Strong female protagonists
Year 8 English
To support Year 8 English, this page provides reading suggestions of novels that have strong female protagonists.
Last update: May 2021
What makes a strong female protagonist?
Here are some criteria and character traits to consider and look out for:
- A female is the main character
- Her story goal is the main focus of the narrative
- She changes over the course of the story
- She doesn’t exist to support any other character
- She has the ability to stand up to the antagonist
(Patterson, 2014)
(Katniss Everdeen, n.d.)
Suggested novels
Below you will find suggested reading lists for novels with strong female protagonists.
Wider reading
As extension, you may like to read the following articles about the representation of females in fiction:
Hollands, N. (2018). Every Book Its Reader: What women want from women in fiction. Booklist, 114(13), 23. Australian/ New Zealand Reference Center.
Click on ‘PDF Full text’ to read the article.
References
Katniss Everdeen [Image]. (n.d.). https://rifftrax.fandom.com/wiki/Katniss_Everdeen
Patterson, A. (2014, March 24). The 6 Defining Characteristics Of Strong Female Protagonists [Blog post]. https://writerswrite.co.za/the-six-defining-characteristics-of-strong-female-protagonists/