Despite forbidding social restrictions, women entered the writing profession in unprecedented numbers during the nineteenth century. Because writing at home was one of the few paid occupations respectable enough for middle class women, writing was an attractive choice for women needing to support themselves or their families.

Women might also avoid the public condescension and hostility aimed at female authors by restricting their writing to literary genres that lacked cultural prestige–such as the novel–or that reflected approved feminine virtues, such as submissiveness, purity, and selflessness. Categories of writing that fit within the proper sphere of womanhood–including religious tracts, light sentimental verse, and conduct literature for women and children–could be pursued without fear of condemnation.

Hannah More was a prolific and talented poet, playwright, essayist, and educator. She wrote extensively on female education, adapted Biblical stories for children, and produced plays, volumes of poetry, and works of religious piety. More protested throughout her life that politics was outside a woman's sphere. Yet she nonetheless used conventional literary genres to participate in public dialogues on many of the great issues of the day. She wrote in opposition to slavery and in favor of improved social support for women and the poor, and she developed a program of religious reading for the lower classes.

Like many women writers of the period, More exploited conventionally "feminine" genres to disguise exploration of public and political topics. She was widely read and well respected, and scholars now acknowledge that her work helped to pave the way for more progressive liberalism later in the nineteenth century.

Sarah Ellis was famous for writing a widely read series of improving books for women, beginning with The Women of England in 1839.

Like Hannah More a generation earlier, Sarah Ellis argued that it was the religious duty of women, as daughters, wives, and mothers, to provide the influence for good that would improve society. This claim appeared frequently in literature of the early Victorian period, and allowed women to assert a special role in shaping the moral character and destiny of the English nation.

Published annually and intended as Christmas and New Year's presents, gift books typically contained collections of improving essays, sentimental poetry, and expensive engravings. Bound in luxurious and brightly colored bindings, gift annuals became a publishing phenomenon in England in the 1830s.

Gift books were written largely by women for a female audience, and offered a socially acceptable and well paid venue for women to publish their writings.