經過明末清初的才德之辨，閨秀文學發展到乾嘉時期，進入了一個新的階段。此期的閨秀有著更強的才名意識，她們充分運用文壇領袖所掌握的文化權力，通過拜師等舉措拓展交往空間，從而與著名文人唱和、題贈，躋身文壇，顯揚聲名。駱綺蘭通過結交袁枚、王文治和王昶等，以畫作、詩集遍求題贈，並編選《聽秋軒贈言》和《聽秋軒閨中同人集》，得以聲名鵲起；歸懋儀在乾嘉文人與閨秀之間構築了一個非常龐大的交游網絡，她執著於詩史留名的願望，成功藉助男性文人的資助，令詩稿付梓，並憑藉才名遊走於江浙間擔任閨塾師，承擔起養家的重任；汪端則欲通過選詩修史來達到不朽，其《元明逸史》的撰寫和詩集中大量的詠史詩，可見其修史的努力，編選《明三十家詩選》更見其不凡的識見。吳藻創作雜劇《喬影》，並繪《飲酒讀騷圖》，體現出懷才不遇的苦悶和強烈的性別意識。總體而言，乾嘉閨秀已經不滿足于內闈狹小的空間，做出了跨越閨門的種種努力，是晚清民國閨秀文化近代轉型的先聲。

Following the debates on female talent during the late Ming and early Qing eras, women’s literary production entered a new stage. Women poets who were active during the Qian-Jia reigns had a stronger sense of establishing their literary fame through making use of the cultural power held by the leading poets of their time. They became the female disciples of these leading figures, and expanded their networks by communicating and exchanging poetic works with larger communities of eminent literati. Luo Qilan, in particular, succeeded in achieving fame through her important connections, including Yuan Mei, Wang Wenzhi, and Wang Chang. She broadly solicited inscriptions for her paintings and collections of poetry, and published The Collection of Inscriptions for the Autumn Pavilion and The Anthology of Poetic Works by Friends of the Autumn Pavilion. Gui Maoyi, another well-connected woman poet, built a literary community that included both male and female poets. She obtained help from the male literati to publish her poetry collection, thereby realizing her ambition of establishing an undying literary reputation. At the same time, she turned her poetic talent into a means of providing for her family, travelling all over Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to teach in elite families. Other well-known examples included Wang Duan and Wu Zao. Wang revealed her ambition of authoring history in a broad array of works, including An Informal History of the Yuan and the Ming, Selected Works by Thirty Ming Poets, and numerous poetic works on historical events. Wu was best known for her variety play, A Shadow in Disguise, as well as for her painting, “Drinking Wine and Reading the Sorrow of Departure.” In these works Wu lamented her unfulfilled ambitions and the limitations of gender roles. In general, women poets of this time made all kinds of efforts to venture beyond the inner quarters and can be viewed as the pioneer of the modern transformation of women’s writing culture during the late Qing and early Republican era.