The article studies the gender composition of the Big Book award winners. It is shown what place among the awarded authors and laureates is occupied by women authors and their works. All award-winning works created by women are analyzed. The main common characteristic features of these works are revealed: the creation of a full-fledged biography of one person and/or a family saga against the background of a detailed historical picture of the corresponding era. An attempt is made to determine the place (“ecological niche”) occupied by the “serious” prose of women authors in contemporary literary process.