Today is International Women’s Day. This important celebration began in 1911, and it’s just as important today as it has ever been. In today’s post we are going to look at what the Brontë sisters had to say about being women.
It’s a particularly appropriate week to do so for another reason too: for it was on 12th March 1837 that then poet laureate Robert Southey wrote to a young Charlotte Brontë with his famous, some would say infamous, advice: “literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be.”
Thankfully an older Charlotte failed to take his advice, although she said that she always treasured it. Let’s see what Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë had to say about being a woman writer, and being a woman:
Charlotte Brontë:
In Charlotte’s biographical notice of her sisters Emily and Anne, she recounts why they chose to write under the pen names of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell:
“We did not like to declare ourselves women, because we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, flattery, which is not true praise.”
Writing to W. S. Williams at her publisher in May 1848, Charlotte confided that: “I have forgotten to answer a question you ask about my next work… I often wish to say something about the “condition of women” question – but it is one respecting which so much “cant” has been talked, that one feels a sort of repugnance to approach it.”
Charlotte never explicitly approached this question in the way that Anne did in her second novel, but I think it’s fair to say that Jane Eyre, Shirley and Villette all looked at the condition of women in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Emily Brontë:
Emily Brontë was not a letter writer, so for clues on her beliefs we can only turn to her novel Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff is such a powerful character that he looms over the whole book like a menacing shadow, but the women within the book are powerful too.
Both Catherines are independent and strong minded. The first Catherine stands up to her brother when he mistreats Heathcliff, she declares her love for him when the whole world is against him. The younger Catherine stands up to a very different Heathcliff in the second half of the novel, when all else seems to shrink from his malevolence.
For more on Heathcliff, you can watch my latest House Of Brontë video here:
Anne Brontë:
Anne was never afraid to say what she wanted to say, in her novels and in other writing, and she expressed her views clearly in her preface to the second edition of The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall which concludes:
“One word more, and I have done. Respecting the author’s identity, I would have it to be distinctly understood that Acton Bell is neither Currer nor Ellis Bell, and therefore let not his faults be attributed to them. As to whether the name be real or fictitious, it cannot greatly signify to those who know him only by his works. As little, I should think, can it matter whether the writer so designated is a man, or a woman, as one or two of my critics profess to have discovered. I take the imputation in good part, as a compliment to the just delineation of my female characters; and though I am bound to attribute much of the severity of my censors to this suspicion, I make no effort to refute it, because, in my own mind, I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be. All novels are, or should be, written for both men and women to read, and I am at a loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.”
The novel itself was revolutionary for its time, and is still a powerful and relevant work today, as well as being a fabulous read of course. In it, Anne stands up for the rights of a woman to leave an abusive woman, to make her own way in life, and to raise her child on her own. This was extremely controversial at the time, yet it found a ready readership who were inspired by Helen’s actions. The suffragette and writer May Sinclair later wrote that: “the slamming of Helen’s bedroom door against her husband reverberated throughout Victorian England.”
The Brontës continue to inspire women and men today. They truly were ahead of their time, and fitting ambassadors for International Women’s Day. I hope you can join me next Sunday for another new Brontë post, and there will be the second weekly Brontë News newsletter heading its way to subscribers on Thursday. If you’d like to receive this, and other subscriber benefits, just click on “Support this site” at the top of the page, or the PayPal button at the side of the page (if you’re reading this via email you will need to head to the web page). May I wish you and all the women in your life a very happy International Women’s Day 2026.
Reading the article “The Brontës On Womanhood” on Anne Brontë blog was a deeply enriching experience. I truly appreciate how the piece reflects on the perspectives of Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, and Anne Brontë and how their works captured the realities, struggles, and inner strength of women in the nineteenth century. The article beautifully reminds readers that the Brontë sisters were not only remarkable storytellers but also voices that quietly challenged social expectations through literature. As a man who values thoughtful writing and the courage to speak truth through art, I found the reflection both insightful and inspiring. It highlights how their novels continue to illuminate the complexity of womanhood and why their literary legacy still resonates strongly with readers today.