This is a wonderful book. They are short biographies of illustrations of women who changed the world. They come from all time periods and backgrounds. Most of the women are well known but there are some hidden gems. This books makes a great starting point to learn more about them. Enjoy

This is a great resource for a teacher or librarian. The chapter-length biographies can help you refresh your knowledge or decide who you need to find out more about in a book-length biography. There are lots of photos, and good representation of people from a variety of backgrounds.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is a collection of essays about 52 pioneering women who were ‘modern’ for the time period they lived in.

There are quite a few of these types of books around at the moment and I think this book fell short as I have read some others that I have preferred. The essays about each woman in this book were fairly short biographies. I tend to prefer longer more in depth studies such as Jenni Murray’s books.

There were however a good range of women explored and several who I did not know about previously which was interesting.

A good book but unfortunately it is a little late to an oversaturated market.

This book offers a brief introduction to the lives of each of the 52 women, which makes sense when you consider how slim the volume is. I appreciate this kind of book as it can lead to discovering people I was unfamiliar with and leads me down a rabbit hole of research (and gives me an excuse to buy other books), but at the same time I am annoyed that some of my favorite people's lives and accomplishments are condensed into two or three pages.

I really enjoyed this book. It contain short biographies of 52 amazing women - it only gives you snippets and, of course, if any of them sparks interest you can research further. It is quite hard for them not to spark interests because most of this women were really cool and ahead of their times!

I did not know many of them, and that was a pleasant surprise. It's also quite diverse - although it could be even more (more than half of them are American/English, and the world is full of amazing women).

It was a joy to read, but at the same time it angered me when I read how society used to be in the time of some of these women. Ugh!

Modern Women is a beautiful compilation of memoirs to different women who have impacted the world in one way or another.

The only negative is it expired on my NetGalley App before I had a chance to finish it.

What an inspiring book! I hadn't heard of all of the women in this book when I started reading it but it has definitely taught me that feminism and women's rights activism is nothing new. Some really harrowing stories of how women have overcome impossible situations not just for themselves but also fall women-kind. I am proud to be a woman and thats because of these women in this book who fought so hard to give us the freedom we have today.

“Feminism isn’t something that you are, it’s something that you do”

Modern Women is a collection of mini biographies that celebrate influential and incredibly inspiring women who have changed the world through their lives, work and actions. Whether they were suffragettes, scientists, activists, politicians, artists or pilots, they all paved the way for gender equality in their own way.

I LOVED learning more about all these incredible ladies, and felt incredibly empowered reading about them. This book just shows the impact of actions, no matter how small.

Honourable mention to Maya Angelou who is literally one of my main inspirations in life (her biography just made me have so much respect and love for her as a person). But I loved learning more about other cool women, such as the abolitionist Harriet Tubman, Audre Lorde, Frida Kahlo and so many more.

Each chapter is the perfect length for giving you a surface level summary of each of their lives – I will definitely be reading more about some of them because their lives are so interesting and I want to learn more. I’d definitely recommend this and will be buying a copy when I can so I can refer back to it again and again.

A COLLECTION OF AMAZING WOMEN

These women deserve honorable mentions. They made an impact, shifted the world in some way, either small or big. They fought back and kept going. That's worth commemorating and celebrating. There were som formulaic things, that I didn't quite agree with, but overall this is a worthy book for anyone looking to expand on and add to0 their list of female role models.

👍 What I Liked 👍

Unknown: What I really liked about the selection of women in this book was that many of them were unknown to me. It made it feel like a treasure chest of new, exciting and inspirational material.

Introduction: Each woman is given a cursory introduction in her own chapter, which is just enough to wet your lips and make you want to learn more. I have found several woman, that I have to do more digging on!

👎 What I Disliked 👎

English speaking: 25 (50%) of the women in this book were American. 12 (25%) were British (or from a former British colony). Only 1 woman out of 52 was Asian and only 3 were South American. I felt that the selection of women could have been broader and shown more diversity. There are certainly plenty of worthy women to delve into outside of the English speaking world.

Further reading: As this is a book meant to give you a cursory introduction and to pique the interest of the reader, it would have been great to get a 'Further reading' section for each woman. Of course, Cochrane does mention biographies for some of the women, but not all of them. I would have wanted a section for each woman with biographies, articles, documentaries etc. It would have made this book something even better.

