History of Victorian Feminism Timeline

Jane Austen dies

Jane Austen died in Winchester, England on July 18th, 1817, almost two years before Queen Victoria was born and twenty years before Victoria ascended the throne.  Jane Austen was not Victorian.

Princess Alexandrina Victoria is born

Princess Alexandrina Victoria, daughter of Prince Edward and granddaughter of King George III, was born at Kensington Palace in London on May 24th, 1819.  At birth, she was fifth in line for the throne, but the deaths of her grandfather, father, and uncles left her heir presumptive in 1830.

The Victorian Period Begins

Victoria was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on June 20th, 1837, marking the beginning of the Victorian period.

The Custody of Infants Act of 1839

The Custody of Infants Act of 1839 is often seen as the first feminist legislative victory in a long campaign to reform English marriage laws (Shanley 17, Chase and Levenson 40).  While legal scholars have noted instances when a father’s total control over his legitimate children had been limited by judicial rulings prior to 1839 (Abramowicz 1345), the 1839 Act stands as the first major reform to recognize the rights of mothers.  The important role played by Caroline Norton in the passage of the Act is also key to recognizing the law as a feminist triumph (Shanley 17).

Prior to the 1839 Custody of Infants Act, a father had a right to his legitimate children and was automatically granted custody if he and his wife separated for any reason (Bailey 393).  Most fathers granted custody or access to the children’s mothers because it was considered ungentlemanly to deny mothers the opportunity to be with their children.  Judges could also require a father to grant access or custody to the mother in circumstances in which the children’s welfare would be in jeopardy if they were left with their father. (Bailey 394)  There were five major court cases in which judges ruled against mothers’ claims that set up the battle to legally recognize a mother’s right to see her children.  In each case, the judge ruled against state intervention and in favor of paternal rights in an attempt to protect the stability of families (396).

The first case, De Manneville v. De Manneville (1804), involved a husband who blackmailed his wealthy wife by taking their baby away until she agreed to grant him greater financial support beyond what had been agreed upon in their marriage settlement.  Despite Mr. de Manneville’s questionable character, Lord Chancellor Eldon granted him custody over his daughter; his reason was that awarding custody to the mother would have condoned her voluntary separation from her husband, which would have undermined the sanctity of marriage. (Bailey 396-98)

The second case, Ex parte Skinner (1824), involved a mother who sued for custody of her six-year old daughter after her husband was arrested and left their daughter in the care of his mistress.  The judge ruled in favor of the father because he found no abuse in the case and, thus, had no reason to break with the father’s paternal right. (Bailey 399) Judges in the next three cases that awarded custody to fathers when the mothers would clearly have been more appropriate guardians based their judgments on the precedents set by De Manneville and Skinner (Bailey 400).

While the judges who ruled in the cases that followed De Manneville and Skinner were dissatisfied with needing to conform to the precedents that favored immoral fathers, there was little impetus to intervene with a legislative change until Caroline Norton took up the cause of establishing a mother’s right to her children.  Mrs. Norton had been dragged into the public eye in 1836, when her spiteful husband accused her of having an affair with Lord Melbourne, who was prime minister of Britain at the time (Chase and Levenson 34).  While Caroline and Lord Melbourne were found innocent, this could hardly be considered a victory for Mrs. Norton, since her reputation had been ruined and she had no means of seeking a divorce from the husband who loathed her.  To make matters worse, George Norton decided to punish his wife by taking away their children and refusing to allow her to visit them. (Chase and Levenson 37-39) 

In early 1837, Caroline Norton recruited Thomas Noon Talfourd, a young Member of Parliament and barrister, to bring a bill before the House of Commons that called for granting access to children under 12 years old to both parents (Bailey 410).  While as a woman, Norton had no ability to argue on behalf of the bill before Parliament, she wrote a pamphlet outlining her argument and used her political connections to circulate it (Chase and Levenson 40).  The bill that Talfourd presented met with vehement opposition from a few MP’s who objected on the grounds that guaranteeing mothers access to their children would encourage them to leave their husbands and serve as a disincentive to reconciliation between husbands and wives (Bailey 415).

The bill eventually passed the House of Commons with a large majority, but it was defeated in the House of Lords in July 1838 primarily due to a fear that it would promote the dissolution of families.  (Bailey 425)  Norton responded with a new pamphlet in which she refuted every argument against the bill that had arisen in Parliament.  Here, as in all of her other writing on behalf of the rights of women, Norton took the position that women were indeed inferior to men, but that such inferiority did not mean they should not be protected by the law.  She wrote, “An inferior position, that is, a position subject to individual authority, does not imply the absence of claim to general protection.  To say that a wife should be otherwise than dutiful and obedient to her husband, or that she should in any way be independent of him, would be absurd …. But there is a very wide difference between being subject to authority and subject to oppression” (Norton 6).  While some historians view this as Norton’s genuine belief in women’s inferiority (Shanley 18), others interpret her position as a shrewd political move calculated to prevent her male audience from dismissing her arguments outright (Bailey 406).

In April 1839, Talfourd brought to the House of Commons a new version of the bill, which allowed mothers to claim custody of children under age seven and to have access to older children (Bailey 433).  It passed the House of Commons in June 1839 (Bailey 434) and the House of Lords in August 1839 (Bailey 436).  While the law didn’t significantly change the way custody was awarded by the courts, since in most cases mothers had already been allowed either custody or equal access to their children (Bailey 393), it did provide legal recognition of a mother’s right to see her children and served as a first step toward acknowledging the need for legal protections for married women.

Works Cited:

Abramowicz, Sarah.  “English Child Custody Law, 1660-1839: The Origins of Judicial Intervention in Paternal Custody.”  Columbia Law Review, vol. 99, no. 5, June 1999, p. 1344-1392.

Bailey, Martha J. “England's First Custody of Infants Act.” Queen's Law Journal, vol. 20, no. 2, Spring 1995, p. 391-438. HeinOnline.

Chase, Karen and Michael Levenson.  The Spectacle of Intimacy: A Public Life for the Victorian Family.  Princeton UP, 2000.

Norton, Caroline.  A Plain Letter to the Lord Chancellor on the Infant Custody Bill.  James Ridgway, 1839.  Google Books. 

Shanley, Mary Lyndon.  Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England, 1850-1895.  Princeton UP, 1989.

Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert

Queen Victoria married her German cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha of February 10th, 1840.  While this was a political marriage in that it kept the crown within the Hanover family, Victoria adored Albert, and they were very much in love.  They would go on to have nine children between 1840 and 1857, years in which Victoria was nearly always pregnant or recovering from pregnancy.   The current Queen Elizabeth II is a direct descendant of Victoria and Albert.  However, Victoria's grandson, King George V, changed the family name from "Saxe-Coburg and Gotha" to "Windsor" after the First World War to distance the British monarchy from their German heritage.  

Seneca Falls Convention

The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was the first women’s rights convention which sought to discuss the “social, civil, and religious condition of woman” (“Report of the Woman’s…” 3). This two-day convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19 - 20^th attracted many women and men in attendance. The Convention put into question the perception of women, their social status, and their freedoms (McMillen 3-4). The Convention brought awareness to women’s right to vote, to “serve on juries, hold public office, claim their own possessions, earn equal wages, acquire good educations, have access to divorce…” and many other vital topics (McMillen 71). This two-day event hosted six different sessions which included discussion about law, various discussion’s about women’s role in society, and a humorous act.

Two notable women that helped contribute to this movement were Lucretia Coffin Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

            A principle organizer of the Seneca Falls Convention was Lucretia Coffin Mott, a Quaker minister. Her childhood was more unusual than not for the time period as she attended a coed boarding school along with her brothers and sisters. This means, she received an education equal to that of her brother’s. Beside her faith, which preached human equality, Mott’s mother instilled the ideal that women can achieve anything they set their mind to. The frequent absence of her father in the home led Mott’s mother to make all the decisions on the household and for their family business. Lucretia Coffin Mott’s profound advocacy for women’s rights stemmed from (McMillen 5).

Another principle organizer was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Very few would have imagined Elizabeth Cady Stanton as a reformer because of her conservative upbringing. She grew up in a rural setting where her family held onto traditional values. As society moved advanced (i.e. industrialization), or societal values began to shift (i.e. families having fewer children) the Stanton family seemed to stay back to their traditional ways of life. In almost every aspect, her family held onto their own values which were growing out of mainstream fashion due to their Calvinist belief in predestination. Stanton’s need for female reform stemmed from her own early tensions of wanting to grow but respecting institutionalized authority (Wellman 18). Stanton was a vital figure in creating the “Declaration of Rights and Sentiments” for the Seneca Falls Convention.

The “Declaration of Rights and Sentiments” is a really important document which was read on the first day of the convention. Read by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, for the first time did this declaration give women a voice in such a large public gathering. The Declaration highlights injustices that women experienced and propose resolutions to address these wrongdoings; for example, women were deprived of property rights or women couldn’t attend higher education. This was mainly addressed to male politicians, as they were the only ones who had any influence, to legitimize women’s position in society through law. Moreover, this speech shed not only the light to injustices, but to highlight that this was wrong. Women deserved better than these misogynistic values and they should fight for equal ground. This was an empowering shift towards women and their own perspective about their status in society. This document mimicked the Declaration of Independence as it begins with “We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men and women are created equal.” The intent of this quote was to find a new meaning behind this statement, to take it quite literally and fight for women’s political and economic equality. It challenged society’s assumptions about female inferiority and their reliance on men. This document was signed by 32 men and 68 women- 100 of the 300 attendees (“First Conventions Ever…” 4-6).

The decade after the convention was crucial since it sparked women’s activism. Women held countless of meeting to address the injustices they faced. They discussed resolutions and persuaded worthiness of their cause. Many committees were formed to study relevant issues, record findings, and most importantly, grow confidence as women took charge. More and more women began to find their voice through petitions, conducting campaigns, writing letters and essays. The Seneca Falls Conventions fostered these activities, but reformers still had a long time to go until their work was made accessible to all women (McMillen 104).

Bibliography

“First Convention Ever Called to Discuss the Civil and Political Rights of Women, Seneca Falls, New York, July 19, 20, 1848.” New York Heritage Digital Collections, Library of Congress, https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll52/id/624

McMillen, Sally. Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women's Rights Movement, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 1999. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/depaul/detail.action?docID=415754.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CKXzBSKWwAEzQT8.jpg

“Report of the Woman's Rights Convention, Held at Seneca Falls, N.Y., July 19th and 20th, 1848.” New York Heritage Digital Collections, North Star Office, https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll96/id/63

Wellman, Judith. The Road to Seneca Falls : Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the First Woman's Rights Convention, University of Illinois Press, 2004. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/depaul/detail.action?docID=3414013.

The Publishing of The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne releases his novel, The Scarlet Letter, to the world. The novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman who is ostracized in her Puritan community because she gave birth to an illegitimate child. The work can serve as an expose of the sexual double standard and lack of women's rights that exists during this time.

https://americanliterature.com/author/nathaniel-hawthorne/book/the-scarlet-letter/summary

Millard Fillmore Sworn in as President of the US

Following the untimely death of Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore is sworn in as the 13th President of the United States. He is the second vice- president to assume the presidency due to death.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/millard-fillmore-sworn-in-as-president

Harriet Taylor Mill's " The Enfranchisement of Women"

The Enfranchisement of Women was written by Harriet Taylor Mill and published by the Westminster Review in July 1851. This essay was considered one of the most significant texts in feminine history as it came out during the early English feminist movement where concerns over women’s employment, education and legal status in society were brought up (Hackleman 274). Through this published work, Mill advocated for the “enfranchisement of women; their admission, in law and in fact, to equality in all rights, political, civil, and social, with the male citizens of the community”(Mill 3). Mill made several important points throughout her work and one of the issues she brought up was that the present conditions did not allow women the opportunity to live according to their “nature” or desires since they were deprived of rights such as legal rights. She brought up the issue of women being excluded from common rights of citizenship, bringing up an example of  British law that claims, “all persons should be tried by their peers; yet women whenever tried, are tried by male judges and a male jury” (Mill 6). The lack of freedom for women also forced them to become wives and mothers because these were the only options that they had. Mill brought up the argument that women were largely oppressed because of the maternal and care-taking responsibilities placed upon them, which was another way that women were deprived of being able to live according to their “nature”. Mill also advocated for women to have the ability to participate in the work force and public life, stating how women would prefer that that part of the income would be from their own doing (Miller). Mill believed that women deserved the same educational rights as men. Women were expected to take care of their families and also encourage their husbands’ moral and intellectual developments. If women did not go to school, they would not be able to support their husbands and families in general.

        Mill also brought up the situation of the lower class and claimed that, “nothing will refine and elevate the lower classes but the elevation of women to perfect equality” (Mill 24). Mill claimed that the working-class women suffered the most as the law denied them property and control over earnings and at the same time, she brought up the idea of violence. She argued that lower-class women were the biggest victims of domestic violence and the unjust law (Deutscher 139). In The Enfranchisement of Women, Mill made it clear that the freedom of women was part of the general progress of England during the 19^th century in general. She pointed out that, “for the interest, therefore, not only of women but of men, and of human improvement in the widest sense, the emancipation of women...cannot stop where it is (Mill 19 ). Mill’s work represented a beginning in the improvement of women’s rights condition in 19^th century England and this issue was only further escalated by future feminists and supporters for better women’s rights. There was debate over whether Harriet Taylor Mill was the main author of this work because she had collaborated with her husband, John Stuart Mill on several works and many of the ideas in this essay were similar to her husband’s essay, The Subjection of Women, but despite conflicting evidence, there was a general consensus that Harriet was the article’s main author since many of the views in the essay corresponded to her radical view of gender roles (Miller). Although Mill was not given the full credit at first and her work was relatively unknown, she was still able to make a big contribution to women’s rights. Her radical views shown through The Enfranchisement of Women and she gave a very clear and rational analysis of the oppression and coercion that women faced in a time when they were considered nothing compared to men and were only defined by their reproductive and care-taking responsibilities (Deutscher 278). Harriet Taylor Mill was able to use this essay to help encourage women to fight for their rights and place in society.   

