Recommend me readings on first-wave feminism in 19th-century Britain
December 27, 2015 9:52 AM
I'm looking for historical overviews and more specific personal accounts, with an emphasis on readability.
Books and online sources are both fine. UK history preferred, but fire away if you have others that you think otherwise fit the bill.
I'm after two perspectives (not necessarily from the same source) -
Books and online sources are both fine. UK history preferred, but fire away if you have others that you think otherwise fit the bill.
I'm after two perspectives (not necessarily from the same source) -
- A historical overview of key events, personalities and themes.
- Accounts of how the movement played out in the specifics of everyday life, ideally first-hand, though second-hand would do. For example, I loved this post by julen about the first women who learned to ride bicycles, and how that fitted into the wider social change, their hopes for women in the future etc. I'd also love some readings that introduce me to any particularly hands-on feminists of the time - those who were edgy, daring, brave, shocking, powerful, punk rock, take-no-prisoners types. I'm often guilty of seeing early feminists as staid Victorian gentlewomen discussing the nudging of intellectual boundaries and would love to meet some out-and-out shockers and direct-action types. I know many of the 20th Century suffragettes did this, but are there examples from earlier in the movement?
Not really something to read but I love these 2 rocks thrown through the window of Buckingham Palace.
posted by BoscosMom at 10:22 AM on December 27, 2015
posted by BoscosMom at 10:22 AM on December 27, 2015
The Very Short Introduction to Feminism is limited in scope, but is particularly strong on exactly what you're interested in: the history of British feminism. As you can see from the reviews on Amazon USA this is at the expense of its coverage of contemporary and non-British feminism, but it sounds like that's not a problem for you. It's written in plain language and will take a couple of hours to read.
posted by caek at 11:23 AM on December 27, 2015
posted by caek at 11:23 AM on December 27, 2015
Some suggestions for the UK:
1) One of the key figures in first-wave feminism was Josephine Butler, who was instrumental in campaigning against the Contagious Diseases Acts. Both her memoirs and her edited collection Woman's Work and Woman's Culture are online, as are a number of her other writings. For further background, see Judith Walkowitz's Prostitution and Victorian Society and Paul McHugh's Prostitution and Social Reform.
2) The Langham Place Group was a significant feminist collective, particularly important for its association with the English Woman's Journal. The most studied activist of the group is probably Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon.
3) Useful general histories include Philippa Levine's Victorian Feminism: 1850-1900 and Feminist Lives in Victorian England; Barbara Caine's Victorian Feminists; and, for the international context, Bonnie Anderson's Joyous Greetings. Clare Midgley has been investigating the relationship between feminism and British imperialism in a series of monographs, most recently Feminism and Empire; Antoinette Burton's Burdens of Empire focuses specifically on the role of explicit and implicit constructions of racial identity in British feminism. Lucy Bland's Banishing the Beast examines Victorian feminist critiques of the double standard and sexuality more generally, including campaigns for raising the age of consent. Feminists were also active in the anti-vivisection movement, most notably Frances Power Cobbe.
posted by thomas j wise at 1:46 PM on December 27, 2015
1) One of the key figures in first-wave feminism was Josephine Butler, who was instrumental in campaigning against the Contagious Diseases Acts. Both her memoirs and her edited collection Woman's Work and Woman's Culture are online, as are a number of her other writings. For further background, see Judith Walkowitz's Prostitution and Victorian Society and Paul McHugh's Prostitution and Social Reform.
2) The Langham Place Group was a significant feminist collective, particularly important for its association with the English Woman's Journal. The most studied activist of the group is probably Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon.
3) Useful general histories include Philippa Levine's Victorian Feminism: 1850-1900 and Feminist Lives in Victorian England; Barbara Caine's Victorian Feminists; and, for the international context, Bonnie Anderson's Joyous Greetings. Clare Midgley has been investigating the relationship between feminism and British imperialism in a series of monographs, most recently Feminism and Empire; Antoinette Burton's Burdens of Empire focuses specifically on the role of explicit and implicit constructions of racial identity in British feminism. Lucy Bland's Banishing the Beast examines Victorian feminist critiques of the double standard and sexuality more generally, including campaigns for raising the age of consent. Feminists were also active in the anti-vivisection movement, most notably Frances Power Cobbe.
posted by thomas j wise at 1:46 PM on December 27, 2015
I've heard very good things* about In Search of Mary, reviewed in that article. It's a life of Mary Wollstonecraft, who was in the late 18th century, so earlier than the period you requested, but without doubt someone who publicly refused to follow the rules of the patriarchy and was a great advocate for change. I'd been holding back on buying it until Christmas, but as no one's bought me a copy, I'll be picking myself one up.
*From feminist leaning friends. The author's married to a cousin of mine (who I barely know), and I've caught my older (woman) relatives say slightly less positive things such as "she was one of the difficult sort of feminists you know, not our type.", which is also a recommendation in my book.
posted by ambrosen at 6:19 PM on December 27, 2015
*From feminist leaning friends. The author's married to a cousin of mine (who I barely know), and I've caught my older (woman) relatives say slightly less positive things such as "she was one of the difficult sort of feminists you know, not our type.", which is also a recommendation in my book.
posted by ambrosen at 6:19 PM on December 27, 2015
You might enjoy Jane Robinson's books, particularly Pandora's Daughters: The Secret History of Enterprising Women (2002) and Bluestockings: The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education (2009). (Reviews here and here.)
As far as I know, there's no history of the New Woman movement aimed at the general reader, but Gillian Sutherland's In Search of the New Woman: Middle-Class Women and Work in Britain 1870-1914, published last year, is a readable academic study. Also worth reading, though possibly too academic for your taste, is Lucy Delap's The Feminist Avant-Garde (2009). On the suffragette movement, the blog Woman and Her Sphere provides an excellent round-up of new studies and publications.
Some of the best work at the moment can be found at the intersection of women's history and social history: for a taster, try Alison Light's Mrs Woolf and the Servants or her more recent Common People, or Deborah Cohen's Family Secrets. These books aren't directly concerned with first-wave feminism, but they do provide fascinating insights into the way that social change played out in the lives of individual women.
posted by verstegan at 2:18 AM on January 2, 2016
As far as I know, there's no history of the New Woman movement aimed at the general reader, but Gillian Sutherland's In Search of the New Woman: Middle-Class Women and Work in Britain 1870-1914, published last year, is a readable academic study. Also worth reading, though possibly too academic for your taste, is Lucy Delap's The Feminist Avant-Garde (2009). On the suffragette movement, the blog Woman and Her Sphere provides an excellent round-up of new studies and publications.
Some of the best work at the moment can be found at the intersection of women's history and social history: for a taster, try Alison Light's Mrs Woolf and the Servants or her more recent Common People, or Deborah Cohen's Family Secrets. These books aren't directly concerned with first-wave feminism, but they do provide fascinating insights into the way that social change played out in the lives of individual women.
posted by verstegan at 2:18 AM on January 2, 2016
Thanks everyone for your answers - they're all great, but I've marked as best answers the ones that are nearest to the mark. Reading your suggestions suddenly reminded me that I'm within visiting distance of the wonderful Glasgow Women's Library, so I paid my first visit there recently, came away with an armful of books, and look forward to many further happy hours whiled away among their shelves.
posted by penguin pie at 4:25 AM on February 9, 2016
posted by penguin pie at 4:25 AM on February 9, 2016
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posted by tavegyl at 10:01 AM on December 27, 2015