The Women Who Built Romance: A Love Letter to the Pioneers (And Finding My Place Among Them)
Romance has always been written by women, for women. And for most of its history, the literary world has punished us for it.
They called it trash. They called it guilty pleasures. They hid the covers and whispered about it like it was something to be ashamed of. And the women who built this genre? They kept writing anyway.
So for Women's History Month, I don't want to give you a listicle. 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 — She Wrote Women as Full Human Beings
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.
Mary Shelley — She Wrote the Monster and the Meaning
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.
She's not a romance author in the traditional sense, but 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.
The Brontë Sisters — They Wrote Desire Before It Was Allowed
Charlotte and Emily Brontë published under male pseudonyms because the world wasn't ready for women who wrote about passion like that. 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.
They didn't write polite romance. They wrote want. They wrote fury. They wrote women who burned. And 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.
Georgette Heyer — She Invented an Entire Subgenre
I'm not exaggerating. Georgette Heyer essentially invented Regency romance. Before her, nobody was writing witty, meticulously researched historical romance set in Regency-era England with that particular blend of comedy and social commentary.
She created a template that thousands of authors have followed since — and she did it while the literary establishment was busy pretending romance didn't count as real writing.
Kathleen Woodiwiss — She Kicked the Door Open
In 1972, Kathleen Woodiwiss published The Flame and the Flower and changed everything. It was one of the first modern romance novels — long, sweeping, unapologetically centred on a woman's desire.
Before Woodiwiss, romance was short. It was contained. It knew its place. She wrote a 600-page love story and told the entire publishing industry to deal with it.
They dealt with it. By selling millions of copies.
Beverly Jenkins — She Made Sure Everyone Was in the Room
Beverly Jenkins didn't just write historical romance. She wrote Black historical romance — stories that centred Black love, Black joy, and Black history at a time when the genre was overwhelmingly white.
She didn't wait for permission. She didn't water it down. She wrote the stories that needed to exist and trusted that readers would find them. They did. And the genre is immeasurably richer because of her.
Nora Roberts — She Made It a Career
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, she wrote across subgenres, and she had a work ethic that would make most people weep.
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. Full stop. Not "successful for romance." Successful. Period.
Kristen Ashley — She Proved Indie Could Win
And then there's Kristen Ashley, who showed an entire generation of romance writers that we didn't need a publishing house to reach readers. That indie publishing wasn't a consolation prize — it was a revolution.
She wrote the books she wanted to write, published them herself, and built a readership that most traditionally published authors would envy. She proved that readers don't care who published the book. They care about the story.
Where I Come In (And Why I Still Can't Quite Believe It)
Here's where it gets personal. And a bit weird. Because 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 — messy and complicated and real.
And 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. Because Kristen Ashley showed me I could do it myself.
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.
Permission to write long books and short books and weird books and dark books. Permission to centre women's desire and women's agency and women's happily-ever-afters. Permission to be commercially successful and artistically ambitious at the same time.
Permission to take 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 and more isolated — 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?
Tell me in the comments. I want to know who built the house you live in.
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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