Speaking of the problems facing women writers Virginia Woolf said -

of Charlotte Bronte

'..... who wrote with more genius in her than Jane Austen; but if one reads them over and marks that jerk in them, that indignation, one sees that she will never get her genius expressed whole and entire. Her books will be deformed and twisted. She will write in a rage where she should write calmly. Who will write foolishly where she should write wisely. She will write of herself where she should write of her characters. She is at war with her lot.'

of Jane Austen

'Here was a woman about the year 1800 writing without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest, without preaching.

That was how Shakespeare wrote, I thought, looking at anthony and Cleaopatra, and when people compare Shakespeare and Jane Austen, they may mean that the minds of both had consumed all impediments; and for that reason we do not know Jane Austen and we do not know Shakespeare, and for that reason Jane Austen pervades every word she wrote and so does Shakespeare.'