An exhibition at Britain's National Portrait Gallery proves that was not always the case.

The show, Brilliant Women: 18th Century Bluestockings, tells the story of a group of women who became celebrities for their intellectual prowess even though women had few career options in those days.

The Bluestocking circle met in the London homes of Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Vesey and Frances Boscawen, who were literary hostesses.

Montagu was a literary critic, while other members of the circle included playwright Hannah More and historian Catherine Macaulay.

They became known as the Bluestockings because botanist Benjamin Stillingfleet, one of the guests who attended their literary gatherings, wore blue woolen stockings.

Their achievements were feted in a group portrait, The Nine Living Muses of Great Britain, by Richard Samuel, which was shown in 1779 at an exhibition at London's Royal Academy.

The portrait provided the inspiration for the exhibit

"It captures a particular moment in which women in the 18th century were celebrated for their learning, intellectual and creative achievements," said Lucy Peltz, curator of 18th century portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, who put the show together with Elizabeth Eger, lecturer in English Literature at King's College London.

"It's an introduction to a forgotten period in women's history and it demonstrates the fact that women had the potential to achieve great things in periods earlier than is understood now," she said.

Bluestocking babes
Many of the Bluestockings earned their livings from their respective vocations and even had fans among the literary male elite.

Samuel Johnson, who wrote Britain's first dictionary, christened Montagu, "Queen of the Blues."

But these women were very conscious that being brainy was still predominantly a male thing.

Montague wrote to her acquaintance Lord Lyttelton: "Talents put a man above the world and in a condition to be feared and worshipped, a woman that possesses them must always be courting the world, and asking pardon, as it were, for uncommon excellence."

And by the 19th century, the fame of the Bluestockings had faded.

Eger and Peltz say there was a backlash partly as a result of a rejection of more radical thinking during and after the French Revolution.

During the 19th century, the term bluestocking acquired its more familiar negative flavour, that describes clever, but dowdy women.

In the Victorian-era, a woman's place was in the home and the Victorian ideal of womanhood was a much more passive creature, who was expected to be charming but self-sacrificing and submissive.

Since then, of course, women have made great strides in gaining independence and recognition. But intellectual women are still relatively few compared with male counterparts.Only a handful of women, for example, have won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

"I do think women still have to do an incredible amount of multi-tasking with regard to being a domestic goddess and a professional powerhouse," said Peltz.