Chapter 4 - Feminism, Reform, and the Professional Woman Writer in the 1870s

Summary

The 1870s were a watershed decade for British feminism. Major changes were afoot that had a profound impact on women’s legal, educational, and social status. The first bill aiming to give women the vote may have failed in Parliament in 1870, but it was the start of a decade that saw enormous progress in women’s position in society at large, from the establishment of the first women’s colleges in Oxbridge to opportunities for employment in the civil service. Feminist campaigners including Annie Besant, Josephine Butler, Frances Power Cobbe, and Millicent Garrett Fawcett advocated for women’s increasing economic, educational, and bodily autonomy in public speaking and journalism. Writers including George Eliot, Dinah Craik, and Augusta Webster wrote novels and poetry to intervene in parliamentary debates ranging from the right of married women to own property to the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act. Combining data on women writers with close reading, this chapter explores the powerful role that women’s writing played in imagining and advocating for women’s rights in the 1870s