*Quote from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte that fits the theme well*

In the past centuries, in order to avoid the backlash of being a woman, publishing works using pseudonyms became a common practice. It was believed that if women used pseudonyms to publish their writing, it would give them a much better chance to break through in the writing world. 

 

“To be acknowledged as a female writer in the late eighteenth century did not sit well with societal notions of ‘respectability’. Not only was it deemed ‘improper’, but impractical seeing as women didn’t have the legal power to sign contracts.” (Art UK)

*Quote from https://artuk.org/discover/stories/ten-women-who-used-pseudonyms-and-one-man*

 

Women were not seen as fit or capable enough to be authors in comparison to their male counterparts. It was not socially acceptable for part of a woman’s role to be an author. At this time, the more respected thing for a woman to do was marry, raise children, and tend to her husband’s and home’s needs. 

Most women were unable to receive an education and most were illiterate. Only women coming from extremely wealthy families were able to receive education before the 19th century. This led to the discovery of some alternative paths to receive some form of education for women. One way was to become a nun as seen in Sor Juana’s case. 

As discussed in lecture, Sor Juana’s letters were published back in 1690. Before becoming a nun, Sor Juana had wished to dress as a man in order to attend university and further her studies; Sor Juana was an academic from a young age and enjoyed learning different languages and writing poems (Poets.org). Her only way to pursue her strong desire for education was to become a nun, which was seen as an unusual path for her to have taken seeing as her family was wealthy and she was expected to marry off into another wealthy family (by societal norms). 

I had discussed the relevance of the Sor Juana and Sor Filotea letters in another course offered at the university. What was unusual about this particular situation was that a man used a pseudonym to disguise himself as a woman. The roles were reversed.

It is speculated Manuel Fernandez de Santa Cruz (who wrote to Sor Juana under the pseudonym of Sor Filotea) did this gender change in names in order to not receive backlash for ‘correcting’ Sor Juana’s behavior. Manuel Fernandez de Santa Cruz criticized Sor Juana’s education and questioned why a woman was more devoted to her studies than to her religion. He was overall trying to enforce societal gender roles onto Sor Juana and demonizing her deviation from following a more socially accepted traditional nun and woman life. 

It is interesting to compare this situation of a man (the less oppressed gender in this situation) disguising himself as a woman(the more oppressed gender in this situation). It contradicts the intentions of women who quite literally had to use male pseudonyms in order to have a better chance of success as authors and be able to publish legally (women were not legally allowed to publish). 

Another great example of the use of pseudonyms in order to disguise gender is the author of a Spanish novel named Solitude written by Caterina Albert, but she used the pseudonym Víctor Català to publish her work. 

Caterina Albert was born in Spain in 1869 and she published Solitude, an extremely feminist novel for the time in the year 1904. Caterina Albert decided to use a male pseudonym to write the novel because she came from a wealthy family and because she was a woman. She did not want her writing to be discredited for her gender and didn’t want to be accused of winning because of her family’s status. 

Early on in her writing career, Caterina Albert wrote a play and submitted it to a contest. The verdict was that the play was good but they found out it was written by a wealthy woman and they were hesitant to let her win. That’s when Caterina Albert decided to use a male pseudonym. Historically, women authors have had to keep their names hidden because it’s not considered ‘womanly’ or have been accused of the writing not being their own work (certainly a woman could have never written that!). 

Caterina Albert wrote her feminist novel, Solitude under the pseudonym of Victor Catala. Caterina can be seen breaking other societal norms for the time in her own personal life (similar to Sor Juana). Caterina Albert never married (she chose to publish over marriage), was very open about her feminist (for the time) beliefs in her writing, and she often wrote about sexual abuse from the victim’s perspective in her works (which was extremely uncommon for the early 1900’s). 

Some similarities I can see between Sor Juana’s and Caterina Albert’s situations despite the very different periods in history they lived in, are their religious backgrounds and the oppression they faced while being authors because of their gender. Both women came from extremely Catholic societies which are known to enforce gender stereotypes. They were both discouraged from writing because it was seen as improper for a woman to be pursuing such endeavors. They both came from wealthy families and were expected to marry for more money, but they both turned that down to pursue their education and writing instead. 

Some differences I noticed in both of these examples I gave were that in Manuel Fernandez de Santa Cruz’s case, a man benefited from disguising his gender with a pseudonym to bring down a woman (further oppressing women). In Caterina Albert’s case, she greatly benefited from disguising her gender with a pseudonym by being able to publish numerous works under it. It was an empowering and uplifting move for other women as well to be able to see her success. The use of pseudonyms in order to disguise gender was generally an empowering thing for women and allowed many authors (that we now know and love) to be able to publish during a time when it was frowned upon to do so. 

 

 

Sources:

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/ten-women-who-used-pseudonyms-and-one-man 

https://poets.org/poet/sor-juana-ines-de-la-cruz