Women’s emancipation* and the history of bicycling go hand in handlebars. I’ve had the privilege of meeting so many outstanding women leaders in the movements for better bicycling and safer streets; I just wish each and every one of them had written a book I could list here. Maybe some are in the works—who knows? I do have books by women on broader topics that will show up in other posts; this list is focused very directly on books by women, about women riding, just in time for Women’s History Month.

*Historical footnote: References to “women’s emancipation” refer to the passage of the 19th amendment to the Constitution. Introduced in 1919, it passed the House and Senate and 36 states ratified it; its adoption was certified Aug. 26, 1920. What it did not do was extend full voting rights to African-American, Asian-American, Latina, and Native American women. A combination of state laws, threats, taxes, and other barriers meant these women had to keep fighting for full voting rights for decades. We still have to fight for every woman, trans woman, and non-binary person to feel safe riding or walking down the street.

“The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.” —Maya Angelou

Updated to add editorial note: I haven’t read all of these yet. I got some great recommendations by publishing an initial list and am continuing to add. I’ve reorganized a bit to group the how-to, history, and travel topics.

• Women on Wheels, by April Streeter
• Revolutions: How Women Changed the World on Two Wheels, by Hannah Ross
• The Bicycling Big Book of Cycling for Women: Everything You Need to Know for Whatever, Whenever, and Wherever You Ride, by Selene Yeager and the editors of Bicycling Magazine
• Our Bodies, Our Bikes, edited by Elly Blue and April Streeter
• Pedal, Stretch, Breathe: The Yoga of Bicycling, by Kelli Refer
• Bike There and OMG a Bike!, by Bikeyface
• Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (with a Few Flat Tires Along the Way), by Sue Macy (source of the featured image on this post)
• Bikes and Bloomers: Victorian Women Inventors and their Extraordinary Cycle Wear, by Kat Jungnickel
• Bicycling for Ladies – With Hints as to the Art of Wheeling, Advice to Beginners, Dress, Care of the Bicycle, Mechanics, Training, Exercise, Etc., by Mary or Maria Ward (editions vary), first published in 1896
• Stand: A memoir on activism. A manual for progress. What really happens when we stand on the front lines of change., by Kathryn Bertine
• As Good as Gold, by Kathryn Bertine
• Where There’s a Will: Hope, Grief and Endurance in a Cycle Race Across a Continent, by Emily Chappell
• Queens of Pain: Legends & Rebels of Cycling, by Isabel Best
• Seeing Myself Seeing the World: A Woman’s Journey Around the World on a Bicycle, by Sally Vantress-Lodato
• Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, by Dervla Murphy
• Somewhere and Nowhere: A Bicycle Journey Across America, by Emily Buehler
• This Road I Ride: Sometimes It Takes Losing Everything to Find Yourself, by Juliana Buhring
• Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road, by Kate Harris
• Bicycling with Butterflies: My 10,201-Mile Journey Following the Monarch Migration, by Sara Dykman
• Miles from Nowhere: A Round-The-World Bicycle Adventure, by Barbara Savage
• A Bike Ride: 12,000 Miles Around the World, by Anne Mustoe
• Lone Traveller: One Woman, Two Wheels and the World, by Anne Mustoe
• Two Wheels in the Dust: From Kathmandu to Kandy, by Anne Mustoe
• Cleopatra’s Needle: Two Wheels by the Water to Cairo, by Anne Mustoe
• Amber, Furs and Cockleshells: Bike Rides with Pilgrims and Merchants, by Anne Mustoe
• Che Guevara and the Mountain of Silver: By Bicycle and Train Through South America, by Anne Mustoe
• You & a Bike & a Road by Eleanor Davis
• A Canterbury Pilgrimage/An Italian Pilgrimage by Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell

Some of the book links are affiliate links for Bookshop; any affiliate funds received will be donated to organizations supporting women, bicycling, and safer streets. Support your local bookstore in person or via purchases on Bookshop.org, or ask for these books at your local library so others can read them after you.