Less than a third of assigned reading in U.S. colleges is written by a woman. But who are the women authors that are being assigned? WordTips analyzed 300,000 English Literature syllabi in U.S. colleges using OpenSyllabus.org to see, and these are the results.
While Frankenstein took the top spot on the list, WordTips also analyzed the most assigned female authors, which causes authors with a larger body of work — like Virginia Woolf and Toni Morrison — to take higher spots on the list.
Most Assigned Women Novelists In American Colleges
- Virginia Woolf
- Toni Morrison
- Mary Shelley
- Jane Austen
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Most states agreed on Frankenstein as their most-assigned novel written by a woman, but the second most common pick shows a little more variety, as the graphic below demonstrates.
Check out the full analysis at WordTips, including the difference between books assigned in public colleges and Ivy League schools.
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