Several notable female authors in history wrote under male pseudonyms to avoid gender bias and gain acceptance in the literary world. Here are few famous examples.
The British author of Middlemarch and Silas Marner wrote under the name George Eliot to avoid stereotypes about women being limited to writing light romance novels.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte initially published their works under the male pseudonyms Currer Bell, Ellis Bell and Acton Bell respectively. They did this to ensure their works would be taken seriously.
A French novelist, George Sand was famous for her novels like Indiana and Lélia. She adopted a male pseudonym to challenge the conventions of her time and freely express her political and romantic views.
Best known for Little Women, Louisa May Alcott used the pseudonym AM Barnard for her early, more sensational works such as Behind a Mask and A Long Fatal Love Chase.
While Harper Lee didn’t use a male name, she used her middle name 'Harper' instead of 'Nelle,' which is more commonly associated with women, to avoid gender bias when publishing To Kill a Mockingbird.