Works Cited:

 Deutscher, Penelope. “When Feminism Is ‘High’ and Ignorance Is ‘Low’: Harriet Taylor Mill  

    on the Progress of the Species.” Hypatia, vol. 21, no. 3, 2006, pp. 136–150. JSTOR,

     www.jstor.org/stable/3810955. Accessed 20 Sept. 2020.

Hackleman, Leah D. “Suppressed Speech: The Language of Emotion in Harriet Taylor’s The

     Enfranchisement of Women.” Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 20, no. 3–

     4, 1992, pp. 273–286. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00497878.1992.9978913.

Mill, Harriet Hardy Taylor. Enfranchisement of Women. 1868. JSTOR,

      jstor.org/stable/10.2307/60203575. Accessed 20 Sept. 2020.

Miller, Dale E., "Harriet Taylor Mill", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2018

       Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =

     <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2018/entries/harriet-mill/>.

“Portait of Harriet Taylor Mill” Wikimedia Commons, London’s National Portrait Gallery,

      https://www.college.columbia.edu/core/content/harriet-taylor-mill. Accessed 21 Sept. 2020.

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville was published

Moby-Dick is considered one of the greatest classics of American literature about Captain Ahab and his quest to catch a giant white whale. 

History.com Editors. “Herman Melville Publishes ‘Moby-Dick.’” HISTORY. N.p., 24 Nov. 2009. Web. 2 Oct. 2020.

Image source: Wikipedia, Moby Dick, Web. 2 Oct. 2020

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Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin is published by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It is said to have inspired the anti-slavery movement in the 1850's.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Uncle-Toms-Cabin

The Crimean War

The Crimean War was fought between Russia and an alliance of the U.K., the Ottoman Empire, France, and Sardinia. The war lasted from 1853 to 1856.

Article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War

Image source: 

Ramirez, Valentin. Wikipedia, 2004, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War.

Republican Party Founded

The Republican Party is founded by former members of the Whig Party. This new party was formed to oppose the spread of slavery in western territories.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/republican-party-founded

Kansas-Nebraska Act was signed into law

The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854 and it allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide if they would allow slavery within their borders.

“U.S. Senate: The Kansas-Nebraska Act.” Senate.gov. N.p., 12 Dec. 2019. Web. 2 Oct. 2020.

‌Image Source: Wikipedia, Kansas-Nebraska Act. Web. Accessed 2 Oct. 2020

Elizabeth Gaskell publishes North and South

Elizabeth Gaskell published North and South in 1854. Her book tackles the complex issues of class and labor relations in England in the nineteenth century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_and_South_(Gaskell_novel)

Image source: 

Wikipedia, 2011, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_and_South_(Gaskell_novel).

Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857

           The passage of The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 is often seen as an indisputable milestone for women’s rights. The act was the first piece of legislation passed by Parliament that made “divorce legal under British law and was the first law to protect a wife’s property” (Kelly). This act was significant in the fight for women’s rights because women were no longer able to be seen merely as their husband’s slave, but as an individual with legitimate rights. Women were granted political power with the passing of this act by having the ability to escape mistreatment and abuse executed by their husbands without the fear of losing their future property and possessions after their agenda was completed. Although divorce was illegal unless specially granted by an act of Parliament prior to its enactment, the legislation was the second law to address the ramifications of divorce on women after the 1839 Custody of Infants Act (Kelly). The act protected women with an array of marital statuses, including “divorced, separated, and deserted wives” (Kelly).

            Prior to the passage of the act, “the only chance one had to receive a divorce was through a Private Act of Parliament” (Kelly). The act greatly increased womens’ opportunity to receive a divorce. “Between 1670 and 1857, 379 Parliamentary divorces were requested and 324 were granted. Of those 379 requests, eight were by wives, and only four of those were granted” (Kelly). Society placed many obstacles in the path of women attempting to request a marriage dissolution. Requesting a dissolution of marriage from Parliament required a large sum of money, the ability to travel to London, and an acceptable cause of release from the matrimony. The high cost of requesting a divorce decree from Parliament worked against women’s favor, due men wielding financial control of the family. Only aristocratic women were able to initiate divorce processes since they did not depend on their husband’s money (Layton and Landow). Secondly, one had to stay in London for the duration of their case, which further alienated groups of women whose residence was too far to make the trip. Many women were unable to file for a divorce because they were not able to leave their children for such an extended amount of time, since the process “took the form of a three-stage process that occupied a decade” (Layton and Landow). Lastly, women had to prove their husband committed “aggravated adultery, which is adultery ‘aggravated’ by bigamy, incest, bestiality, sodomy, desertion, cruelty, or rape” (Kelly). If the woman was unable to obtain concrete evidence of her husband’s actions, she would be denied the divorce since aggravated adultery was the only justifiable cause of her divorce. These obstacles disallowed many women the opportunity to escape her marital imprisonment.

              The sexist double standard of the Victorian era was prevalent by the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857’s passage having little effect on men’s opportunity to obtain a divorce. Of the many divorces requested from Parliament prior to 1857, almost all made by men were granted. Unlike women, men did not have to obtain evidence against his wife. Men who desired a divorce simply had to state in his request to Parliament that he “was a victim of his wife’s adultery” (Kelly). Society believed that a wife’s infidelity was more destructive to the family since “titles, land, and wealth passed to the oldest male heir — it was absolutely essential that the heir be the actual son of the father who possessed the title” (Layton and Landow). Women underwent greater scrutiny in this regard because their disloyalty had the opportunity to disrupt the succession of wealth in their family, while the infidelity of men did not. Male divorcees’ names went untarnished if he was the one who was “mistreated.” Female divorcees understood their estrangement came at “the cost of reputation and status,” (Kelly), no matter the cause, since divorces were considered to tarnish a woman’s value.

             The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 changed the dynamic of women’s rights and family law. Due to the emerging equity in the potential for both spouses to obtain and divorce, the responsibilities of both spouses were redefined. Men began to place more importance on their wives and began to dismiss sexist notions such as the belief that “no man should so much as bow without first being acknowledged by a woman” (Cocks). Marriage began to be viewed as a partnership, and not a dictatorship. Many couples began to realize it was beneficial to both parties to retain their families and avoid undergoing the process of a divorce.

             Additionally, the rights of middle and lower class women were also recognized by the act’s passage by its “establishment of a cheaper one-court system” (Kelly). The financial availability of divorce caused middle and lower class men to put more effort in maintaining a stable household (Cocks). Men of lower financial status wanted to keep their families together because they would not be able to afford the spousal support required by law to be given to their wives if they were to be granted a divorce (Cocks). The passage of the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 gave women the opportunity to be their own agents of change if they were unhappily married.

Works Cited:

Cocks, Harry. “The Cost of Marriage and the Matrimonial Agency in Late Victorian Britain.” Social History, vol. 38, no. 1, Feb. 2013, pp. 66–88. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/03071022.2012.759774.

Hager, Kelly. "Chipping Away at Coveture: The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857." BRANCH: Britain, Representation and Nineteenth-Century History. Ed. Dino Franco Felluga. Extension of Romaniticism and Victorianism on the Net. Web. 18 September 2020.

Layton, C., & Landow, G. P. (n.d.). The Origins of Victorian Divorce Law. Retrieved September19, 2020, from http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/layton2.html

Publishing of the English Woman's Journal

The English Woman’s Journal (EWJ) was first published in March of 1958. It was started by two middle-class women, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon and Bessie Raynor Parkes. Bodichon and Parkes started the journal after the failure of the Married Women’s Property Act to pass parliament. Although the act failed, Bodichon and Parkes started the journal to increase support for women’s issues, create a space for feminist theorizing, and provide a public record detailing feminist activity (Dredge 133).

The EWJ focused heavily on advocating for the expansion of women’s employment opportunities and it advertised existing employment opportunities for women as well (Nestor 96). This is one of the main reasons why they were considered radical. Their suggestions that women can find happiness outside the home and that the ideal Victorian woman included unattainable and absurd standards were very controversial and provoked varied reactions from cultural critics and other publications (Schroeder 4). In addition, the EJW published material about many of the most popular feminist causes at the time, including marriage law reform, higher education for women, and female suffrage (Dredge 135).

The EJW was comprised of a few recurring sections, the “Open Council,” which was a space for reader contributions and information about groups and events, the “Passing Events” section, which includes a variety of news pieces about women and women’s issues, and “Notice of Books,” which showcased reviews of publications both about women’s issues and about other literary pieces. In addition, each issue commonly had a poem and an installment of a story as well (Nestor 98).

Although the EJW never reached much more than 1,000 subscribers and was very low-budget, its publishing is still considered a revolutionary feminist event in Victorian history (Schroeder 13). It was impactful to simply have a female-controlled source of media when most other publications were controlled by men. The EJW remained authentic to its value of appreciating women’s intellectual capabilities, as much of the staff were female, though men were allowed to contribute as well (Schroeder 3). In addition, Parke responded publicly to criticisms of the journal, even though they came from male-dominated publications and she was advised not to by her father. This refusal to back down was an important event in 19^th century feminism (Schroeder 14). In addition, the EJW was able to effectively highlight the importance and power of individual women’s stories. They allowed women who felt invisible, to share details about their domestic life that were often graphic or heavy, and spurred political interests, such as supporting bills related to women’s rights (Dredge 142).

However, there were limitations to the EJW’s feminist resistance. The EJW was made by middle-class women, and catered to middle-class women. This led their feminism to be less radical and more liberal than many other feminist organizations, which sometimes resulted in them supporting the same patriarchal forces that they also argued against, creating a discourse that seemed haphazardly constructed and confusing to some (Dredge 135). However, the ideology of reform, versus radical reconstruction, served to gain the EJW greater social acceptance than many other feminist or Marxist groups at the time (Dredge 134). In addition, the journal sometimes also played into dismissive and harmful stereotypes about women, such as dismissing the intellectual capacity required to write literature, which was thought of as an appropriate activity for women (Nestor 99). It is also important to note that the EJW held the stance that motherhood and family care was a woman’s highest calling, but it didn’t have to be her only calling (Schroeder 4).

The last issue of the EJW was published in 1864. Its publication ended due to not having enough funds and disagreements between the women running the journal. However, in 1865, a woman named Jessie Boucherett started the journal up again under the name Englishwomen’s Review, and the journal had sustained success for decades (Dredge 155).

Works Cited

Dredge, Sarah. “Opportunism and Accommodation: TheEnglish Woman’s Journaland the British Mid-Nineteenth-Century Women’s Movement.” Women's Studies, vol. 34, no. 2, 2005, pp. 133–157., doi:10.1080/00497870590923935.

Nestor, Pauline A. “A New Departure in Women's Publishing: ‘The English Woman's Journal’ and ‘The Victoria Magazine.’” Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 15, no. 3, 1982, pp. 93–106.

Schroeder, Janice. “On the English Woman’s Journal, 1858-62.” BRANCH: Britain, Representation and Nineteenth-Century History. Ed. Dino Franco Felluga. Extension of Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net. Web.

Image Citation: 

Nineteenth Century Serials Edition, Birkbeck University London, 2018, ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/fewj_01031858/page/1/articles/ar00102/.

Foundation of The Nightingale Training School for Nurses

During the 19^th century, particularly in the earlier half of the century, nursing was typically pursued by women who were in the working class or part of a religious sisterhood, and for those who partook in nursing, their role as a nurse was different from modern-day nurses. It was not until the establishment of the Nightingale Training School for Nurses in 1860 by Florence Nightingale that nurses received any formal medical education and that nursing was seen as a career. Before 1860, the role of a nurse was similar to that of a housemaid since nurses had little medical education beyond knowing how to make poultices (soft, hot, and medicated cloths that were applied on the body to treat aches, inflammation, and cuts) and their duties included keeping the rooms clean and attending to the patient’s needs (Hawkins 43).

            Nursing in the Victorian Era almost completely changed after the Crimean War (1853-1856). Between the Crimean War popularizing nursing and medical science of the time improving, there was a desire for nurses and a need for better training (Smith 233). From this came the secularization of nursing and the establishment of nursing as a career for women, led by Florence Nightingale, a British nurse, statistician, and social reformer. In her book Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not, Nightingale writes that “I use the word nursing for want of a better. It has been limited to signify little more than the administration of medicines and the application of poultices” (Skretkowicz 65). Nightingale had served as a nurse in the Crimean War and was an advocate for nursing as a career. She aimed to create a school that produced nurses who were educated and could teach others the profession (Smith 233). She believed that nurses should not work blindly but with intelligent obedience, and this was achieved by providing a balanced education of theoretical and moral training (Hawkins 78).

            And so, through funding from the Nightingale Fund, Nightingale began work on establishing the Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, the first-ever professional nursing school in the world (Hawkins 85). She played a large role in its development, overseeing sanitation, architecture, administration, and teaching. In her Notes on Nursing, she wrote that the hospital and the school “ought to signify the proper use of fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness, quiet, and the proper selection and administration of diet—all at the least expense of vital power to the patient,” matters that, in the past, had been viewed as unnecessary (Skretkowicz 65). Because of this, every day sanitary knowledge and nursing needed to be taught in a higher place of education than the home, which is why this school was of high important to the reformation of nursing (Skretkowicz 45).

