In honor of March being Women’s History Month, The Big Read—blog of the National Endowment for the Arts—has compiled a list of the 15 most fearless female literary characters.
Those who made the cut include Jo March from Little Women, Janie Crawford from Their Eyes Were Watching God, Ma Joad from The Grapes of Wrath and Anne Elliot from Persuasion.
Anne over Elizabeth Bennet? No Lisbeth Salander? Readers, what do you think of the list? Who do you think is missing?
Scout—one of my favorites—made the list.
If you’re hungry for more, check out this list of our favorite female heroines.
Dagny Taggart (Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand)
You can’t get much more fearless than Mattie Ross in True Grit!
Kate, I was just about to post the same! She’s wonderful. I also really loved Mina Murray-Harker from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I thought she was a really strong and intelligent female character for the time period in which the book was written.