Women in positions of power. And then what?

There is an entire historical category of women who dressed as men to work, travel, or get an education — in times and places where their mere presence was considered scandalous.

James Barry, born Margaret Ann Bulkley, lived as a man in order to study medicine and serve as a surgeon in the British army in the nineteenth century, at a time when women were simply barred from medical training. The French writer Amantine Dupin adopted the male pen name George Sand and wore men’s clothing so that...