The school opened its doors on the 9^th of July in 1860 to a small group of women and would take in and board classes of 20 to 30 women each year, certifying nearly 2,000 nurses by the end of the 19^th century. The school had a policy of placing their trainees in provincial hospitals after their one year of intense training, which was a key strategy of Nightingale’s that helped shape modern nursing (Hawkins 142). Also at the school, for educating purposes, there was a division of the newly admitted students into two groups: nurse-probationers and lady-probationers. This distinction would define the degree of education they received and the career path the ladies went on. Nurse-probationers (the larger group) earned a small salary and trained for free, receiving a moderate education. Lady-probationers (the smaller group) received a higher standard of education, but got no salary and had to pay for their training and board (“The Nightingale Tradition” 126).

From its establishment, the Nightingale Training School for Nurses offered lectures on elementary sciences for all probationers and advanced lectures specifically for lady-probationers (Hawkins 78). Additionally, they went through hard manual labor while at the Nightingale Training School for Nurses, reporting to female superiors who could have come from any class before entering the school, even the lower class (Hawkins 144). These differing levels of education were necessary for two reasons. For one, not every woman who came to the school had the same prior education, so divisions were necessary for student success. And two, this helped prepared the two groups for the roles and careers they were expected to assume down the line: nurse-probationers as matrons and superintendents and lady-probationers as directors of new training schools (“The Nightingale Tradition” 126).

From this secular education came the “new nurse” who was young, respectable, well-educated, pure, and morally unimpeachable (Hawkins 35). This new idea of the female nurse and teachings of nursing would become the foundation for modern nursing. Because of this, Florence Nightingale would be regarded as the mother of modern nursing.

Works Cited:

Hawkins, Sue. “Nursing and Women’s Labour in the Nineteenth Century: The Quest for Independence.” Nursing and Women’s Labour in the Nineteenth Century, Routledge, 2010. DOI: 10.4324/9780203854464.

“The Nightingale Tradition.” The British Medical Journal, vol. 2, no. 5192, 1960, pp. 126–126. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25392034.

Skretkowicz, Victor. Florence Nightingale’s Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not & Notes on Nursing for the Laboring Classes: Commemorative Edition with Commentary. Springer, 2010.

Smith, Frances T. “Florence Nightingale: Early Feminist.” The American Journal of Nursing, vol. 81, no. 5, 1981, pp. 1021–1024. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3424738.

Abraham Lincoln Becomes President

Abraham Lincoln became the 16th President of the United States in 1861. He later issued the Emancipation of Proclamation which freed the slaves in 1863.

Abraham Lincoln

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl- Harriet Jacobs

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an autobiography written about a fugitive slave, Harriet Jacobs. This book documents the life of a slave and how she gained freedom for her and her children.

Harriet Jacobs info

Victor Hugo's Les Miserables is Published

Victor Hugo's epic novel of revolution, religion, and moral philosophy is published in 1862. The novel is a bold examination of wealth inequality and antimonarchism in France and speaks to simmering tensions regarding class disparity in the nineteenth century. More information: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/326583/les-miserables-by-victo… Image: Les Miserables' Penguin Classics Cover, via Amazon.

Passage of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln

On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation.  This proclamation, passed within the third year of the Civil War, declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free" (National Archives).   

Citation: National Archives. “The Emancipation Proclamation.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, 2019, www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation.

More information about the Emancipation Proclamation can be found at the following links: 

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-procl…

Transcript: 

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-procl…

Implications:

https://historycooperative.org/effects-emancipation-proclamation/

Image Citation: https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-procl…

Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864 and 1866

The Contagious Disease Act was initially enacted in 1864 with the goal of preventing sexual diseases within the armed forces. This Act allowed for any woman who was suspected of being a prostitute to be arrested and later was forced to endure medical checks for sexually transmitted diseases. If a woman was to be found with a disease, they were detained in hospitals for a certain period of time. The Act was later reformed in 1866 as government officials worked to spread the jurisdiction of the Act to more sites of military personnel as well as the civilian population. Both Acts were to be carried out and executed through the use of police force with the addition of purpose-built lock wards in which the women were confined to in the reformed Act of 1866 (McHugh 16). To begin with, the Contagious Disease Act was defended as a means of sanitary measures and to set proper moral views. The House of Commons Committee states in Acton’s book, “Although the Act has only been in operation for two years and a half, and at some stations only seven months, strong testimony is borne to the benefits, both in a moral and sanitary point of view, which have already resulted from it” (Acton 3). With a little over two years in action, the House of Commons Committee claimed they were making beneficial strides towards a more sanitary and moral environment with the implementation of the Acts. Overall, prostitution had seemed to fully diminish and society seemed to morally be doing better. In addition, Acton states “Only those utterly ignorant of what has been achieved, will be so bold as to deny the excellent effects produced by the Contagious Disease Act in the protected districts” (Acton 11). Once again, Acton claims that there have been beneficial effects in response to the Acts, and anybody who denies it is wrong. Acton’s idea is that whatever is good for the few is good for the many, regardless of how the Acts treat women as inferior to men. When the Acts first came about, government officials did not worry themselves too much of defending the purpose of these Acts, as there was no significant challenge to their legitimacy (Walkowitz 71). It wasn’t until the late 1860s where public opposition became prominent enough to where government officials had to begin to justify themselves. The start of the repeal movement recruited many extraordinary campaigners who found the Acts to be repugnant such as moralists, feminists, individualists, and other opponents of medical pretensions and military arrogance (McHugh 16). One campaigner who made unprecedented strides towards the repeal of the Contagious Disease Acts and is considered to be the leader goes by the name of Josephine Butler. Mrs. Butler saw prostitution as a social problem rather than a sexual problem and demanded equality of treatment with men (McHugh 21). Mrs. Butler was not alone, as those who wanted to repeal the Act made the same argument. It was unfair to treat the disease as if it is something only a woman could cause and there cannot be an Act that singles out one gender and punish them. The Acts were essentially made for the protection of males in which was assured through the inspection of females (McHugh 17). Once again, government officials mentioned the moral and social benefits of the Act and made post hoc fallacies arguing that since women are the gender with the disease, they must be the one causing it, which was entirely irrelevant to the initial argument in 1864. At the end of the day, these acts were intended to be the first stage in the creation of a moral and sanitary utopia. The Contagious Diseases Acts were consistent with a set of attitudes and "habits of mind" toward women, sexuality, and class that permeated the official Victorian culture.

Works Cited:

Acton, William. Contagious Diseases Act, Shall the Contagious Diseases Act be Applied to the Civil Population? London, John Churchill & Sons, 1870.

McHugh, Paul. Prostitution and Victorian Social Reform. New York, Routledge, 1980.

Walkowitz, Judith R. Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class, and the State. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1980.

Publication of "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" by Jules Verne

In 1864, Jules Verne's novel, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, was published. As the second book in the series Voyages extraordinaries, published between 1863 and 1910, this novel continued his use of "combin[ing] scientific facts with adventure fiction...[which] laid the ground work for science fiction" (Bauer & Cathy).

Citation: 

Bauer, Patricia, and Cathy Lowne. “A Journey to the Centre of the Earth.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 27 Nov. 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/A-Journey-to-the-Centre-of-the-Earth.

Julia Margaret Cameron debuts her series "Fruits of the Spirit"

Julia Margaret Cameron debuted a series of photos titled Fruits of the Spirit that illustrated the nine Christian virtues. She held her first individual exhibition in November 1865 after presenting them to the British Museum. 

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/camr/hd_camr.htm

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O129594/goodness-photograph-cameron-….

Image Citation

Cameron, Julia Margaret. "Gentleness" Victoria and Albert Museum, London. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O98836/gentleness-photograph-cameron-…. Accessed 2 Oct. 2020.

The Reform Act of 1867

The Second Reform Act, sometimes referred to as the Great Reform Act of 1867, was a piece of voter-related legislation which granted the right to vote to certain working-class English and Welsh men, increasing the enfranchisement of men in Britain. The act followed on the heels of the Reform Act of 1832, which extended voting rights to British male property owners who met certain requirements. While the Second Reform Act doubled the number of eligible voters in England and Wales (Saunders 571), universal male suffrage was still not achieved. The act also galvanized a new movement for women’s suffrage due to its vague wording and set a precedent for prioritizing the male vote, regardless of class, over those of wealthier and more educated women.       

The act held far-reaching implications for both conservative and liberal politicians at the time, as well as for the burgeoning women’s suffrage movement of the early Victorian period. The new qualifications for voting eligibility resulted in shifts in party demographics and numbers, and the vague wording of the bill inspired feminists and their allies to contest women’s disenfranchisement.

The bill itself was a conservative invention, introduced by the Tory Party in an attempt to expand their base. Thomas F. Gallagher argues that the bill was conservative in the sense that it was following a pattern of reform that had already been established and, for the most part, accepted by the populace (Gallagher 147). Rather than being a radical reform, it was a logical next step following the Reform Act of 1832. However, many conservative leaders still objected to the bill, feeling that it went too far. Lord Cranborne Robert Cecil allegedly saw the bill as a “surrender...of all the traditions that were sacred” to the Conservative Party (Gallagher 148). The strategy and overall goals of the bill have both been points of contention by scholars. While Gallagher characterizes the bill as a strategic and intentional move by a conservative government to acquire more party voters, others like Robert Saunders argue that the widespread enfranchisement which occurred was not the government’s intention. Saunders argues that the goal of each party was not to enfranchise as many voters as possible but rather to find “a safeguard against further additions” and calls the resulting influx of eligible voters an “irony of history” (Saunders 591). 

The bill held significance for liberals as well, who had long been in conflict with conservatives regarding the issue of enfranchisement. Liberals had offered other reform bills and amendments before the 1867 bill was introduced, but conservatives had been reluctant to move forward. Some leftist politicians felt that the 1867 bill did not go far enough, one of which being John Stuart Mill, an outspoken radical who supported women’s suffrage. In his influential treatise Considerations on Representative Government, Mill argued that gender was as “irrelevant to political rights as difference in height or in the color of the hair” (Mill). In May 1867, he presented an amendment to the bill which would have included women in its language by changing the word ‘man’ to ‘person’, but he was not successful in getting the amendment to pass (Rendall 136). 

The Reform Act of 1867 can be seen as a catalyst for an increase in activism regarding women’s suffrage in Britain, as the overt exclusion of women from the language of the bill galvanized feminists. Before the bill even passed, feminists worked to have women included in its language, signing petitions and contacting sympathetic MPs in an attempt to be heard. While the 1867 Act did obvious good by enfranchising over a million English and Welsh working class men, early feminists were frustrated with the restrictive wording of the bill. Some suffragettes began to argue that women’s enfranchisement and legal rights had been pre-established by older legislation which did not follow the same word choice as the 1867 bill, and a new movement of activism, which argued that women who met the property requirements of previous bills should be able to vote, began to gain traction. In 1868, feminist Lydia Becker started a campaign to register women who met the appropriate property requirements and over 5,300 Manchester women attempted to register (Barnes 511). Although these women were not successful in their attempts to enfranchise themselves, the discourse of “lost ancient rights” (Barnes 511) gained traction as a result of the 1867 bill, and it became increasingly common for feminists to argue that their legal rights had been previously implicitly established and then officially undermined by the wording of the bill. The Second Reform Act energized the women’s suffrage movement and resulted in mass organization by feminists. 1867 saw the Manchester coalition of suffragettes adopt a formal constitution, and later that year the Edinburgh National Society for Women’s Suffrage was formed (Rendall 139). 

The Reform Act of 1867 was a landmark piece of legislation which simultaneously increased the British voting population to numbers never before seen and systematically excluded women from the process of enfranchisement, galvanizing a new movement of feminists and their allies who focused primarily on suffrage. A combination of conservative and liberal agendas, the 1867 Act paved the way for further enfranchisement and resulted in increased feminist activism in the back half of the nineteenth century.

Image via Wikipedia.

Works Cited:

Barnes, Joel. “The British women’s suffrage movement and the ancient constitution, 1867-1909.” Historical Research, vol. 91, no. 253, 2018, pp. 505-527.

Gallagher, Thomas F. “The Second Reform Movement, 1848-1867.” Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, vol. 12, no. 2, 1980, pp. 147-163.

Mill, John Stuart. Considerations on Representative Government. Parker, Son, and Bourn, 1861. Project Gutenburg, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5669/5669-h/5669-h.htm#link2HCH0008. Accessed 20 September 2020.

Rendall, Jane. “The citizenship of women and the Reform Act of 1867.” Defining the Victorian Nation: Class, Race, Gender and the British Reform Act of 1867, edited by Catherine Hall, Keith McClelland and Jane Rendall, Cambridge UP, 2000, pp. 119-175.

 Saunders, Robert. “The Politics of Reform and the Making of the Second Reform Act, 1848-1867.” The Historical Journal, vol. 50, no. 3, 2007, pp. 571-591.

The Formation of the National Society for Women’s Suffrage (NSWS)

The National Society for Women’s Suffrage (NSWS) was founded by Lydia Becker in November 1867 with the purpose of uniting the local women’s suffrage groups and coordinating their activities (Smith 9).  At its formation, the NSWS brought together three local suffrage committees: the London National Society for Women’s Suffrage, the Manchester National Society for Women’s Suffrage and the women’s suffrage society of Edinburgh (van Wingerden 16). The actions of each society, both prior to and following the creation of the NSWS, reflected the desire for female representation in parliament and greater women’s rights (Levine 44). Members of the different suffrage societies organized petitions, deputations, and meetings in order to campaign for these objectives.

