the.com/women writers
proof that literature's canon was always co-ed, the byline just lied for a few centuries.
means authors who are women, a category that should be invisible but exists because publishing spent centuries pretending it wasn't.
from the term became necessary precisely because default writer meant man, so anyone else needed a qualifier, from the brontes writing as currer, ellis and acton bell to george eliot borrowing a man's name just to get read fairly.
pen name erabrontes and eliot hid gender to get published
virginia woolfargued women need money and a room
nobel gaponly 18 of 121 literature laureates are women
vida counttracks gender bias in literary reviews annually
for instance
toni morrison — first black woman to win nobel literature, 1993
jane austen — published anonymously, sold as by a lady, 1813
mary shelley — wrote frankenstein at eighteen, published anonymously, 1818
maya angelou — caged bird sold over a million copies globally