When women weren't allowed to publish their own names on their books?

Question

I am doing a project and i need to know the date in history when women weren't allowed their own names and had to have men's names on their own books!

does anyone know?

was it like around 1940's and below?

What time did it stop?

thank you

Answer 1

it was in the 1800s.

it wasn't a law, just a custom.

Publishers felt no one would read a book by a women, so they never published one to find out.

Answer 2

It probably ended around the 1920's, because then women started to be seen as a bit smarter. But just to be clear, there was no law that said, "women musn't write books". It was just that since women weren't as respected, some chose to masquerade as men to get more acknowledgment for their books. Also, it was a lot more intense in the fields of philosophy and science and stuff like that. Fictional novels can be written by women- both Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters were published under their own names in their lifetimes. And then there was Anne Radcliffe, who wrote romance novels in the 1800's. But on the other hand, George Sands (or Sand, I can never remember) was a philosopher who went by a man's name so she would be taken seriously. But she also dressed like a man. So.

Answer 3

It's a lot more complicated than a specific date.

Aphra Behn was writing plays and having them performed in early 'Restoration' London ( ca.1669). They were also printed under her own name.

Abbess Hilda of Whitby was having things 'published' way, way before that.

Sappho of Lesbos was writing well before that.

The most popular author in 1860s England wasn't Dickens, it was Maria Corelli.

Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" was published in her own name - after all her mother was Mary Woolstencraft. (Google or wiki her if you don't know - not enough space here.)

I don't think there has ever been a period when women were not allowed to have their own names on books (legally) - it was more of a social thing (being disowned by a family could be very harsh economically), and publishers didn't take potential women authors seriously (that is certainly the case for the Brontes).

And remember - J.K. Rowling is only J.K. because the publisher didn't think boys would read a book by someone called Joanne.

And Nora Roberts writes her detective stories as 'Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb' with the J.D. Robb in larger letters on the cover.

{Please note - I'm really only talking about England here as far as law is concerned.}

Answer 4

Joanne K Rowling was asked to just use her initials for the Harry Potter series to disguise the fact she was a woman.  It continues to this day.

Answer 5

women writers used male names as oppose to their own because it was though people would read/ buy books wrote buy women.

Answer 6

I wasn't aware that women weren't allowed to write in their own names..  The best example I can think of a woman taking a male pen name is...

Mary Ann (Marian) Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880), better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist. She was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. Her novels, largely set in provincial England, are well known for their realism and psychological perspicacity.

She used a male pen name, she said, to ensure that her works were taken seriously. Female authors published freely under their own names, but Eliot wanted to ensure that she was not seen as merely a writer of romances. An additional factor may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny and to prevent scandals attending her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes.

Answer 7

It was not ever about not being allowed...

The novel in the 18th century was predominantly a female form of writing, however, publishing was and still is to a great extent, dominated by men.  Women authors realised that their works would stand a better chance of being published, and favourably critiqued if they assumed male nom de plume.

The Brontes in the 1840's did it.

But Google women writers + 18th century

It has not stopped, however, more women are writing and being published but look at what is published.

Answer 8

There were no laws against women publishing books under their own names.  A few women did publish their works anonymously or under a male penname (most famously George Eliot), but plenty of women published books under their own names.  f***y Burney and Maria Edgeworth were two well-known late 18th century authors who published under their own names. And the gothic novelist Mrs Radcliffe, was enormously succesful writing under her own name.  And although Jane Austen's novels were originally published anonymously, they were 'by a lady' i.e. there was no secret made of the fact that the author was a woman.  many other female novelists in the 19th century published under their own names, Mrs Gaskell, Mrs Oliphant, Maria Corelli, etc.

The only 20th century author I can think of who published under a male name was the novelist Josephine Tey, who wrote plays under the name Gordon Daviot, because she thought a woman playwright would not be taken seriously.  She may or many not have been correct about that.

if anyone has told you that there was a law that women could not publish under their own names, they were mistaken.  Women authors have always published works undertheir own names as long as writing has existed.

Answer 9

There were no laws against women publishing books under their own names, but for increased book sales some women, such as George Eliot in the 1800s, used men's names.

Jane Austen published under her own name in 1820 or so.

In the 1900's many women published under their own name: Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woofe.

And back in the period of Shakespeare, about 1600 or so, the black woman poet Amelie Lanier published under her own name.

What really limited women was the fact that up till recently it was mainly men who had the opportunity to be educated and to write and to be published. Custom, not laws, determined this state of affairs.

Answer 10

Women have put their own names on books for centuries. A very few women, such as George Sand, became enormously popular under the pseudonoms, but there was never any prohibition against putting a woman's name on a her books. What was it like in the 1940s and below? There were thousands of women writing books, all under their own names. Sorry, but someone has given you some bad information, because the situation you described never existed. Even in early Roman days, there are stories and poems written by women

Answer 11

It wasn't that they weren't allowed to use their own names, it was that they would have better sales of their books if they didn't. Back when this was happening, women were second class citizens so the men running the world decided that women didn't really have anything worthwhile to contribute. But they did. So they used pen names to sell more books.

I know of one couple of a man and wife who write romance novels under one name because writing romance stories what not a masculine thing to do. They write some of the best romance I have read. So it is still going on, sometimes in reverse.

Answer 12

Way before the 1940s. It was never forbidden, but women authors were not taken seriously. The Brontë sisters all used male names, as did George Eliot. born 1819  Mary Anne  Evans. Not restricted to England, Georges Sande (Chopin's mistress' was also a woman,  Amantine.Aurore.Lucile Dupin

By the 1940s there were many published female authors.