The women from the first class of courtesan, the honest courtesan, were often born into patrician or merchant family they were raised as educated and cultured women. But in a society that dictated exorbitant dowries that could often bankrupt a family, extra daughters were often given no opportunity to marry. They could go into a convent and become a nun, but that still required a dowry, though not as large. They could remain in the household an ageing spinster tending to family member, forever dependent and submissive perhaps to a new mistress of the household if it should pass to a brother and his wife. Or circumstances, like poverty from funding a dowry to an older sister, or failed commercial activities could encourage a young woman to consider the life of a courtesan. Often, in these situations, a courtesan could end up being the sole support of their family.
– Kristin Gleeson, Veronica Franco and the Courtesans of Renaissance #Venice https://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2026/08/veronica-franco-and-courtesans-of.html
I guess the Venetian equivalent of Jane Austen, i.e. the fortunes of the unpropertied gentry woman, would have been quite a different genre 
Convent, caregiver, or courtesan, what a slate of choices!
@ljwrites anglican monastic orders exist! though i’ll grant you austen did live in the time period where they were perhaps least common
@ljwrites there’s also becoming a governess, if you’re REALLY desperate
@Satsuma Ah, the Jane Eyre route! Though she was more educated working class, IIRC.
@Satsuma That's too bad, the availability of monastic options would have added an extra array of characters and plots xD
Lots of compare and contrasts above and below the Roman Empire/Roman Catholicism geographical line in Hufton’s _The Prospect Before Her_ .
A festschrift for her also has a fascinating paper on friendships and alliances and money and inheritances inside convents — paper “Rooms to Share”, Evangelisti; volume _The Art of Survival_, Ed’s. Harris & Riper.
@Satsuma Yeah maybe the unprosperous English gentlewoman had a better chance at marrying without a dowry, as long as she drastically lowered her sights or found a Mr. Darcy — but convent? What Popism is this? *crosses self in Anglican*