The Women Who Built Romance: A Love Letter to the Pioneers
Romance has always been a genre dominated by women writing for women. And for most of its history, the literary world has punished us for it.
They call it trash. They call it guilty pleasures. They hide the covers and whisper about it like it's something to be ashamed of.
So for Women's History Month, I want to give you a love letter to the women who made the genre I now get to write in — and a bit of honest reflection on what it means that I'm here at all.
The Ones Who Built the House
Jane Austen
We have to start here. Jane Austen didn't call what she wrote "romance" — the genre label didn't exist yet — but she was doing the thing. She wrote women with interior lives, with sharp opinions, with desires they weren't supposed to have. She centred love stories in a world that considered women's novels a lesser art form, and she did it with prose so precise it still makes writers want to throw their laptops into the sea.
Every romance heroine who's ever been too opinionated for her own good owes a debt to Elizabeth Bennet. Austen proved that a story about a woman choosing who to love — and refusing to settle — was worth telling. Two hundred years later, we're still agreeing with her.
She also championed the trope of "improve your own damn self, man." We love some emotional growth.
Recommended Reading: Persuasion or Pride and Prejudice
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley published Frankenstein at nineteen and invented science fiction. At nineteen. While also dealing with grief, scandal, and a literary establishment that couldn't quite believe a teenage girl had written the most important novel of the century.
While well-known for Frankenstein, all of her works often explored themes of empathy, social structures, and dystopian futures. For example, The Last Man is an early dystopian/apocalyptic novel set in the 21st century.
While not a romance author, she matters to this lineage because she proved that women could write dark, ambitious, genre-defining fiction — and that the world would try to take credit away from us for it.
Every woman who writes horror romance, dark fantasy, or monster romance is walking a path Mary Shelley cut through the wilderness with her bare hands.
Recommended Reading: Frankenstein or The Last Man
The Brontë Sisters
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë published under male pseudonyms because the world wasn't ready for women who wrote about passion. Charlotte gave us Jane Eyre — a plain, poor, overlooked woman who looked at a powerful man and said I am your equal. Emily gave us Wuthering Heights — unhinged, feral, consuming love that still makes people uncomfortable. While Anne is credited as writing The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is considered to be one of the first feminist novels.
They didn't write polite romance. They wrote want. They wrote fury. They wrote women who burned. And I freaking hate that they had to pretend to be men to do it. That fact alone should make every romance reader furious enough to read their entire catalogues out of spite.
Recommended Reading: Jane Eyre (Charlotte), Wuthering Heights (Emily) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne)
Georgette Heyer
I'm not exaggerating when I say that Georgette Heyer essentially invented Regency romance. She created the template for writing witty, meticulously researched historical romance set in Regency-era England. I adore her particular blend of comedy and social commentary.
We also have to remember that while she's a powerhouse, she achieved this during a time when the literary establishment was still busy pretending romance didn't count as real writing and didn't deserve a marketing budget to book.
Recommended Reading: The Grand Sophy or The Convenient Marriage
Kathleen Woodiwiss
In 1972, Kathleen Woodiwiss published The Flame and the Flower and changed the romance genre. It was one of the first modern romance novels that would become known as "bodice rippers". Long, sweeping, and unapologetically centred on a woman's desire, she opened the doors for those of us who came after.
Ms. Woodiwiss's 600-page love story sold millions of copies, forcing the publishing industry to reconceptualise what romance readers - and women - want.
Recommended Reading: The Flame and the Flower or Shanna
Beverly Jenkins
Beverly Jenkins writes African American historical romance — stories that centre Black love, Black joy, and Black history. She began publishing at a time when the genre was (and still is) overwhelmingly white.
Ms. Jenkins is credited with leading the way for inclusive romance, focusing on stories that were previously overlooked by the publishing industry. Ms. Jenkins's historical romances are set during a period of African American history that she believes is often overlooked. This made it difficult to break into publishing because publishers weren't sure what to do with stories that involved African Americans but not slavery.
I've read most of her novels and they are delicious.
recommended Reading: Night Song, Indigo, or Rebel
Nora Roberts
There's a reason Nora Roberts is a household name. She didn't just write romance — she turned it into an empire. She pioneered dual POV, writes across subgenres, and she has a work ethic that would make most people weep (I know I do!).
She also proved something that a lot of people didn't want to believe: that a woman writing love stories could be one of the most successful authors in the world. Not "successful for romance." Successful. Period.
She also has one of the longest running crime series under her pen name, JD Robb. Arguably, also a romantic suspense series thanks to the gorgeous relationship between Eve and Roarke.
Recommended Reading: The Bride Quartet or In Death Series
Why I Still Can't Quite Believe I Get to Write Romance
Here's where it gets personal. I never planned to be an author, let alone one writing a blog post about her place in the lineage of women who built romance.
I'm a disabled, chronically ill Australian woman writing body-positive, plus-size romance with disability representation from the other side of the world. I'm indie published through Thunder Thighs Publishing — a name I chose because it makes me laugh, and because I refuse to apologise for taking up space.
I write heroines with big bodies and bigger attitudes. I write heroes who aren't threatened by that. I write stories where disability is present, not as inspiration porn, but as part of life. I write messy and complicated and real humans going through crazy situations.
I get to do this because Jane Austen wrote women as full human beings. Because Mary Shelley proved a teenage girl could write the most important novel of her century. Because the Brontës wrote desire so fierce they had to hide behind men's names. Because Georgette Heyer invented a subgenre. Because Kathleen Woodiwiss told publishing to deal with it. Because Beverly Jenkins insisted that all love stories mattered. Because Nora Roberts proved the career was possible.
That's how lineage works. Every woman who writes romance is standing on the shoulders of the women who came before her. We don't always talk about it — we're too busy writing the next book — but it's true.
What the Pioneers Gave Us
They gave us permission. Not that we needed it — but they made the path visible.
There's a concept in disability spaces that talks about, "You can't be what you can't see." But someone always has to be first, which is why I prefer the saying, "Imagine the impossible."
Imagine writing long books and short books and weird books and dark books. Imagine centering women's desire and women's agency and women's happily-ever-afters. Imagine being commercially successful and artistically ambitious at the same time.
Image taking up space in an industry that has spent decades trying to make us smaller.
I think about that a lot. As a plus-size woman, as a disabled woman, as a woman writing from Australia where the romance community is smaller — I think about the women who made it possible for me to sit at my desk and write the stories I needed when I was younger and couldn't find them.
The Lineage Keeps Going
The genre isn't finished evolving. It never will be. Right now, there are authors pushing the boundaries in ways the pioneers probably never imagined — writing inclusive romance, diverse romance, queer romance, disabled romance, romance that reflects the actual world we live in.
That's not a departure from the tradition. That's the tradition working exactly as it should. Each generation of women takes what the last one built and says: Yes, and also this. Also us. Also these stories.
I'm one voice in a chorus that's been singing for decades. And I'm endlessly grateful to the women who sang first.
Your Turn
Who's the female author who got you into romance? The one whose book you found at exactly the right time, who made you realise this genre was something worth loving?
All Evie Mitchell books are available on Kindle Unlimited and through Thunder Thighs Publishing. As a disabled, chronically ill Australian author, all of my books qualify for the Diverse Trope Challenge 2026, Book Riot Read Harder (non-US/UK author), and She Reads Romance Books 2026 Challenge.
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