The NSWS was formed during the debate over the proposed amendment to the 1867 Reform Act, which called for women’s enfranchisement. It gave the societies the advantage of mutual support and cooperation with each other while allowing them to be autonomous. Each committee was able to act independently, maintain its own committee, and manage its funds (Horowitz Murray & Stark 360). To maintain their initiatives, the societies relied on support from the public. The suffrage societies minimized financial barriers to encourage participation and gain financial support for their organizations. For the London Society, the minimum annual contribution to be a member of was one shilling, which granted access to the Society’s publications. Those contributing £1. 1s. annually were granted membership for the General Committee, which consisted of those with distinguished roles and titles (Horowitz Murray & Stark 313-314). By making the society accessible to all, it provided an opportunity to regain expenditures from collecting signatures throughout the kingdom.

Prior to the formation of the NSWS, the London Society for Women’s Suffrage focused on supporting John Stuart Mill, a liberal politician, on his campaign to give women power in Parliament. After receiving support from Mill, an informal group of women began campaigning for women’s rights by creating petitions and gathering support. After two weeks of campaigning, the women collected 1,499 signatures supporting female enfranchisement, which exceeded Mill’s minimum of 100 signatures (Smith 8). Between the ‘Ladies’ Petition’ and the introduction of a women’s suffrage amendment to the 1867 Reform Bill, more petitions were created, and the informal group became the London National Society for Women’s Suffrage in July 1867 (Smith 10).

 The Manchester Society for Women’s Suffrage was founded by Elizabeth Wolstenholme in August 1867. The Manchester Society was more radical than the London Society and consisted of suffragists of both genders. (Smith 9) Prior to founding the society, Wolstenholme, an active advocate for women’s rights, worked to advance opportunities for women’s education and gathered support for the Ladies’ Petition. Another prominent member of the Manchester Society was Lydia Becker. Before becoming the secretary of the Manchester Society, Becker campaigned against the Contagious Disease Acts and participated in the Married Women’s Property Committee. She later became the first secretary for the NSWS and directed its parliamentary campaign (Smith 9). Jacob Bright, a member of parliament and the Manchester Society, also played an influential role in the women’s suffrage movement. He actively campaigned for married woman’s property and the repeal of the Contagious Disease Acts and had an active role in giving women voting rights (van Wingerden 11).

 Despite campaigns from each society, Mill’s proposal for women’s enfranchisement was rejected by a majority vote of 123 (van Wingerden 14). During the Parliamentary election in November 1867, one woman was able to vote, giving the members of the NSWS an opportunity to find a loophole to the law. This led to over 7,700 women from around Britain, under the leadership of Lydia Becker, to make claims for their right of enfranchisement (Fawcett 10). They cited the Lord Brougham’s Act passed in 1850 in their arguement for females being included under the term “man”, as it defined words indicating masculine gender as inclusive of women unless explicitly stated (Fawcett 10). Despite Parliament ruling that women did not fall under the categorization of “man”, 230 women remained on the electoral rolls, giving them the ability to vote in the upcoming election (van Wingerden 21). This participation led to the amendment of the 1869 Municipal Corporations (Franchise) Act by Jacob Bright. This granted women the right to vote in local elections by acknowledging them as those required to pay taxes.

The actions of the NSWS set precedents for future movements to support women’s rights. The adoption of the Municipal Corporations Act amendment in 1869 led to the 1870 Education Act, which granted women the right to vote for local school boards (Smith 10). At the same time, Lydia Becker created the Women’s Suffrage Journal, which provided updates on events affecting women, supported the need for suffrage, and provided instructions for taking action (Smith 23-24). In 1872, the NSWS split into two different societies: the Central Committee of the NSWS and the London National Society for Women’s Suffrage (Levine 44). After merging to reform the central committee in 1877, the National Central Society for Women’s Suffrage broke away in 1888. The societies rejoined to form the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies in 1892, which later became a prominent body in the feminist movement (Smith 19). 

Resources

Fawcett, Millicent Garrett. Women’s Suffrage; a Short History of a Great Movement. London. T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1912.

Horowitz Murray, Janet & Stark, Myra. The Englishwoman’s Review of Social and Industrial Questions. New York, Garland Publishing, 1980.

Horowitz Murray, Janet & Stark, Myra. The Englishwoman’s Review of Social and Insustrial Questions. New York, Garland Publishing, 1985.

Levine, Philippa. Victorian Feminism, 1850-1900. Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 1989.

Smith, Harold. The British Women's Suffrage Campaign 1866-1928: Revised 2nd Edition. Harlow, Pearson Longman, 2007.

van Wingerden, Sophia. The women's suffrage movement in Britain, 1866-1928. New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1999.

Image Citation

"National Society for Women's Suffrage Manchester Branch" LSE Library, 5 Dec. 2017, https://www.flickr.com/photos/lselibrary/24978186628/in/photostream/. Accessed 2 October 2020.

Foundation of the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women in November 1867

            The foundation of the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women (NECPHEW) in November 1867 is seen as milestone in the renewal of examinations for women. At the time, examinations were seen as providing a motivation for female teachers to improve their teaching. Therefore, women started to organize lectures “for themselves which would provide both discussion on teaching techniques and additional information on school subjects” (Burstyn 26). Lectures discussing these teaching techniques and subjects were thus “often followed by a brief examination, and those attending received a statement showing that they had reached the standard expected of them” (Burstyn 26).

The NECPHEW, when it was founded in 1867, promoted this cause in the north of England, so much so that they began organizing the lectures themselves to promote studying and higher education for women (Burstyn 26). Founded by Anne Jemima Clough and with the founding president of Josephine Butler, this institution therefore began to advocate once more that women were capable of taking examinations. The organization even offered support to Emily Davies at the University of Cambridge and took up fundraising to help Girton College (Levine 30). At the time, Emily Davies had been petitioning the University of Cambridge “to allow girls access to the new Local Examinations… in October 1864,” gaining the support of “seventeen of the Queen’s College staff and thirty-four of the Bedford College Staff’s signatories” (Levine 23). At Girton College, women were attending higher education to become teachers, with “123 of the 335 women [who attended being] awarded certificates there from its foundation [1869] until 1893” (Levine 26).

However, although the NECPHEW was able to promote these causes, “fundamental disagreements emerged with a number of the founding principles on which Girton College was to rest” (Levine 31). At the time, the founder of the NECPHEW, Clough was opposed to Davies and her insistence on forcing compulsory Greek and Latin studies at Girton College (Levine 31). Clough also believed that the cost of attendance was too high and was suspicious “of the college’s attachment to the Anglican church” (Levine 31).

At the time the divisions were occurring within the NEPCHEW, “a separate campaign at Cambridge with the foundation of Newnham College at its center [had arisen]” (Levine 31). Though the NECPHEW disbanded in 1875 due to fundamental differences, the cause “donated its remaining funds,” mostly to the new library at Newnham College (Levine 31). Thus, while the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women did disband, the organization did continue, in donating its funds, to support women’s higher education and examinations.

Anne Clough even continued to pursue this cause through becoming the first principal at Newnham College (Levine 31). Other members of the NEPCHEW, however, also continued their promotion of women in higher education as well, most notably including Elizabeth Wolstenholme and Josephine Butler, its founding president. Through the NECPHEW, both Butler and Wolstenholme ultimately “drew on an older feminist tradition that directly equated freedom with the acquisition of knowledge” (Schwartz 670). Though she was an active participant in the NECPHEW, Wolstenholme herself also championed “a wide range of women’s rights issues, including sex education and the suffrage” (Schwartz 670). She also wrote a tract on girls’ schooling, “calling on her sisters to ‘Set free the women who sigh in the dark prison-houses, the captives of ignorance and folly’” (Schwartz 670). Josephine Butler likewise went on “to lead a national campaign against the exploitation and legal oppression of prostitutes” (Schwartz 670). She saw promoting higher education as another way to allow women to gain freedom with their education, stating that for women “’[w]orse than bodily privations or pains…are these aches and pangs of ignorance” (Schwartz 670). She believed that “‘[t]he desire for education which is widely felt by English women … springs … from the conviction that for many women to get knowledge is the only way to get bread’” (Schwartz 670).

During this time period, “[w]omen were among the most avid consumers of education in the period, and it was their enthusiasm that helped popularize the university extension programmes” (Burstyn 26). The formation of the NEPCHEW therefore also allowed women to pursue their higher education while taking examinations to share their knowledge. This promotion of women and their education was later seen as a stepping stone on the way for women in the “wider question of women’s right to work” (Schwartz 670).

Works Cited:

Burstyn, Joan N. “The Politics of Aspiration .” Victorian Education and the Ideal of Womanhood, by Joan N. Burstyn, Routledge, London, 1980, pp. 11–29.

Butler, Josephine. “(After) G. Richmond, A.K.A. circa 1852.” The Project Gutenberg EBook of Josephine E. Butler, 16 Nov. 2016, www.gutenberg.org/files/53534/53534-h/53534-h.htm.

Levine, Philippa. “Education: The First Step.” Victorian Feminism, 1850-1900, by Philippa Levine, University Press of Florida, 2011, pp. 18–38.

Schwartz, Laura. “Feminist Thinking on Education in Victorian England.” Oxford Review of Education, vol. 37, no. 5, 2011, pp. 669–682., doi:10.1080/03054985.2011.621684.

The Kansas electorate rejects the proposed constitutional amendments to extend suffrage to women and black men

In 1867, the state of Kansas proposed two amendments, one of which was the first consitutional amendment for woman's suffrage in the history of the United States. They sought to grant enranchisement to women and black men by eliminating the worlds "male" and "white" from the Kansas Constitution. The proposed amendments were defeated in the Kansas election after being voted out by the all-white, all-male electroate. 

DEMOCRACY’S RAINBOW: THE LONG ASCENT AND RAPID DESCENT OF VOTING RIGHTS IN KANSAS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1867_Kansas_suffrage_referendum

Image Citation

"Delegates to the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association, Topeka, Kansas" Kansas Historical Society, https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/208676. Accessed 2 Oct. 2020

The Fourteenth Amendment is Added to the US Constitution

In July 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment is added to the US Constitution, reaffirming US citizens' equal protection under the law. The amendment comes in the wake of the Civil War and continued opposition to the citizenship status of African Americans by former Confederate states. The amendment is cited in watershed civil rights cases throughout US history, including Brown v. Board of Education and the Supreme Court marriage equality decision in 2015. More information: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fourteenth-Amendment. Image via Time Magazine.

Publication of Little Women

Louisa May Alcott wrote and published her book Little Women in two volumes, the first published in September 1868 and the second in April 1869. This book was influential in its normalization of female ambition and highlighted the importance of women's individuality.

More information: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-little-women…

Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad

On May 10th, 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in Promontory, Utah after it began construction back in 1862 when the Pacific Railroad Act (1862) was passed; its completion symbolized America's thriving industrialization. The railroad was significant because, for the first time, transportation between the East and West coasts of the United States was possible, uniting the nation.

More information: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/transcontinental-railroad-c…

The Married Women's Property Act of 1870

The Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 was the first of many similar acts that would soon come within the following decade. It laid out the basic desires of how a married woman wanted her own property to be handled and when it was enabled, it triggered the death of coverture. This was a legal doctrine that claimed two people would become one under the law once they got married (Ablow). Coverture erased a woman’s legal rights and individuality making her sole purpose servitude to her husband, which is why this act was, and still remains, so significant to the women’s rights movement in the late 19^th century. The Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 was a milestone for women’s emancipation (Combs).

The push for married women’s property rights began in the 1860’s with the Kensington Society and the Manchester Women’s Suffrage Society, both of which were groups of women who worked to advance women’s education, social, and economic rights (Shanley 49). More specifically, it was Elizabeth Wolstenholme, Jessie Boucherett, Elizabeth Gloyne, and Josephine Butler who assembled the first workings of a campaign in support of passing a married women’s property bill (Shanley 52). They contacted a radical Manchester lawyer, Dr. Richard Pankhurst, to draft the bill and in April 1868 the Married Women’s Property Bill was brought forth to the House of Commons by George Shaw Lefevre and co-sponsored by John Stuart Mill and Russell Gurney (Shanley 53, Holcombe 166). Despite their attempt to pass the Bill, the House of Commons was too conservative and not open to this idea of allowing women to have control over their own property. To the House, this would have been too radical a change. One commenter proclaimed that “the pompous platitudes about authority [of men] and subordination [of women], savoring strongly of the henpecked husband” (Holcombe 166). For the reader’s clarification, a “henpecked husband” is a man who is intimidated, bullied, or dominated by a woman ("Henpecked Husband."), and it is not the highest compliment a man can receive in the 19^th century England. Instead of passing this Bill, the House of Commons extended the protection-order system initiated by Divorce Act of 1857 which allowed married couples to divorce their significant other under the court of law, provided that there were distinct, special circumstances (Holcombe 166).

While some may have thought that this would deter the women’s suffrage movement that was growing in England at the time, the rejection of the Women’s Property Act Bill only fanned the flames higher. The Bill was brought back to the House of Commons in 1869 with the hopes of it passing this time around. It seemed as though some luck was brought to the supporters of the Bill at the time because at the end of 1868 there was a general election the lead to a liberal take over in the House of Commons and brushed the majority of conservatives out of office (Holcombe 168). Witnesses were gathered in order to speak on the injustice done to themselves and women by the lack of a law that genuinely protected women’s property. The protection-order system that was enabled by the Divorce Act of 1857 had proven to be completely ineffective in protecting a woman’s rights, thus the need for a well laid out property law (Holcombe 168). This second debate had moved on from the old arguments brought up in the first and tried to focus on new reasoning for passing or not passing the bill. No one argued that it was the Divine Right of a husband to take his wife’s property, or that this bill would weaken the authority of the Church if passed (Holcombe 169).

