Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37164
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37164
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Historically, occidental cultures were not as biased against women as you might think. Look, for example, at [this](http://www.aemma.org/onlineResources/trial_by_combat/combat_man_and_woman.htm) source on trial by combat between men and women. It suggests that at least some women learnt how to fight, and were able to do so. Furthermore, a noblewoman in the middle ages would be administrating her husband's castle, as often as not managing its defence against enemies, while her husband was on crusade / fighting in some war of the King. Some women wielded considerable political power: [Isabella I of Castille](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_I_of_Castile) and [Madame de Pompadour](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour) are just two examples of different kinds of power. A medieval literary example of strong women would be the [Nibelungenlied](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibelungenlied): two women, Brunhilda and Kriemhild, are the main characters, holding de-facto power, manipulating the men around them, eventually wreaking destruction aplenty for the revenge they sought. The men in the story, even the great hero Siegfried, have little will of their own. Society was by no means equal, but women were not as powerless as you might think.

**Female characters can be strong and interesting without challenging the laws of their society.** A wife can be a strong presence in her husband's estate. (In fact, she was expected to be a strong presence.) She can be wise, learned, astute, have a political and a strategic understanding. A lover can have a strong influence on her patron, quietly giving advice. A mother can shape and counsel her son, and worry about him when he goes to battle. A woman can find herself in charge of her own estate if her husband is absent, or if she is widowed and has no adult son. For literary examples, consider the roles of Galadriel and Éowyn in male-dominant _Lord of the Rings_.

**Female characters might suffer under the rules of society, and express the unfairness of the situation.** Jane Austen's heroines speak out against the unfairness of the inheritance laws in England. Fantine in _Les Miserables_ suffers because of the way society treats single mothers.

**A woman might come into conflict with societal rules, and suffer the consequences, either prevailing or not.** Jeanne d'Arc is one example, Ada Lovelace is another (her work wasn't taken seriously because she was a woman). Medieval romance is chock-full of women cross-dressing a men for various reasons. [Alexander Durov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadezhda_Durova) is one real-life example from the Napoleonic Wars (although perhaps we should think of Alexander Durov as transgender instead - hard to say, understanding of gender having been different then).

All those are viable options. Another viable option, if you are writing fantasy rather than historic fiction, is to **just have women in strong "male" roles.** If we can accept dragons, no reason why we shouldn't accept women riding them.

What is **not acceptable** is having women only as tropes - the princess who must be rescues from the villain, the princess whose death is the hero's motivation, etc. If your women have no agency, if they could easily be replaced by a golden chalice for all the role they play in your plot, that's bad.

There are, however aspects you should consider, whatever choice (or combination thereof) you make: there are reasons for women's position being as it was throughout a long period of history. First, a woman is physically weaker than a man. I am talking here both "on average", and of the peak that we can reach: the strongest and fastest woman would necessarily be slower and weaker than the strongest and fastest man - that's just our anatomy. (A _particular_ woman can be stronger and faster than a _particular_ man, even than most men around her.) Thus, as long as being able to provide for a family (both food and safety) relies mainly on physical strength, men would hold more power. (In a fantasy novel, magic can act as an equaliser, shifting the power from physical strength to something both genders have equal access to. In real-life Viking society, there is evidence that power came with strength and military prowess, not with gender, allowing some women to become military leaders.)  
Second, until effective contraception, a woman spent long periods of time pregnant or breastfeeding - aspects that reduced her ability to take part in other activities. This is an issue even today - a woman who has children would by necessity give less of her time to career-building. (Today it is a consideration for having children later in life, for example. Back then, it could be a consideration for a woman not to marry, provided she had that choice in the first place.)  
There was also the Christian doctrine regarding a woman's place, but I'm not sure which is the chicken and which the egg here - whether doctrine supported existing custom, or the custom was shaped by the doctrine, or both.  
**Those aspects don't disappear just because we want them to. Those are things you'd have to address, one way or another, if you want your story to be logical.**

Original score: 4