A great historical fiction book doesn’t just transport readers back in time, it introduces them to the smallest details of life in “the good old days.” That’s true for authors, too, who work hard to make a work historically accurate and believable. In her recent research for The Suffragette Scandal, bestseller Courtney Milan discovered something she hadn’t expected: Victorian women who played by their own rules, and had great impact on the world beyond the Victorian home. Learn about these groundbreaking women in her guest post:

When people talk about women in the late Victorian era, they usually have a view of what the typical woman looks and acts like. She’s wearing a corset and a bustle, and heavy skirts in dark, sober colors. She embroiders. She fetches slippers for her husband when he arrives home. And she cares more for her reputation than anything else, as it is her most prized possession.

I think we sell our Victorian sisters short when we carry this image in our mind. Here are four actual women from the late Victorian era—women who didn’t play by the rules, and who won anyway.

So here are four women who I bet you thought couldn’t exist.

photograph of Nellie Bly

Reporter Nellie Bly

In 1887—when Bly was 23 years old and already a hardened newspaper reporter—she pretended to be insane so she could be committed to a madhouse.

illustration of Nellie practicing madness in her mirror, from the original report of Ten Days in a Mad-House

She lived there for ten days, and when she was removed, her report on the bleak, abusive conditions she had discovered resulted in a massive public outcry, and changes all around that bettered the condition of the women who lived there.

You can see her original reports here.

Mathematician Philippa Fawcett

photograph of Philippa Fawcett

Philippa Fawcett was one of the first women to attend Newnham College, one of the colleges for women associated with Cambridge University. At the time, women were allowed to take the Mathematical Tripos exams—exams taken by the best students in mathematics. But the results for men were released as a rank-ordered list. Women were not on the final results list; they were announced separately, and the announcer would say where she would have fallen—for instance, “between the fifth and the sixth Wrangler.”

illustration of the three highest-scoring individuals in the Mathematical Tripos

When Philippa Fawcett took the Mathematical Tripos in 1895, the announcer for the women’s results: “Miss Philippa Fawcett—above the Senior Wrangler—” meaning that she had beaten out all the men. And that was all that anyone heard, because everyone screamed so loudly that they drowned out any other announcements.

Lucy Walker

picture of Lucy Walker in mountaineering gear, with an ice axe

Lucy Walker started off her life as many other women did, until her doctor suggested that she take up walking to combat a case of rheumatism. So she began to walk. And then…she never stopped. She was one of the foremost alpinists, and the first woman to ascend the Matterhorn, a task she completed in 1871, at the age of 35.

Victoria Davies

Picture of Sara Forbes

Victoria Davies was educated as a musician. Her musical skills were so good that the famous composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor credited her with giving him themes for some of his music. She was received everywhere in society, which would generally be unsurprising, as she was Queen Victoria’s goddaughter; she was named for her, after all.

But Victoria Davies was also a black woman—her mother had been captured by slave traders and rescued by the British Navy. Her mother, Sara Forbes, became something of a mascot on board the ship because she learned far more swiftly than most children of her age, and she was sent to Queen Victoria, who adopted her as a goddaughter.

Sara was educated; her daughter was educated. Their descendents went on to sponsor and befriend mixed-race nurses in Sierra Leone, and are still prominent today.

So the next time you think that women never did anything different, or that women from underprivileged backgrounds couldn’t get anywhere in Victorian England…

Think again.

More about The Suffragette Scandal:

An idealistic suffragette…

Miss Frederica “Free” Marshall has put her heart and soul into her newspaper, known for its outspoken support of women’s rights. Naturally, her enemies are intent on destroying her business and silencing her for good. Free refuses to be at the end of her rope…but she needs more rope, and she needs it now.

…a jaded scoundrel…

Edward Clark’s aristocratic family abandoned him to die in a war-torn land, so he survived the only way he could: by becoming a rogue and a first-class forger. When the same family that left him for dead vows to ruin Miss Marshall, he offers his help. So what if he has to lie to her? She’s only a pawn to use in his revenge.

…and a scandal seven years in the making.

But the irrepressible Miss Marshall soon enchants Edward. By the time he realizes that his cynical heart is hers, it’s too late. The only way to thwart her enemies is to reveal his scandalous past…and once the woman he loves realizes how much he’s lied to her, he’ll lose her forever.