Due to the liberal majority in the House of Commons, the Bill was passed on to the Lords and eventually was passed on August 9^th, officially becoming the Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 (Combs). It gave women married after 1870 the right to earn and keep their own wages separate from their husband, invest in stocks, take money out of the bank, and is entitled to any property or money left to her by her parents or family (“CHAP. 93 An Act to amend the Law relating to the Property of Married Women.”). While there would be more Married Women’s Property Acts like this to follow, the one that was passed in 1870 made it known to all that women deserve the right to own their own property just as much as men do.

Works Cited:

Ablow, Rachel. “One Flesh, One Person, and the 1870 Married Women's Property Act.” BRANCH, Britain Representation and Nineteenth-Century History, 2007, https://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=rachel-ablow-one-flesh-on…; the-1870-married-womens-property-act.

“CHAP. 93 An Act to amend the Law relating to the Property of Married Women.” The Public General Statutes, The Queen's Printing Office, 1871, pp. 577–581.

Combs, Mary Beth. “‘A Measure of Legal Independence’: The 1870 Married Women's Property Act and the Portfolio Allocations of British Wives: The Journal of Economic History.” Cambridge Core, Cambridge University Press, 22 Nov. 2005, www.cambridge.org/core

"Henpecked Husband." Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. 2015. Farlex, Inc 1 Oct. 2020 https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/henpecked+husband

Holcombe, Lee. Wives & Property : Reform of the Married Women's Property Law in Nineteenth-Century England. University of Toronto Press, 1982.

Shanley, Mary Lyndon. Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England, Princeton University Press, 1993, pp. 49–78.

The Ballot Act of 1872

On July 18th, 1872, the British Parliament officially introduced secret ballots for all local and national elections.

https://spartacus-educational.com/PR1872.htm

The Medical Act of 1876

The Medical Act of 1876

            The 1870s was one of the most important decades for British women in the field of medicine. Perhaps the most prominent act was the Medical Act of 1876. The act allowed all British medical authorities to license all qualified applicants, regardless of gender. Prior to the Medical Act of 1876, women practiced as unlicensed physicians, a phenomenon that was not uncommon for both men and women at the time (Kirwan). The Medical Act of 1858, however, set laws to regulate unlicensed physicians in the United Kingdom. Although this act might sound justified, it was unfair to women who wanted to practice, but could not, due to medical schools refusing to accept women to their establishments.

The act did not stop one particularly brilliant woman, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, who had found a loophole in the Medical Acts. She realized that British laws did not prevent foreign practicing doctors from practicing in the United Kingdom. Dr. Blackwell had already graduated from New York’s Geneva Medical college in 1849, becoming the first woman to earn an M.D. degree in the United States. She used her medical degree to register in the General Medical Council of Britain (Jefferson et al.). She was allowed to practice in 1865, when she was granted entry to the Society of Apothecaries (Wagner). The Society of Apothecaries prevented future female entrants later that year.

A group of women who got expelled from Edinburgh University decided to work their way around the established medical schools that did not accept women into their programs by founding the London School of Medicine for Women in 1874. Among those women was Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. The London School of Medicine for Women began in a small house but moved to purpose-built premises at the end of the 19^th century. The students were taught by male doctors who supported their cause. The school was noted for its international links to other medical establishments.

Despite the foundation of the London School of Medicine for Women, many ambitious women in Britain were not pleased with the prominent medical schools that still held the belief that women were not fit to practice medicine. The Edinburgh Seven, who were the same seven women that established the London School of Medicine for Women, led the campaign to fight the persistent inequality in medical schools. Those women were expelled from their medical program due to increasing hostility from male professors despite their gaining honors in multiple subjects. Their campaign gained them many renowned supporters, such as Charles Darwin. Despite the campaign’s publicity, the Court of Session supported the University’s right to reject giving degrees to women and ruled that the seven women should not have been allowed to join the medical program in the first place. The failed campaign, however, gained enough support to eventually result in the Medical Act of 1876.

            The Medical Act of 1876 was proposed by Parliament member Russell Gurney. Theoretically, the act should have allowed women access to medical schools. The act, however, did not enforce the acceptance of women in medical schools. It only allowed medical schools to choose whether or not they wanted to accept women into their medical programs. Most medical schools at the time continued to reject all female applicants to their schools. The Royal College of Physicians did not admit women into their programs until 1907 (British Medical Journal). Furthermore, the act did not enforce any laws for equal treatment of women if they were to be accepted into medical programs. The struggle for women who sought a medical career continued well into the 20^th century.

Works Cited

Jefferson, Laura, et al. “Women in Medicine: Historical Perspectives and Recent Trends.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 8 Mar. 2015, academic.oup.com/bmb/article/114/1/5/246075.

Wagner, John A. “Voices of Victorian England: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life.” Google Books, ABC-CLIO, 25 Feb. 2014, books.google.com/books?id=VqiSAwAAQBAJ.

“Former London School of Medicine for Women.” Historic England, historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/womens-history/women-and-healthcare/former-london-school-of-medicine-for-women/.

“British Medical Journal.” Google Play, Google, 1908, play.google.com/books/reader?id=1Rw-AQAAMAAJ.

The Trial of Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh

On Thursday, April 5^th, 1877, Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh were placed on trial for re-publishing Charles Knowlton’s Fruits of Philosophy, a pamphlet that provided instructions and opinions on birth control as a way to combat overpopulation. The pamphlet, which had been on sale for more than forty years before its re-publication, was purportedly in direct opposition with the Obscene Publications Act of 1857, which outlawed all salacious literature (Banks). Besant and Bradlaugh were both prominent atheists and “freethinkers,” and were quickly demonized by proper Victorian society (Diniejko). The trial, which lasted four days and ended with an acquittal, was highly reported by British press, and while the coverage was harsh in opinion, it was the first time contraception had ever been mentioned on a national level. The publicity directly caused a spike in sales for the book itself, and brought the reality of birth control and sexual liberation to dinner tables across the country.

            Fruits of Philosophy did not fit with the Victorian idea of sex and broke stringent rules of privacy. The book includes information on nocturnal emissions, recommendations for tinctures to be used for a man’s arousal, description of the withdrawal method, as well as multiple uses of the medically accepted term for genitalia (Knowlton). The book speaks frankly on the desire for sex: “…surely no instinct commands a greater proportion of our thoughts or has a greater influence upon happiness for better or for worse” (Knowlton 117). The chief purpose of the book’s initial publication was to combat the issue of overpopulation, which was considered the source of the majority of society’s ills. This idea was made popular by the English economist and clergyman Thomas Robert Malthus in the early 19^th century; both Besant and Bradlaugh were prominent Malthusians, and their involvement in the movement led to their creation of the new edition in 1877 (Diniejko).

Many believed that the harsh reality of pregnancy as a consequence of intercourse was the main - if not only - thing preventing a portion of the population from turning towards “immoral living,” and majority of the press coverage reflects that narrow ideal (Banks 7). Some publications praised the justice of Malthusian theory but were unable to separate the perceived licentiousness of the book’s contents from its purpose. The Englishman, a British newspaper published in Calcutta, India, reported that the pamphlet’s contents included “‘(1) the way of safely indulging the passions; and (2) of destroying human life, which is the necessary result of that indulgence’” (Banks 8). The Manchester Examiner and Times praised the idea of self-restraint, while additionally commenting that “‘it would be better to lose our life than to save it by measures which would rob it all of worth and dignity’” (Banks 7). The Daily Telegraph’s coverage of the trial equated the publication of the book with selling poisoned food, or purposefully placing deadly drugs in public drinking fountains (Banks 7).

            The negative press coverage, while hostile, inadvertently acted as the book’s best advertisement. The sale of Fruits of Philosophy increased by 178% in the months surrounding the trial: “As opposed to a previous average circulation of about 700 copies a year, between March and June, it was estimated, no less than 125,000 copies were sold” (Banks 4). During the trial itself, bootleg renditions of the pamphlet were sold outside of the courtroom. In June of 1877, just two months after their acquittal, Besant and Bradlaugh gave their first public address to a room full of 600 fans, with 400 more standing on the street – a third of them young women (Banks 12). Later that year, Besant capitalized on her new-found audience, and published a piece of contraception propaganda of her own, titled “The Law of Population: Its Consequences, and Its Bearing upon Human Conduct and Morals.” The work was immensely successful, and when Besant withdrew it from publication twenty years later, “it had sold 175,000 copies in England, had been reprinted in the United States and Australia, and had been translated into German, Dutch, Italian, and French—making it among the most widely circulated tracts on contraception in its time” (Sreenivas 14).

While Fruits of Philosophy was not the first piece of literature on birth control to reach Great Britain, the scandal that resulted from the 1877 trial of Anne Besant and Charles Bradlaugh made it the most well-known by far. The scathing press coverage reflected the long-accepted Victorian societal norms surrounding sex, privacy, birth, and family, but was not the most accurate representation of the opinions of the British people. The Malthusian mission appealed not only to the social reformer or the young individual for whom sex was a matter of curiosity - poor parents of large families for whom children represented a large monetary burden were provided with instructions for family planning for what was most likely the very first time. In the years after the trial, the English fertility rate lowered considerably, and while the movement behind Fruits of Philosophy had been in the works for some time, it is difficult to overstate the importance and influence of the trial, as well as all the “bad” press that came with it (Banks 13).

WORKS CITED

Banks, J. A., and Olive Banks. “The Bradlaugh-Besant Trial and the English Newspapers.” Population Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, 1954, p. 22., doi:10.2307/2172561.

Diniejko, Andrzej. “Annie Besant's Multifaceted Personality. A Biographical Sketch.” The Victorian Web: Literature, History, & Culture in the Age of Victoria, 20 Nov. 2014, www.victorianweb.org/authors/besant/diniejko.html.

Knowlton, Charles. “FRUITS OF PHILOSOPHY.” Edited by Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh, The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fruits of Philosophy, by Charles Knowlton, 1 Dec. 2011, www.gutenberg.org/files/38185/38185-h/38185-h.htm.

Sreenivas, Mytheli. “Birth Control in the Shadow of Empire: The Trials of Annie Besant, 1877–1878.” Feminist Studies, vol. 41, no. 3, 2015, p. 509., doi:10.15767/feministstudies.41.3.509.

Image courtesy of secularism.org

The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1878

In the eyes of English Law, women had little to no protective rights before the year 1850. Men could be as violent to their wives as they chose to be. As a result, the Matrimonial Causes act of 1878 was passed by British Parliament. It was implemented during an era of frequent “divorce related legislation” in England. The goal was to give women an opportunity to separate from their physically abusive husbands. The action was taken with hopes of closing legal “loopholes” to violence against women. Despite parliament’s good intentions, the act was ultimately ineffective in protecting women from marital violence. Many fictional stories were written as “mockeries” and critiques of the law’s ineffectiveness. The goal of these authors was to prove that women were still oppressed under the British patriarchy. They wanted to inspire more strict and vigorous legislation to protect married women. The main problem with the act was that British courts of law rarely worked to enforce it. Because of the law’s futility, it was largely discredited among British women. Many of them were de-incentivized from using it because they knew nobody would enforce the order. Once married, women were not allowed to make their own money. Since the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1878 didn’t guarantee divorce, this rule remained despite a woman’s restraining order. Nevertheless, financial support wasn’t always given to women who separated from their husbands. This led to many women being neglected by the British government even after they obtained restraining orders against their husbands. The act also failed to address female captivity at the hands of their husbands. In one instance, a woman left her husband in favor of living with family. Her husband took the case to court, where the judiciary ruled in his favor. At the time, it was legal in England for a husband to control the whereabouts of his wife. This possibility wasn’t even considered in the Matrimonial Clauses Act.

However, an historian named Lisa Surridge concluded that British journalists started covering domestic violence more after the act was passed. She also highlighted the role that novels and stories played in drawing awareness to the issue of domestic violence. In other words, British writers worked harder to end domestic violence than courts and parliamentary legislators. Charles Dickens is one example of an author that worked to expose marital injustice through his writing. In stories such as the Old Curiosity Shop and Oliver Twist, Dickens reveals his grievances and skepticism of marriage as an institution. Unfortunately, some advocates for the Matrimonial Causes Act used questionable strategies to ensure its passage. For example, Francis Power Cobbe (a prominent feminist author), tried to portray domestic violence as a “middle-class” issue. Surridge confirms that this elitist interpretation was dominant in British Parliament as well.

It was in the year 1878 that people started viewing physical violence towards women as torture. Francis Power Cobbe was a major advocate for this comparison. The works that she wrote on this subject played a big role in passing the Matrimonial Causes Act. Overall, the act (among others) represented a profound change in the British perception of marriage. It destroyed the notion that women had to stay with their husbands no matter what. Religious turmoil also contributed to “setting the stage” for divorce legislation. During periods of theocratic conflict, many people started questioning the Church of England. The divorce law is an example of something they questioned and criticized. This type of thinking helped prepare for future legislation. Under the act, women who separated from their husbands were eligible for financial support. It also ensured them custody of their children had they not committed adultery. However, financial aid for child care and marital separation was rarely granted under the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1878.

Ferguson, Trish. Tom Hardy's Legal Fictions . Edinburgh University Press, 2013. 

Bailey, Joanne. “English Marital Violence in Litigation, Literature, and the Press.” Journal of Women's History, vol. 19, no. 4, 2007, pp. 144–153., doi:10.1353/jowh.2007.0065. 

Qureshi , Shazia. “Reconceptualising Domestic Violence as 'Domestic Torture'.” Journal for Political Studies , 2013. 

Hager, Kelly. Dickens and the Rise of Divorce: the Failed-Marriage Plot and the Novel Tradition. Routlege, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016. 

