Females haven’t had it easy throughout history.  Women finally gained the right to vote in the 1920s after struggling for nearly two centuries–they certainly were not able to write and publish books hundreds of years ago. However, the following influential women didn’t let men tell them what to do, and they overcame many obstacles and even went undercover to continue on with their passion–writing.

If we are going way, way, back, the world knows the first female author to be someone named Enheduanna. Enheduanna lived in the 23rd century BCE in Mesopotamia. Enheduanna wasn’t just known for her writing. She was widely known as a triple threat as a priestess, a princess, and a poet. Some of her works include “Inanna” and “Lady of the Largest Heart”.  ¨Inanna¨ is about the mesopotamian goddess of love, beauty, sex, war, and justice. ¨Lady of the Largest Heart¨ is a ¨book¨ of poems. 

Born on December 16, 1775, Jane Austen is one of the most known female authors in the entire world and her work is appreciated by many people. She has written several popular novels such as “Pride and Prejudice”, “Sense and Sensibility”, “Persuasion” and “Emma”. All of these books listed were either turned into a television series or a movie.  One of the most popular movies of these is “Pride and Prejudice”, which is also one of my favorite films. Austen died on July 18, 1817 after publishing at least 11 novels and overcoming many sicknesses to go on to become one of the most prominent and prolific writers of the 1800s.

The Brontё Sisters were also very influential writers for their time. Emily Brontё was born July 30th, 1818 and is most known for her novel “Wuthering Heights”. Her sister, Charlotte, was born April 21, 1816, and she was most known for her novel “Jane Eyre”. Both of these novels have been turned into movies, multiple times. Both sisters often write on the gothic romance genre. Shortly after publishing her novel, Emily died on the 19th of December. Her sister Charlotte, died on March 31, 1855, 

 Mary Ann Evans, whose pen name is George Elliot, was born on November 22, 1819 in Nuneaton in the United Kingdom. She used a pen name partly to conceal her gender and partly to hide her irregular social standing as an unmarried women living with a married man. She multitasked as a writer, poet, journalist, translator and was even one of the leading writers in the Victorian era. She wrote several novels that go by “Adam Bede”, “The Mill on the Floss” and “Silas Marner”. She died on December 22, 1880. 

Our next author, whose success skyrocketed more recently than the others, is J.K Rowling, aka Joanne Rowling. She was born July 31, 1965 and is best known for the “Harry Potter” series. The popular book series was turned into eight movies, the last two of which were split into parts because there was too much information to put into one movie. The popular series is known worldwide  and also encompasses a  spin-off called “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” which were also turned into movies. 

Finally, a favorite author of mine, Sarah J Maas, is up next. She was born on March 5th, 1986 and she is famous for the series she wrote called the “A Court of Thorns and Roses”, which is an ongoing collection. She also wrote other popular books in the fantasy world such as “House of Earth and Blood” and the “The Throne of Glass” series. All of her books are about fae related things. Recently it was announced that “A Court of Thorns and Roses” was being turned into a television series, and I have never been more excited.

For more information on any of these wonderful authors, Google is a quick and easy way to find out more. These women broke boundaries to do what they love, writing. They went against the social norm of it being a ¨mans¨ world and did something some wouldn´t ever dream of. I believe we should give all of these women a round of applause and appreciate the work they did.