Modern Women is a celebration of influential and inspiring women who have changed the world through their lives, work, and actions. From suffragettes to scientists, activists to artists, politicians to pilots and writers to riot grrrls, the women included have all paved the way for gender equality in their own indomitable way.

As a woman, I feel proud of our history, and this book epitomises all of that proudness. The book contains 52 short stories/introductions explaining females and their mark on history and the modern world.

Great to discuss in a book club, perfect to recognise how many you knew/know, great hisotry lesson for children/teenagers. This is a hard copy would be perfect,

Wonderful piece of work! I wish we had a whole encyclopaedia of all the outstanding women in the world and Modern Women is a great beginning.

This collection of 52 short introductions of some serious bad-ass women was interesting, but I wish there would have been an introduction by the author explaining how she came up with these 52 women. The list is heavily British, but does have women from around the world.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I loved reading about influential women throughout history. The women featured in this book worked toward women’s rights, gender equality, racial equality, and more. I learned about women I had never heard of before and some that I am interested in learning more about.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. The only thing I didn’t particularly like is that there is no introduction or summing up. It felt very abrupt as it goes straight into the first essay and ends immediately after the final one. I would have loved to read about the author’s thoughts and process for selecting the women in the book.

I highly recommend this book for those looking to learn more about women’s history and influence.

The book is split into 52 chapters, one for each of the women that has made an impact on the modern world. The women range from rock stars to astronauts, and covers how they made a difference to both the world but also to greater gender equality.

Each chapter has a photograph of the women at the start, which just be flicking through the book, showed you the full range of women covered and the diversity of the women. I’d not heard of a number of the women, so it was fascinating to learn about their lives, but also about the history of the country and time period that they lived in.

My only disappoint was that each chapter was only a few pages long, and it would have been wonderful to learn more about each woman. This would make a great gift to any young person wanting some motivational inspiration of what can be achieved against the odds.

A book such as this should be available in every school library, but would also make for an interesting coffee table book.

Thank you to the publisher for gifting me advance ebook access to the title.

Modern Women is a triumph!
The strength, desire and determination of these brilliant pioneers is something to savor. Their will was unstoppable. Women from all walks of life have paved the way selflessly. Maya Angelou, Dorothea Lange, Frida Kahlo, Billie Jean King, Audre Lorde (to name a few) made it possible for generations of women and young girls to not only dream but to achieve. The biographical vignettes (accompanied by a photo) are beautiful reminders of the possibilities that lie before us. They are daily reminders to influence, encourage and inspire, This book is a gift and is highly recommended!
My thanks to every champion whose story fill these pages, to Kira Cochrane for this insightful book and to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Interesting book but it didn't go into nearly enough depth for my liking - the biographical entries are more similar to the Little People, Big Dreams series than a book aimed at adults. It's a good starting point I guess - I would have liked a list of suggested further reading.

I'm not sure if it was just the Netgalley version, but the type was a really bad choice - it was really hard to read and some letters seemed to be missing.

This was an inspiring and fascinating read. Highlighting the life and work of 52 incredible women throughout time. Each chapter was well researched and concise so it was easy to read in short bursts. Some familiar names and some that I had never heard of but all had a brilliant story to tell!

Thank you for this copy!

I have recently been striving to expand my knowledge of all things feminist with books championing women, This beautifully put together collection of biographies and stories of impressive women has made a lasting impression with me.

It was wonderful to read more about these inspirational women within their fields, whom some of which I had only heard of a little or not at all.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in return for my unbiased review.

This is a wonderful addition to the selection of feminist compendiums talking about many women who have changed the world who haven't received the attention and legacy they deserved. This was a perfect book to dip in and out of when you're in need of some inspiration.

"Modern Women" by Kira Cochrane was an interesting collection of short biographies on fascinating women in politics, science, sports, entertainment, etc. from history and contemporary times. I enjoyed learning more about women I had heard of briefly and getting to know women I had not heard of before. While it was interesting to read about each individual, I would have appreciated more of a narrative from the author about the story Cochrane was telling about women's progress and achievements as a whole over the past few centuries. That being said, the short chapters made for a quick read, and it was easy to pick up and set down because of the format.