This is a great point about inaccurate feminist characters in historical fiction. There’s nothing wrong with writing feminist characters in different eras of course, but try and make them accurate. Just dig deeper:
What is progressive and against the norm is different in every era and even more notably, across cultures. What is bold for one woman may not do anything for a woman in another situation, another time, another culture, another place.
Do some digging!
Source: vampireapologist
The point about women working annoys too. In the 1911 census one of my grandmothers was a millworker and the other was a live-in maid. However I think it was the upper classes where the problem was real. They generally did not care how they appeared, and whilst they did not work they did what they wanted. It was those trying to appear “better” that card enough to want women not to work. In some working class societies it was a mark of pride of a man to earn enough to enable hiss wife not to work, and also for some middle class people. Of course the upper-working class wives would be expected to look after their families and houses themselves so would actually be working. The upper-middle class ones would have at least one servant. In my grandmother’s case she worked for a provincial bank manager was was their only live in servant.`
One of the houses at my school was named Lees Whilst it was named after a man who gave money towards re-founding the school that money came from the family firm Hannah Lees and Sons. Hannah had taken over the running of the ironworks after she was widowed and had expanded the business in the early 19th century.