In English (and American) society sin about 1600, there have been women who ditched the traditional roles, probably at great cost, to become successful in male dominated types of work. The Dutchess of Newcastle in the 17th century was a noted poet, as was Ann Bradstreet, the wife of the (English) governor of Massachusetts, and Aphra Behn the playright. Among the Irish harpers at the Belfast convention in 1796 was Rose Mooney. A Miss Johnson in Scotland was a noted composer of Strathspey reels in the early 19th century, but died at about 22 or so. C. K. Sharpe was a Scots collector of ballads and music, but his sister followed their father as a music composer. "Alknomook" on my website was writen by Mrs. John Hunter (who wrote the "Flowers of the Forest" in the Scots Musical Museum when she was still Anne Home). She wrote several other songs also. The better know "Flowers of the Forest" was written by Miss Jane Elliot (also on my website). (The third "Flowers of the Forest" was written by a Mrs. Cockburn.) One can say most of these had the advantage that they were married to rich men, but I think it's more important that they married highly intelligent ones, who could see societies rules were really quite arbitrary, not god given restrictions on women.