In the 16th century, the term "professional woman" had a much different meaning than it does today.  This 1998 film is the story of a courtesan in Venice, and it illustrates the difficult and limited choices that were available to women.

Veronica Franco (played by Catherine McCormack) is a beautiful young woman who falls in love with a nobleman Marco Venier (Rufus Sewell).  She can't marry him, though, because she doesn't have enough social status.  Veronica's mother (Jacqueline Bisset) gives her another option, to become a courtesan, or prostitute.  Because a courtesan must be entertaining to nobles, but she doesn't have to worry about a husband's permission, she can become educated.  Veronica learns to read, write poetry, and sword fight.

Most women of the time were taught to be servile to their husbands, and some of them both hate and envy Veronica.  One woman asks Veronica to teach her daughter to be a courtesan.  Otherwise, the woman says, "she will grow up just like her mother.  She will marry, bear children,... and rue the day she was born a girl.  And when she dies, she will wonder why she obeyed all the rules of god and country, because no Biblical hell could ever be worse than a state of perpetual inconsequence."

Veronica becomes the best courtesan in Venice.  When the Venetian government needs an alliance with France, she is called upon to help convince the French king, and thus becomes a "national asset."  However, when a plague strikes, killing thousands, she becomes a target of religious fundamentalists in search of a scapegoat.  She is accused of being a witch, and the Inquisition arrives to try her.  Her defense of her principles is remarkable, and she gives a speech that is a tribute to secular love and a defiance of the church authority.