appeared in the classic film of the same name alongside Sidney Poitier.

Journalist, television personality and author Joan London was on Good Morning America for nearly two decades, and was one of the most popular TV co-hosts.

Shirley MacLaine is one of Hollywood's legendary leading ladies, known for a vast span of films that include The Apartment, Sweet Charity and Terms of Endearment.

Though best known for her fictional novel, Deerbrook, British author Harriet Martineau also wrote about economics and social theory.

Anne Moody is an African-American author whose writings about her personal and political struggles during the American Civil Rights Movement became classic.

Asra Nomani is known for her fight for women's equality in the American Islamic community.

Mary White Ovington was a civil rights activist and one of the white reformers who helped found the NAACP.

Dorothy Parker was the sharpest wit of the Algonquin Round Table, as well as a master of short fiction and a blacklisted screenwriter.

Lucy Parsons was an activist who was politically radical for her times and one of the first minority activists.

Ann Patchett is an American novelist best known for her PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novel Bel Canto.

Pearl Bailey was a Tony Award-winning singer and actress known for her roles in works like Carmen Jones, House of Flowers, Hello, Dolly! and Porgy and Bess.

Annie Smith Peck was a trailblazing scholar, writer and athlete who set records as a mountain climber in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Anna Quindlen is the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and bestselling novelist who wrote the books One True Thing and Object Lessons.

Adrienne Rich is a U.S. poet, scholar and critic whose work exhibits her commitment to the women's movement and a lesbian/feminist aesthetic influence.

Journalist Marlene Sanders was both the first woman to anchor a nightly network newscast and the first female field correspondent in the Vietnam War.