Gibson, Colin S. Dissolving Wedlock. New York, 1994. 

Image: https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/facts-history-parliament-h…

Premiere of H.M.S Pinafore

The first showing of the famous opera H.M.S Pinafore takes place at a theater in England's capital. https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1998-02-08-1998039067-story.ht…

Image: tuftsdaily.com

Reign of Umberto I

Umberto "the first" became the king of Italy. His reign marked the end of Italy's international seclusion. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Umberto-I

Image: italianmonarchist.blogspot.com

The Egoist by George Meredith is Published

George Meredith, an author who was nominated seven times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, releases his book, The Egoist, which helps to give him a more respectable reputation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_literature

The First Boar War

The First Boer War was a war fought between the United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal (as the South African Republic was known while under British administration). The war resulted in Britain’s accession to the establishment of the Second Republic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Boer_War

Publication of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamozov was published in 1880 and is still taught in schools for the many ideas presented about evil, freedom, and faith. This publication began in 1879 and was officially published in 1880.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fyodor-Dostoyevsky/The-Brothers-Ka…;

James Garfield Elected U.S. President

James Garfield beats Winfield Hancock in the United States' presidential election. This made him the 20th president.

https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1880

The Pretoria Convention

The Pretoria Convention was the peace treaty that ended the First Boer War between the Transvaal Boers and Great Britain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretoria_Convention

The American Red Cross is founded by Clara Barton

The American Red Crossed is founded in order to serve others in need. This would then go on to be chartered by the federal government to help armed forces, their families, and disaster relief.

https://www.redcross.org/about-us/who-we-are/history.html

The Married Women's Property Act of 1882

Before the 1880s, the legal issue regarding married women’s property rights had been an ongoing fight for about thirty years “extending back to Caroline Norton’s pamphlets on the Divorce Act and Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon’s married women’s property petition of 1856” (Stanley, 103). The Married Women’s Property Act of 1882 is often noted as the key impact in the ongoing fight for women’s legal equality as married women as it elevated their legal status and allowed them to act as “autonomous economic agents” (Shanley, 103). This was a great improvement from the Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 in that married women gained more control over their property. However, both The Married Women’s Property Act of 1882 and the Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 still consisted of amendments that showed the government’s efforts to preserve society’s strict gender roles with the male being the superior (Shanley, 130).

The Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 although designed to move married women’s legal status forward, it was disappointing because it fell short of giving married women equal the same property rights as their husbands. The vagueness of The Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 symbolized the government’s view of this act as a threat towards the strict Victorian era gender roles. They believed that giving a woman too much financial independence would discourage her to get married (Levine, 139). To achieve an elevated legal status for married women, there would be multiple acts and reforms in parliament throughout the 1870s, 1880, 1881 and ultimately The Married Women’s Property Act of 1882 (Levine, 139). For instance, the reform of 1874 to the Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 made the husband responsible again for his wife’s debts on her property that incurred prior to their marriage, so long as the husband acquired this land when marrying his wife (Holcombe, 191).

 The Married Women’s Property Act of 1882 also faced gender discrimination with Sir George Campbell and Charles Nicholas Warton claiming this would start a “social revolution” as it turned the wife into a “domestic tyrant” (Holcombe, 201). The increase in power women would have threatened the husband’s dominance as this would make the women more equal to men, disrupting the social structure (Shanley, 130). However, The Married Women’s Property Act of 1882 was soon passed, and married women had “separate interests in their property” from their husbands (Holcombe, 201). Another key amendment was that married women were now allowed to sue their husbands (V.T.H.D., 2). The Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 allowed married women to regain control of their income and certain investments and inherited property but a court hearing in 1878 proved that this right was not protected (Holcombe, 181). The judge in this case dismissed the wife’s attempt to sue her husband because he did not interpret The Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 as allowing the wife to sue her husband. Also, the married woman being able to sue and be sued, boosted her credibility among creditors. Creditors were always hesitant to loan to married women because they could not be sued and there was no guarantee they would receive their loan back (Holcombe, 183). Therefore, women were encouraged to engage in business with this new amendment as creditors faced less risk legally get their money back (Holcombe, 203).

Although The Married Woman’s Property Act of 1882 was a significant law that brought married women more legal equality, it still contained barriers for married women to achieve the same legal status as their husbands. For instance, the law prevented married women from gaining “full contractual capacity” of their “separate property” (Shanley, 127). The married woman could be relieved of her debt obligations if the property were “not her “separate property at the time she made the contract” (Shanley, 127). This section of the property act accentuated the government’s fear of challenging society’s gender roles. Granting women equal property rights, this would cause women to argue for equal political rights, in turn jeopardizing Victoria era’s role for women as inferior to men (Shanley, 129). However, the Reform Act of 1884 came about to address these restrictive amendments (Shanley, 130). Nonetheless, The Married Women’s Property Act of 1882 was a crucial victory in the revolution for married women as it improved their legal status and marital conditions within the Victorian era society (Holcombe, 204).

 Works Cited

Holcombe, Lee. “Wives & Property: Reform of the Married Women’s Property Law in Nineteenth-Century England.” University of Toronto Press. 1982. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/depaullaw/reader.action?docID=509…. Accessed 1 Oct. 2020.

‘Is Marriage a Failure?’ Cartoon. The British Library. 1891. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/the-personal-is-political-gende…. Accessed 1 Oct. 2020.

Levine, Philippa. Victorian Feminism 1850 – 1900. The Florida State University Press, 1987.

Shanley, Mary Lindon. Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England. Princeton University Press, 1989.

V.T.H.D. “The Legal Status of Married Women.” Irish Jurist, vol. 21/22, no. 4, 1955-1956, pp.

49-52, http://ezproxy.depaul.edu/login?url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/445065…. Accessed 20 Sept. 2020.

Criminal Law Amendment Act

     The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 is also known as the White Slave Traffic Act (Fletcher 1).  This act makes further provision for the protection of women and girls and the suppression of brothels (Mead 17).  It has affected several important changes both in law and in procedure (Mead 13).  The Criminal Law Amendment Act was followed by the widespread fear that traffickers were forcing many young women into an organized, global system of prostitution (Fletcher 2).  

     The bill for the amendment of the law took four years to be complete.  In 1881, there was public attention to the systematic traffic of English girls to prostitute in foriegn countries.  With evidence from 1881 and 1882, a report was then made in August of 1882.  The committee found that this trafficking system existed and these women lived very unethical lives and since they did not speak the foriegn language, they were imprisoned in the brothels they were taken to (Mead 7).  After this, there were several recommendations made by the Committee and in the years 1883 and 1884, bills were carried in the House of Lords.  The Lower House never found an opportunity of dealing with the subject (Mead 10).  Finally, the act was reintroduced for a third time in 1885 and passed with a few revisions (Mead 14).  

     There are three parts to the act: Protection of Women and Girls, Suppression of Brothels, and Definitions and Miscellaneous (Mead 16).  These provisions included: raising the age of consent from 13 to 16 years of age; making it a criminal offence to solicit girls for prostitution by using drugs, intimidation or fraud; punishing people who would permit under-age sex on their properties; making it a criminal offence to abduct a girl under 18 for sexual purposes; giving magistrates the power to issue search warrants to find missing women; providing for summary proceedings to be taken against brothels, and criminalizing "gross indecency between males" (Mead 17-128).

     Many people were involved in getting this amendment to pass.  W. T Stead was a British newspaper editor who became a very controversial figure in the Victorian era.  He played a huge role in getting the Criminal Amendment Act passed (Stack 39).  He had worked with feminist activists to assemble popular opinion during the huge panic over white slavery in the 1880s, helping pressuring parliament into passing the Criminal Law Amendment Act (1885) with the publication of his exposé of child prostitution, 'The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon', in the Pall Mall Gazet (Fletcher 1).  Stead was also involved in the attempt to extend the idea of “childhood” into the mid-teens, by emphasizing the inability of girls to make informed decisions about sexual consent. The Maiden Tribute articles also contained an emphasis on a greater teaching of the young basic physiology and sexual morality (Stack 25).

     There were two objectives in mind when writing The Maiden Tribute articles.  The first objective was to make sure the bill passed in order to raise the age of consent to 16 years old, and the second was to prevent the passage of certain sections in the bill, which threatened to increase ‘the arbitrary powers of the police on the streets’. Stead viewed this as ‘the very real hell of police despotism’ (Stead 39).  

      In 1912, after the death of W.T Stead, activists saw a signal opportunity to relaunch their campaign to increase penalties for procurers that had failed for several years to make headway in parliament (Fletcher 1).  After feeling pressured, the Liberal government backed the Criminal Law Amendment Act and it eventually reached the statute book at the end of the year.   In the final version presented to the Commons in the autumn of 1911, authorizing arrest without warrant of suspected procurers, increasing penalties for brothel-keepers, allowing landlords to terminate leases for property used for prostitution but also establishing penalties for those who knowingly let people propterties for these purposes, increasing penalties for people who lived off the earnings of prostitutes. (Fletcher 4).

Works Cited

Fletcher, Ian Christopher. “Opposition by Journalism? The Socialist and Suffragist Press and the Passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1912.” Parliamentary History (Edinburgh University Press), vol. 25, no. 1, Mar. 2006, pp. 88–114. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/pah.2006.0004.

Mead, Frederick. The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885: with Introduction, Notes, and Index. Shaw & Sons, Law Printers and Publishers, 1885. 

Stack, David. The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon – By W.T. Stead. no. 2, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, June 2009, pp. 333–34, doi:10.1111/j.1750-0206.2009.00111_18.x.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is an iconic novel in American literature that highlights the evils that plagued America, most notably racism. This novel is interestingly one of the first novels to be written in vernacular English. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn

Battle of Palmito Ranch

The Battle of Palmito Ranch was arguably the last battle of the Civil War. Interestingly, the Confederates won this battle. 

https://www.history.com/news/6-civil-war-battles-after-appomattox

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/palmito-ranch-battle-of

The Contagious Diseases Acts were repealed

In 1886, the Contagious Diseases Acts were repealed which was a big relief for many British women. These were acts that would give the authority the power to take women, initially from areas near army bases, that were suspected of being prostitutes and get them checked for sexually transmitted diseases. Eventually, if they had tested positive, would be locked up in a hospital explained with, “If they were, they were then required to enter a lock hospital for treatment and to stay there until cured or for up to a maximum of nine months” (Cox 95). There were efforts to try and stop these horrible acts shown with, “In Britain, the CD Acts were suspended in 1883 and repealed in 1886, although they remained in force in many parts of the empire” (Cox 95). The acts were finally brought to an end first being suspended, making way for them to be repealed officially in 1886.

The Contagious Diseases Acts were upsetting laws that had reflected the ideas held about the differences between men and women at the time. This is a major reason as to why these acts came to be in the first place. That very reason is highlighted with the explanation of the difference with, “There is no comparison to be made between prostitutes and the men who consort with them. With the one the offence is committed as a matter of gain; with the other it is the irregular indulgence of a natural impulse” (Hall 39). There was the argument that for one, the response was natural, and for the other, it was only out of gain. Having that natural impulse to sexual matters only made sense at the time to be made by a male and was never even considered for a woman. A leading figure named Josephine Butler argued this in the fight against the Contagious Diseases Acts. Butler was able to articulate her argument with, “the false and misleading idea that the essence of right and wrong is in some way dependent on sex. We never hear it carelessly or complacently asserted of a young woman that ‘she is only sowing her wild oats’” (Hall 43). This massive disconnect between male and female was the main issue that needed to be resolved for the acts to be abolished.

Exploring the fight Josephine Butler put up against the acts would further show the issues with this push for change. Butler was a married woman and her husband, George had been in support of the reform she was trying to bring forth. He decided to take a very different role at the time which is explained with, “He was even willing to let his wife become the leader and public face of the repeal movement, while he performed a quieter role” (Swan 7). Due to her husband supporting her in her efforts, he was not able to even get a promotion at his job with the church. George was able to be a very critical part of the process since at the time there were many expectations put on Victorian women especially the married women. This is even emphasized with, “George Butlers unequivocal support for Josephine was one of the primary factors in her success, and its importance cannot be overstated. ‘She could trust him utterly to sympathize with and support her,’ for George firmly believed that justice would eventually prevail” (Swan 8). The expected dynamic of a husband and wife of the time were no longer in place for them since a lot had to be sacrificed to fight the injustices of the Contagious Diseases Acts. 

After getting repealed there was still a major issue with sexually transmitted diseases due to a lot of the blame simply being put onto women. When describing the reaction to the acts being repealed, it was vocalized with, “The repeal of the CD Acts was a blow to the colonial regulation of prostitution, but a far from fatal one. The British military and the imperial government continued to be preoccupied with the problem of venereal diseases” (Howell 445). There was still a massive problem in 1886 after the acts were repealed fully with having these diseases still being spread. Even after being repealed, there were still some territories that felt that these procedures were necessary in order to regulate and stop prostitution. This can be seen with the overseas territory of Gibraltar when the governor explains, “They come to ply their calling here with the knowledge that they are to submit to the examination and as they do so voluntarily I cannot see any hardship in it. It is simply a contract they enter into. If they do not wish to enter into the contract they need not come” (Howell 449). This was in 1887 which would have been a year after the acts were repealed, showing that not everyone was content with the outcome. Overall, this was a great and major victory for feminism and women going forward.

Work Cited

Cox, Pamela. “Compulsion, Voluntarism, and Venereal Disease: Governing Sexual Health in England after the Contagious Diseases Acts.” Journal of British Studies, vol. 46, no. 1, 2007, pp. 91–115., doi:10.1086/508400.

