From Corsets to Courage: Writing Empowered Women in Historical Settings
- TH.Malcolm
- Mar 18
- 4 min read
Burning the Bra Before the Liberation Movement
The idea of a strong, unconventional, independent woman isn’t new. Women have been pushing against expectations, bucking societal norms, and forging their own paths long before the world decided to take notice. History may not have always given them a voice, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t speaking. Or singing like an Italian opera star.
That’s why I write historical Southern fiction with fearless women at its heart—women who refused to wait for the world to change, and opted to change their own worlds, in ways big and small ways. They may not be marching through the streets with protest signs, but they’re making their stand in drawing rooms, sheriff’s offices, and anywhere else they’re told they don’t belong.
So, let’s talk about writing strong female protagonists in historical settings—women who didn’t have the luxury of “empowerment” as we know it today but found ways to bend, break, reshape, and even ignore the rules to fit their own survival.
Walking the Line Between Strength and Authenticity
One of the biggest challenges in writing empowered women in historical settings is balancing realism with resilience. Let’s be honest—there’s nothing more jarring than reading a historical novel where the heroine thinks, acts, and speaks like she just walked out of a modern feminist TED Talk. She has to exist in her time period while still fighting against it.
So, how do I keep my female protagonists authentic to their time while still making them compelling, complex, and strong?
💡 They Find Loopholes in the System – Women in history didn’t always have the legal or social power to fight back directly. Instead, they were masters of working within the system, using wit, influence, and unspoken power to get what they wanted. Sometimes, they had to work on the outside of the system. Or make their own system. A woman who couldn’t inherit land? She’d manipulate the situation so her “less capable” brother did what she wanted. A woman who wasn’t allowed to run a business? She’d do it anyway—just under a man’s name (looking at you, Martina Grace from Between Hope and Hell).
💡 They Get in Trouble—and Get Themselves Out – Strength isn’t about never falling. It’s about getting back up, even when society, the law, or the men in charge don’t want you to. My heroines don’t sit around waiting for rescue. They make their own way, sometimes in ways that are messy, reckless, and morally complicated. That’s what makes them feel real.
💡 They Aren’t Perfect—They’re Human – I don’t write perfect women. My characters make bad choices, hold onto dangerous secrets, and struggle with fear and doubt. That’s what makes them relatable. Strength doesn’t mean fearlessness; it means pushing forward despite the fear.
Writing Women Who Push Boundaries (Without Breaking the Story)
For a woman in the early 20th century, burning the bra before the women’s liberation movement wasn’t an option. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t fighting battles in their own way.
In my novels, you’ll find:
✔ A female doctor in 1930s Tennessee (Snake Pond) navigating misogyny in both medicine and small-town politics while solving a deadly mystery.
✔ A horror writer in the 1940s South (Between Hope and Hell), publishing under a male pseudonym because no one would buy that a woman could write something terrifying.
✔ A boutique owner in 1937 (Hell to the Bone) who becomes the reluctant keeper of small-town secrets, eventually realizing she holds the key to a decades-long crime spree.
✔ An abused wife in 1948 Tennessee (Peace of My Heart), taking her own fate into her hands when the law refuses to protect her.
These women aren’t “ahead of their time”—they’re simply surviving within it. But survival isn’t passive. It’s a fight.
The Balance Between Historical Accuracy and Storytelling
There’s always a question of how far is too far when writing historically strong female protagonists. Do we risk making them feel too modern? Do we water them down to fit the limitations of their time?
Here’s my take: History is full of women who weren’t supposed to exist. Women who found ways to work around the rules, who fought for what they wanted, who burned their metaphorical bras long before the world was ready for it.
The key is to make sure their struggles feel real. They can’t just “decide” to be free of society’s expectations—they have to fight for it, sacrifice for it, and sometimes pay for it. And the people around them—family, community, law enforcement—should react accordingly.
That’s what makes historical fiction powerful. Not rewriting history, but highlighting the ways women fought back, survived, and thrived within it.
Let’s Talk Strong Women in Fiction
Who are some of your favorite historical female characters who pushed back against their time?
📢 Let’s swap stories—ping me on Instagram and tell me what you love about fearless women in historical fiction.
