I was looking for something on the computer in my files from my undergrad days (that would be the second time around, even though I do still have most of my papers from the first time I was in college back in the early ’90s) and ran across this paper I wrote on the rise of women as published authors from my “Restoration Lit” course in 1999. So today, I’m celebrating those pioneering women who opened the door to allow me to have the career I have today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But how can a man respect his wife when he has a contemptible opinion of her and her sex?¹

Throughout history, women have struggled to become recognized as just as intelligent, just as witty, just as interesting as men. In Restoration England, women began to branch out, to speak out. Just as new ideas about government were shaping the political side of England, new thoughts about writing and who could do it were shaping the literary world. Emerging during this time period were women writers who paved the way for the generations to come. The writings of Margaret Cavendish, Aphra Behn, Mary Astell, and others gave women a new voice, presented women in a more realistic light, and created a new profession.

I know not whether or no women are allowed to have souls.²

Approximately half the population of the world was widely ignored by the different governments of the world for millennia. Women were, for the most part, not even allowed to have opinions on politics, religion, or social issues. In the 1660s, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, did the unthinkable and actually published some of her poetry. She was quite open about her feelings, opinions, and desires. She wrote a lengthy discourse on the invention of the microscope, showing that women not only knew about things scientific, but could observe, reason, and argue eloquently. Aphra Behn wrote a moving story about a slave (Oroonoko), bringing to light her opinions on the issue—although in a somewhat round-about, confusing way. Through poetry, prose, and articles, women began to have a voice… beginning as the hum of a whispering wind and gradually building to the trumpeting of a tornado.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.³

The shrew, the harlot, the heroine. Before the late 17th century, most female characters in literature fell into one of those three categories. The shrew was a woman who refused to marry the man her father had chosen for her, harped endlessly on her husband and children, and brought a sigh of relief to the reader/audience when she made her exit. The harlot—who usually had a heart of gold—was someone who, while sympathetic, could never hold her head up in decent company. And, alas, the shrinking, delicate, petal-soft heroine, who always did as bade, married whom she was supposed to, and spoke to placate. When women began to write, women characters began to think. They began to become complex, complete individuals who did not fit so nicely into a category. A character might start off shrewish; however, underneath, she may actually be protecting a deep heroine-style secret. Female characters began to have opinions on topics other than the care of a household and the raising of a family. Issues such as slavery, the church, politics, and science became subjects that women could and did talk and write about. Women created a role for females not only in the literary world, but in society as well, as it became widely acknowledged and grudgingly accepted that a woman’s place is wherever she wants it to be.

Condemn me not, I make so much ado
About this book; it is my child, you know…⁴

In the 17th century, there were not many professions open to women. Those of the lower classes might become governesses or tutors, those of the upper classes had even fewer prospects outside of a “good” marriage and the bearing of children. As groundbreaking strides were made by women such as Margaret Cavendish and Aphra Behn publishing their works, a new profession was opened to women: that of the writer. It was a profession that spanned all classes, for any woman who had the opportunity of education could do it. Women with husbands and children could write, as could a spinster daughter on a small farmer’s estate. As the novel became more and more popular, women delved into all genres of it: fiction, romance, mystery, gothic, and fantasy. Women began to write for the stage. It would take two more centuries before women writers would be given much respect as professionals, but the women of the Restoration era certainly made it possible.

I am not single, or the first woman, that hath put herself upon such hazards or pilgrimages…⁵

The emergence of women as professional writers forever changed the face of literature. Through the voices of women, female characters became more realistic. Through the ideas of women, politics began to change. Through the reason of women, society began to change. The pioneer writers are owed a debt of gratitude by all women, for it is because of them our voices can be heard, our ideas become reality, and our reason become known.

1. Mary Astell, Some Reflections upon Marriage
2. Mary Astell, Some Reflections upon Marriage
3. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
4. Margaret Cavendish, An Apology for Writing So Much upon This Book, lines 1-2
5. Mary Carleton, The Case of Madam Mary Carleton