Hall, Lesley. “Hauling Down the Double Standard: Feminism, Social Purity and Sexual Science in Late Nineteenth-Century Britain.” Gender History, vol. 16, no. 1, 2004, pp. 36–56., doi:10.1111/j.0953-5233.2004.325_1.x.

Howell, Philip. “Sexuality, Sovereignty and Space: Law, Government and the Geography of Prostitution in Colonial Gibraltar.” Social History, vol. 29, no. 4, 2004, pp. 444–464., doi:10.1080/0307102042000298949.

Swan, Asa James. “ A Life of Study, Prayer, and Action: the Feminist Christianity of Josephine Butler.” Priscilla Papers, vol. 30, no. 4, 2016, pp. 5–15., doi:10.1107/s0108768107031758/bs5044sup1.cif. 

The Statue of Liberty is Completed

The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States, is finally completed on Liberty Island in New York Harbor.

https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/places_creating_statue.htm

Bryant and May Matchgirls' Strike

The 1880s saw lots of changes in favor of women’s rights in Britain. One such change was the result of the exposure of a major company, Bryant and May, for underpaying their workers, and purposely ignoring fatal health risks all in the name of profit. The young women, dubbed “matchgirls,” went on strike, and with the help of socialist and women’s rights activist Annie Besant, they were able to increase wages, minimize certain health risks, and generally improve the work environment.

Bryant and May was originally founded by two men, William Bryant and Francis May (Raw 94). May was described as “mild mannered and kindly,” though the same of which could not be said of Bryant (Raw 95). In the beginning the factory and employees seemed generally content with their work and work environment. It wasn’t until Bryant and his four sons Wilberforce, Arthur, Frederick, and Theodore essentially cut off any control or say that May might’ve had that health problems arose, salaries declined, and the unfair treatment of the women began (Raw 96).

 Bryant and May as a whole were very powerful during this time. They had so much control as exporters and producers that they were able to influence government legislature (Raw 97). Over time Bryant and May were able to create a monopoly over almost the entire East End of London, and not just over matches, which was their primary product, but over much of the market. They employed as many as 5,000 women, making them the largest employers of female workers (Gregory and Williams 69, Raw 94-95). Their reputation was pristine, something Bryant worked hard on. However, the reality was not that of the flattering view the public saw. The huge contrast between their public image and the actuality of the working conditions was one of the reasons this story was so sensational with the public and press (Raw 88).

The health problems the workers faced was due to the white phosphorous in the matches they were producing, which could cause phosphorous necrosis. When a small amount was ingested, the white phosphorous could cause nausea and vomiting, while full blown poisoning began with toothache and influenza like symptoms, swelling of the face and pain in the lower jaw, the gums and cheeks then developing “putrid abscesses” which produced disgusting pus, disfigurement and painful death could result, and inflammation of the brain caused convulsions and hemorrhaging in the lungs (Slim 1). This illness was what they called “the phoss” or “phossy jaw,” though we now know it today to be bisphosphonate-induced osteonecrosis (Raw 92, Slim 2).

Even at the time the disease was known to be preventable. If the makers had switched from white phosphorous to red phosphorous, the problem would’ve been fixed. The women asked for the change to be made, but they were denied because this would’ve negatively affected profits (Gregory and Williams 35). Instead, Bryant and May decided to hide the problem rather than remedy it, and they were backed by the government in doing this due to their immense power and influence (Raw 92).

The other main grievance that the women had with Bryant and May was about their wages. They were supposed to be paid 10-12 shillings a week, but instead they were only receiving 4, equal to about $12 in today’s money (Raw 96-97).

The strike itself occurred when one of the women was dismissed for supposedly disobeying instructions given to her by the foreman. When this happened, all the other women in the factory walked out as well, and soon the other factories followed suit (Raw 127). In the beginning Bryant and May were not worried and thought that the women would soon return. However, they were wrong, and despite going without wages for multiple weeks the women remained resolute in their fight for women’s rights (Raw 138).

The public and press were fascinated by the story and kept close tabs on the strike’s progress. The reason the public was so accepting of this strike versus other ones such as the dock worker’s strike was because the women played up the image of being little helpless, timid matchgirls (Gregory and Williams 36, Raw 88). This way they were not seen as a threat but rather a cause to be pitied and supported. The press was on their side, and the women were always portrayed as victims of Bryant and May.

Another factor that drew attention was the fact that when William and Arthur Bryant died, his remaining three sons took over, and they registered the business as a limited company, meaning shareholders could now have huge dividends. This got the socialists attention more so than the mistreatment of the women did (Raw 96). Additionally, Annie Besant, though not the mastermind behind the strike as many believe, published “White slavery in London,” which was about the matchgirls. This as well as her eventual support and backing of the girls put a spotlight on the case (Gregory and Williams 35).

Finally, with pressure from shareholders and the immense damage to their reputation, Bryant and May gave in. The women returned to work on these terms: abolition of all fines, abolition of all wage deductions for paint, brushes, stamps, etc., restitution of pennies, packers to have three pence, all grievances be taken straight to the managing director, not the foreman, a separate breakfast room so they didn’t eat in the same place as the dangerous phosphorous, that all the women be taken back, even the leaders who Bryant and May initially refused to take back, and finally the formation of a Matchmakers’ Union (Gregory and Williams 36, Raw 139). While maybe not the largest strike in the fight for women’s rights, the takedown of Bryant and May was an encouraging, morale raising victory.

Works Cited

Raw, Louise. Striking a Light: The Bryant and May Matchwomen and Their Place in History, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/depaul/detail.action?docID=743081.

Gregory, Eve, and Ann Williams. City Literacies: Learning to Read Across Generations and Cultures, Taylor & Francis Group, 2000. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/depaul/detail.action?docID=166011.

Slim, Lynne H, RDH, B.S.D.H., M.S.D.H. (2009). The matchgirls. Rdh, , 38. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.depaul.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.depaul.edu/docview/225019299?accountid=10477

Bryant and May match girls strike committee. 1888. Photograph. TUC Library Collections, London Metropolitan University

The Wounded Knee Massacre

In South DaKota, United States cavalry troops fired on Lakota Sioux killing hundreds of unarmed women, men and children. This is one of the last events that marked any Native American resistance to United State government control. 

http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.war.056

Sherlock Holmes

The character, Sherlock Holmes, first appeared in The Strand magazine written by Arthur Conan Doyle. This character would later go on to star in a series of novels and short stories. 

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-adventures-of-sherlock-holmes-published

The Creation of Women's Emancipation Union

            In September of 1891, Elizabeth Clarke Wolstenholme Elmy founded the Women's Emancipation Union or the WEU. (Wright, 383) Her decision to create the WEU came after the ruling of Regina v. Jackson. (Wright, 390) Regina v Jackson, most commonly referred to as the Clitheroe Judgement, highlights the views on women's rights in the late 19^th century. In the case, Mr. Jackson had kidnapped his wife, and he refused to release her after she refused to live with him. His actions were considered legal by Justice Coleridge, stating that the law of England grants men dominion over women. (Mallet, 71) The case then went to the Court of Appeal, who rejected the notion of the husband's absolute dominion over his wife. (Mallet, 71) The Clitheroe Judge had captured public attention and was discussed long after the case was over. While the public debated whether the ruling from the Court of Appeal was justified, Wolstenholme Elmy saw progress and justice in the case ruling. (Wright, 390) She wrote that a new society must be formed to take advantage of the shift in women's legal status, so she began to draft the proposal of WEU three months following the Clitheroe Judgement. (Wright, 390)

        Wolstenholme Elmy's proposal was met with support because she had been a prominent figure in the Married Women's Property and Contagious Disease Act in 1889. (Levine, 46) In Wolstenholme Elmy's proposal, she wrote of a four-point agenda for the WEU. The agenda stated that there must be "equality of right and duty with men in all matter affecting the service of the community and the state; equality of opportunity of opportunity for self-development by the education of schools and of life; equality in the industry by equal freedom of choice of career; and equality in marriage and in parental rights." (Wright, 404) The WEU's methodology was to pursue its objectives through a regional network of local organizers. (Wright, 391) For this reason, Wolstenholme Elmy relied on local activists to create a women's rights movement. The WEU set up ten local organizers in cities around England. (Wright, 391) A unique feature of the WEU was that men were also welcomed to participate or financially support the WEU. (Wright, 390) In fact, three male lawyers were a part of the WEU's executive council. (Wright, 391)

            The WEU was active between 1891 and 1899. Their work expanded feminist activism principles from earlier in the century, which contained many conservative elements. (Wright, 392). For example, unlike major suffrage societies, the WEU wanted all women to have the right to vote, not only the middle-class women. (Wright, 393) The WEU also published the first sex education manual for adults to use to teach children and teenagers. This work and a series of works on women's sexual physiology were controversial at the time of its publication. (Wright, 388) For this reason, the work done by individuals in the WEU, like Sylvia Parker, was considered radical during its time. (Levine, 46) Other publications by the WEU focused on describing women's oppression and a call for liberation. Women Free by Ellis Ethelmer, which was a pseudonym for Wolstenholme Elmy's husband, was a book of poems describing a women's oppression. One of the poems described a married woman's oppression; he wrote, "Her path confined by man to sordid end, as subjugated wife, or hireling transient friend." (Ethelmer, 5) In addition to numerous publications, the WEU held numerous conferences to discuss and increase awareness of women's issues.

           Although the WEU became inactive in 1899, they left behind an extensive record of their work. Wolstenholme Elmy took meticulous notes of the highs and lows of the WEU's campaigning between 1891 and 1899. (Wright, 395) She believed that the WEU's activities were historically significant, so she forwarded her notes to the British Museum. (Wright, 395) The British Museum archived the works of the WEU. The WEU had various notable reforms that they pushed for. The WEU uniquely campaigned that a woman's bodily autonomy grants her citizenship rights. (Wright, 399) They also focused on divorce reform, and they criticized the slavery of sex. (Levine, 93 and 42) The WEU also advocated for all women to have the right to vote with cross-class collaboration. (Wright, 398) In summary, the WEU was considered a radical feminist group for its time with a dynamic group of members who advocated for a broad spectrum of women's issues.

Works Cited

Ethelmer, Ellis. Woman Free. Women's Emancipation Union, 1893.

Levine, Philippa. Victorian Feminism, 1850-1900, University Press of Florida, 1989. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/depaul/detail.action?docID=5475816.

Mallett, Phillip. "'Smacked, and brought to her senses': Hardy and the Clitheroe Abduction Case." The Thomas Hardy Journal, vol. 8, no. 2, 1992, pp. 70–73. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/45272380. Accessed 2 Oct. 2020.

Wright, Maureen. "The Women's Emancipation Union and Radical-Feminist Politics in Britain, 1891–99." Gender & History, vol. 22, no. 2, Aug. 2010, pp. 382–406. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1468-0424.2010.01596.x.

The Panic of 1893

The United States experienced a period of depression beginning in 1893 after the collapse of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. This caused stock prices to fall drastically which led to an increase in unemployment and the closure of thousands of businesses. 

https://www.historylink.org/file/20874

World's Fair: Columbian Exchange

The World’s Fair of 1893 commemorated Christopher Columbus’s arrival in America with art and technology exhibits. The art displayed at the fair came from around the world, and women were also invited to display their art in the Woman’s Building and the Palace of Fine Arts at the fair.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition

Women win the right to vote in New Zealand

On September 19, 1893, New Zealand became the first modern country where women won the right to vote in parliamentary elections (Ministry of Culture and Heritage 1). However, the campaign for women’s suffrage began long before New Zealand’s governor, Lord Glasgow, signed the Electoral Bill into law.

In 1840, New Zealand became a colony in the British Empire. Despite its ability to self-govern, the colony did not become a politically independent Dominion until 1907. As nationalism spread in New Zealand during the late 19^th century, New Zealanders debated how they could channel the pioneering spirit of the colonial frontier into a unified national identity. (Sulkunen 93; Dalziel 89).

New Zealanders regarded their self-governance as an opportunity to experiment with democracy. They envisioned a nation free from Britain’s social ills and the limitations of its firmly entrenched political system (Dalziel 94). Women were excluded from politics back in Britain; until 1893, the same held true for women in New Zealand (Ministry of Culture and Heritage 2). New Zealanders realized that breaking with this precedent could demonstrate the colony’s sophistication and progressiveness (Dalziel 92). This association of women’s political equality with civilization stemmed from the ideas of philosopher John Stuart Mill and British feminists (Ministry of Culture and Heritage 2). By extending the vote to women and the Maori, New Zealand could prove its worthiness of independent nationhood (Dalziel 88). Although New Zealanders strove to distinguish themselves from Britain’s system, a traditional gendered and colonial worldview heavily informed the fight for women’s suffrage.

Traditional notions of women’s moral authority and a gendered public-private divide pervaded suffrage activism (Ministry of Culture and Heritage 2). Much of the discourse centered on women’s ‘natural’ domestic roles as wives and mothers. Without exposure to the corrupting forces of public life, like politics and business, women remained morally pure. By offering moral guidance within the family, they provided a strong foundation for society (Dalziel 93; Sulkunen 94).

Kate Sheppard, one of New Zealand’s most prominent and outspoken suffragists, embraced the idea of women’s moral authority at public meetings and in the press (Ministry of Culture and Heritage 2; Sulkunen 97). She argued that women could extend the moral benefit beyond their immediate families to society at large, by voting for social reforms, like temperance (Dalziel 93).

The moral reform argument was popular, and the establishment of the New Zealand branch of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in the mid-1880s reinvigorated the suffrage movement. Sheppard, the WCTU, and other activists led three massive petition drives advocating for parliamentary suffrage bills. By 1893, the third petition drive obtained almost 32,000 signatures, representing ¼ of the adult population of European women in New Zealand (Ministry of Culture and Heritage 2).

