Even though the number of Renaissance female writers is small, these women did enter into the male world of writing. Traditionally females aimed at a private audience through journals, letters, spiritual diaries, religious meditations, and advice books, such as those written by Dorothy Leigh and Elizabeth Joceline for their children.

1. Devotional works were often translations of theological works.

2. Some women occasionally translated secular works by male authors.

3. Rarely women wrote original works of literature about secular subjects.

4. Women poets almost always chose spiritual themes for their poetry.

5. Very rarely did a woman write a drama or engage in scientific writing.