The Orange Prize shortlist has been announced - the only annual book prize in the UK that focuses solely on rewarding female authors.
Some might feel that it's a shame a female-only literary prize has to exist at all, but while some authors still feel their gender is a barrier to being taken seriously, awards like the Orange Prize are an important way of shining light on great fiction written by women.
In fact, the difficulties facing pioneering female writers have often been so great they've been forced to adopt androgynous pen names - or even write as men - in order to gain credit for their work. And it didn't stop with the suffragettes either - the list includes the most famous female author writing today.
Here's 9 ladies behind the pen names.