Despite growing public support for women’s suffrage, conflicts of interest, political divides, and cultural concerns threatened to stymie the movement. In fact, when suffrage bills were introduced in Parliament in 1878, 1879, and 1887, each of the measures were narrowly defeated. Because of the powerful influence of the WCTU, alcohol manufacturers worried that enfranchising women would eventually lead to the prohibition of alcohol (Ministry of Culture and Heritage 2). To protect their financial interests, they appealed to sympathetic parliamentarians. Additionally, some Liberal members in Parliament opposed suffrage, because they believed that women would support their Conservative opponents at the ballot box (Ministry of Culture and Heritage 2; Dalziel 91).

Some Maori men sought to exclude women from public affairs. Not unlike European domestic ideology, in Maori culture, the public and private spheres were gendered. Because the public sphere was regarded as sacred and reserved for men, women’s participation in activism and the political system was viewed as a cultural threat (Sulkunen 99). Women’s enfranchisement would also increase European influence in parliament. Although many suffrage proposals included white and Maori women, colonists of European descent made up most of the population (Sulkunen 99). In addition, Maori men were already limited to only four seats in Parliament (Grimshaw 562).

Despite this resistance, a successful women’s suffrage bill became a reality during the summer of 1893. In June 1893, Richard Seddon introduced an Electoral Bill that included a provision for women’s suffrage into Parliament (Ministry of Culture and Heritage 2). By September, it passed in both houses. With Lord Glasgow’s signature on September 19, 1893, the bill granted white and Maori women over the age of 21 the right to vote in parliamentary elections (Ministry of Culture and Heritage 2).

However, the system was far from perfect. The bill explicitly excluded immigrants, prisoners, and institutionalized mental patients. Additionally, women could still not legally run for Parliament until 1919; a woman was not elected to Parliament until 1933 (Ministry of Culture and Heritage 2). Many Maori women remained ineligible to vote due to requirements that a voter must own property or pay taxes, and much of Maori land was owned collectively (Dalziel 96; Grimshaw 562; Sulkunen 98). Lawmakers included these requirements to encourage the Maori to assimilate to European social standards and abandon their cultural traditions. They also allowed white New Zealanders to limit the impact Maori women could have while appearing politically progressive (Grimshaw 572). Despite these setbacks, women turned out to vote in high numbers and continued to advocate for women’s rights by backing parliamentarians who supported women’s issues (Sulkunen 105).

Works Cited

Dalziel, Raewyn. “An Experiment in the Social Laboratory?: Suffrage, National Identity, and Mythologies of Race in New Zealand.” Women's Suffrage in the British Empire: Citizenship, Nation and Race, edited by Ian Christopher Fletcher, et al., E-book, Taylor & Francis Group, 2000. ProQuest Ebook Central, ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/depaul/detail.action?docID=1099144.

Grimshaw, Patricia. “Settler Anxieties, Indigenous Peoples, and Women's Suffrage in the Colonies of Australia, New Zealand, and Hawai‘i, 1888 to 1902.” Pacific Historical Review, vol. 69, no. 4, 2000, pp. 553–572. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3641224.  Accessed 19 Sep. 2020.

Ministry for Culture and Heritage. “New Zealand Women and the Vote.” New Zealand History, 20 Dec. 2018. nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/womens-suffrage. Accessed 19 Sep. 2020.

Sulkunen, Irma. “An International Comparison of Women’s Suffrage: The Cases of Finland and New Zealand in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century.” Journal of Women's History, vol. 27, no. 4, 2015, pp. 88-111. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/jwh.2015.0040. Accessed 19 Sep. 2020.

New Woman Movement

            With the end of the 19^th century came many new ideas of sexuality and empowerment. They set the stage for the New Women movement and the beginnings of feminist writings and publications. The New Woman movement was the beginning of the push for female autonomy that would continue into the twentieth century, and even the twenty-first. The New Woman movement placed a heavy emphasis on independence and autonomy of one’s self. (Bordin). The movement encouraged women to find economic and social stability without men, but also encouraged women to use their moral righteousness to persuade their husbands to virtue. This movement pushed for educated and independent women. However, the independence was not solely conceptual but pushed into changes in dress and actions which would expand the women’s domain into the broader world including the workforce.

While many articles had been published throughout the 1880s and 1890s, the movement was fully realized with the publication of Sarah Grand’s essay, The New Aspect of the Woman Question. Grand condemned men who sexually strayed from their marriages causing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. She also condemned wives, whom she referred to as ‘cow women’, who allowed their husbands to commit such acts. Grand claimed that this preserved gender inequality within marriages (Ledger). In Grand’s writing, she addresses the double standard of the expectation for women to remain sexually virtuous, while men were not. Grand claimed that women needed to hold their husbands to the higher moral standard and reform them from their infidelity. Additionally, Grand embraces female sexuality and talks about her heroine’s desires. Sexuality and identity were major parts of the New Woman movement. With new rights in terms of property and divorce, women could finally have intellectual and sexual autonomy (Ledger).

The New Woman movement expanded on the ideas of women as the moral compass of society and called for their role to extend from the domestic sphere into the public sphere. Since women had the best interests of the country at heart, people claimed that a women’s role in the political sphere was not a contradiction to her domestic duties, but rather it was their extension and continuance (Tusan). Women’s great moral righteousness and selflessness would lead them to vote or speak on behalf of the better of the country. This idea of feminine selflessness resonated with the expected gender norms for the Victorian Era. While women did not receive the right to vote in England within the 19^th century, these new ideas of women active outside of the home were the foundation for many arguments in favor of women’s suffrage.

            This movement generated many critiques. A major opponent to the New Woman movement, Eliza Lynn Linton, wrote about “Wild Women” an alternative version of the New Woman as a menace to society (Pykett). One of the major concerns with the New Woman was about the institution of marriage: “the New Woman herself, riding her bicycle in her bloomers and apparently in no need of assistance from anyone, led many people to believe, or fear, that a woman who could choose how she would live would no longer choose men” (MacPike). Previously, women had always existed in a subservient role to their husbands and any male relations in their life. This was partially due to their economic and legal reliance on these men; however, with laws changing and economic independence possible for women, men no longer held extreme power over women. In actuality, however, women were not free from the limitations and expectations of patriarchal society. Another concern was that the New Woman endangered not only social order but also natural order. Much of the medical community supported the idea that development of a woman’s brain caused infertility (Pykett). People concluded that the survival of humankind was endangered by women’s education.

            As pages spun off the printing press, the idea of the New Woman circulated across late-Victorian society. The New Woman movement was a reaction to the changes in women’s rights throughout that era. As a product of the Victorian Era, the movement refracted the contradictions and complexities about what it meant to be feminine. Writers of the New Woman movement explored and exposed these contradictions (Pykett). The New Woman articles and novels illustrate the complex views on women throughout the Victorian Era.

Works Cited

Bordin, Ruth Birgitta Anderson, excerpt from “Alice Freeman Palmer: the evolution of a new woman,” Digital Public Library of America, http://dp.la/item/61122e6aa1279a1b82af4add9cf9c814.

Ledger, S. (2007). The new woman and feminist fictions. In G. Marshall (Ed.), The cambridge companion to the fin de siècle, cambridge (pp. 153-168). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.depaul.edu/10.1017/CCOL9780521850636.009 Retrieved from http://ezproxy.depaul.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.de…

Pykett, Lyn. The 'Improper' Feminine : The Women's Sensation Novel and the New Woman Writing, Taylor & Francis Group, 1992. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/depaul/detail.action?docID=167885.

MacPike, Loralee. “The New Woman, Childbearing, and the Reconstruction of Gender, 1880-1900.” NWSA Journal, vol. 1, no. 3, 1989, pp. 368–397. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4315921. Accessed 1 Oct. 2020.

Tusan, Michelle Elizabeth. “Inventing the New Woman: Print Culture and Identity Politics during the Fin-De-Siecle: 1997 VanArsdel Prize.” Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 31, no. 2, 1998, pp. 169–182. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20083064. Accessed 20 Sept. 2020.

The Creation of Labor Day

President Grover Cleveland signed Labor Day into law, following the Pullman Strike. The law was signed to repair ties with the American workers, who had been striking for workers’ rights and better working conditions for years prior.

https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/labor-day-1&nbsp;

H. G. Wells publishes The Time Machine

In May 1895, H. G. Wells published The Time Machine as a serial and later in book form. In addition to being Wells’ first major novel, The Time Machine is celebrated as one of the earliest examples of the science fiction genre and for popularizing “time travel.” Despite its futuristic premise, Wells used the novel to comment on the very real issues of class, industrialization, and capitalism that he saw in Victorian society.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Time-Machine

Plessy v. Ferguson

In the landmark case Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the constitutionality of "separate but equal" public facilities. The Supreme Court’s ruling allowed for legal segregation on the basis of race in the United States for almost six decades until the decision was overturned in Brown v. Board of Education on May 17, 1954.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Plessy-v-Ferguson-1896

Publication of Dracula by Bram Stoker

Dracula, a Gothic horror novel written by Bram Stoker, was published on May 26, 1897. Though it was not the first Gothic horror novel published, it did set a standard for the Gothic horror novel genre.

https://time.com/5411826/bram-stoker-dracula-history/

Founding of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies

On October 16, 1896, approximately twenty leaders of women’s suffrage organizations in Britain gathered together at the Birmingham Conference to discuss the possibility of merging their individual societies into one joint organization. Because each society was fighting for the same overall goal-- women’s suffrage-- they decided that uniting their organizations would be a beneficial and powerful strategy (Hume 4, Vellacott 1). Thus, one year later, on October 14, 1897, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, commonly acronymized as NUWSS, was founded. At its founding, the NUWSS had seventeen member societies, including many of the largest and most influential women’s suffrage organizations in Britain at the time (Hume 4). The seventeen member societies branded themselves-- and the NUWSS as a whole-- as a non-militant, constitutional, and non-party-affiliated organization united to achieve women’s suffrage (Holton 1, Hume 5, Vellacott 1).

In the early years, the role of the NUWSS was limited. Because each member society still functioned independently in its designated location and the NUWSS had no funds to support its members, the organization had little control over how the individual societies functioned. Instead of managing its members, the main duty of the NUWSS was to communicate with the Committee of Parliamentary Supporters of Women’s Suffrage (Hume 6, Vellacott 2). Direct communication with Members of Parliament was the first step in getting the government to hear and consider the idea of women’s suffrage (Hume 6).

Spearheading the NUWSS after its founding was Millicent Garrett Fawcett who served as the president of the organization from 1898-1919 (Holton 1, Hume 7-8). Fawcett had experience with women’s rights, as she grew up with a father who was a strong believer in feminism and a sister who helped to pave the way for women in the medical field (Holton 1). Fawcett and many other members of NUWSS were described as women whose personalities closely resembled that of a typical Victorian woman. They were kind wives and mothers and gentle, loving figures all around (Hume 13). While this helped create a sense of camaraderie among the societies in the NUWSS, it was not helpful in their quest to have their issues heard or considered by the government.

In general, 1897-1903 were building years for the NUWSS and were not as successful as perhaps the organization had hoped. The NUWSS tried to advocate for their cause, but they were often too gentle and did not fight to break the sex barriers to have their voices heard by Members of Parliament (Hume 9-11). After years of not having a single concern of theirs talked about in the House of Commons, the Committee of Parliamentary Supporters of Women’s Suffrage suggested that the individual member societies of the NUWSS directly approach Members of Parliament who lived in their area to communicate to them the importance of women’s suffrage (14). If Members of Parliament could be convinced women’s suffrage was an important cause, perhaps the entire Parliament would listen to the issue.

In 1903, after the Boer War was over and a General Election was approaching, the NUWSS had a change in strategy. In late 1903, two-hundred women from the NUWSS and other women’s rights societies met for a convention in London (Holton 1, Hume 20-21). What is argued to be the most important aspect of the 1903 convention was the idea that going forward, the NUWSS would establish new committees in every county in Britain and Ireland (Hume 21). These new committees would commit themselves to consistently speaking with Members of Parliament and electoral candidates about the women’s suffrage issue as well as informing the general public about the importance of women’s suffrage and encouraging them to only support candidates who supported the cause (Hume 21, Vellacott 2). These actions helped to establish the NUWSS as a united, governing body rather than a collection of individual societies (Hume 21-22).

After the 1906 election where the Liberal party secured its place in office, the NUWSS was hopeful that its campaigning efforts would lead the House of Commons to discuss women’s suffrage, but they were, once again, overly optimistic (Hume 23). After having no success in having their concerns heard, in July 1906, the NUWSS started a movement to speak to individuals in Parliament who were against women’s suffrage to try to convince them to rethink their position. Then, in October of the same year, the NUWSS announced it would sponsor a candidate who supported women’s suffrage (26).

While all of these efforts were steps in the right direction in the overall goal of achieving women’s suffrage, the NUWSS was still a fairly new and growing society. In the following years, the organization had its share of ups and downs. It organized public events to further campaign for this cause, and it was eventually renamed the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (Holton 4). The fight for equal voting rights for women continued into 1928 when it was finally achieved thanks, in part, to the work of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies.

Works Cited

Holton, Sandra Stanley. “National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (Act. 1896–1918).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 24 May 2008, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/96378.

Hume, Leslie Parker. The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies 1897-1914. Vol. 3, Routledge, 2016.

Vellacott, Jo. Pacifists, Patriots and the Vote: The Erosion of Democratic Suffragism in Britain During the First World War. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

The Victorian Period Ends

Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, marking the end of the Victorian period.