Three forgotten women who wrote fairytales that subverted the Grimms' gender norms

Rapunzel, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty—these well-known stories and others, first published by the Brothers Grimm in Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales, 1812), have become shorthand for what we collectively think of as fairytales. They are stories with a strong moralistic undertone in which humble and obedient women are rewarded while transgressive women suffer—all before an interchangeable background of castles, kings and sorcery.