Women In England 1760 1914

A rich and fresh survey of women's lives between George III and the First World War Using diaries, letters, memoirs as well as social and statistical research, this book looks at life-expectancy, sex, marriage and childbirth, and work inside and outside the home, for all classes of women. It charts the poverty and struggles of the working class as well as the leadership roles of middle-class and elite women. It considers the influence of religion, education, and politics, especially the advent of organised feminism and the suffragette movement. It looks, too, at the huge role played by women in the British Empire: how imperialism shaped English women's lives and how women also moulded the Empire.

Understanding the Victorians paints a vivid portrait of this era of dramatic change, combining broad survey with close analysis and introducing students to the critical debates taking place among historians today. Encompassing all of Great Britain and Ireland over the whole of the Victorian period, it gives prominence to social and cultural topics alongside politics and economics and emphasises class, gender, and racial and imperial positioning as constitutive of human relations. This second edition is fully updated throughout, containing a new chapter on leisure in the Victorian period, the most recent historiographical research in Victorian Studies, and enhanced coverage of imperialism and working-class life. Starting with the Queen Caroline Affair in 1820 and coming up to the start of World War I in 1914, Susie L. Steinbach uses thematic chapters to discuss and evaluate topics such as politics, imperialism, the economy, class, gender, the monarchy, arts and entertainment, religion, sexuality, religion, and science. There are also three chapters on space, consumption, and the law, topics rarely covered at this introductory level. With a clear introduction outlining the key themes of the period, a detailed timeline, and suggestions for further reading and relevant internet resources, this is the ideal companion for all students of the nineteenth century.

This highly original synthesis is a clear and stimulating assessment of nineteenth-century British women. It aims to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the key historiographical debates and issues, placing particular emphasis upon recent, revisionist research. The book highlights not merely the ideologies and economic circumstances which shaped women's lives, but highlights the sheer diversity of women's own experiences and identities. In so doing, it presents a positive but nuanced interpretation of women's roles within their own families and communities, as well as stressing women's enormous contribution to the making of contemporary British culture and society.

This book focuses on the departure of Britain’s 'surplus' women to Australia and New Zealand organised by Victorian British female emigration societies. Starting with an analysis of the surplus of women question, it then explores the philanthropic nature of the organisations (the Female Middle Class Emigration Society, the Women’s Emigration Society, the British Women’s Emigration Association, and the Church Emigration Society). The study of the strict selection of distressed gentlewomen emigrants is followed by an analysis of their marketing value, and an appraisal of women’s imperialism. Finally, this work shows that the female emigrants under study partook in the consolidation of the colonial middle-class.

This edition, extended to cover the period up to 1914, provides the ultimate introduction to British history between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the outbreak of the First World War.

Lady Constance Lytton (1869-1923) was the most unlikely of suffragettes. One of the elite, she was the daughter of a Viceroy of India and a lady in waiting to the Queen. She grew up in the family home of Knebworth and in embassies around the world. For forty years, she did nothing but devote herself to her family, denying herself the love of her life and possible careers as a musician or a reviewer. Then came a chance encounter with a suffragette. Constance was intrigued; witnessing Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst on trial convinced her of the urgent necessity of votes for women and she went to prison for the cause as gleefully as any child going on a school trip. But, once jailed, Constance soon found that her name and her connections singled her out for unwelcome special treatment. By now, 1909, the suffragettes were hunger striking and the government had retaliated with force-feeding. The stories that began to leak out - of bungled operations, of dirty tubes, of screams half-heard through brick walls, of straitjackets and handcuff s - outraged the suffragettes. Constance decided on her most radical step yet: to go to prison in disguise. Taking the name Jane Warton, she cut her hair, put on glasses and ugly clothes and got herself arrested in Liverpool. Once in prison, she was force-fed eight times before her identity was discovered and she was released. Her case became a cause célèbre, with debate raging in The Times and questions being asked in the House of Commons. Lady Constance Lytton became an inspiration and, in the end, a martyr. In this extraordinary new biography, Lyndsey Jenkins reveals for the first time the fascinating story of the woman who abandoned a life of privilege to fight for women's rights.

The Routledge Companion to Britain in the Nineteenth Century, 1815–1914 is an accessible and indispensable compendium of essential information on the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Using chronologies, maps, glossaries, an extensive bibliography, a wealth of statistical information and nearly two hundred biographies of key figures, this clear and concise book provides a comprehensive guide to modern British history from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the outbreak of the First World War. As well as the key areas of political, economic and social development of the era, this book also covers the increasingly emergent themes of sexuality, leisure, gender and the environment, exploring in detail the following aspects of the nineteenth century: parliamentary and political reform chartism, radicalism and popular protest the Irish Question the rise of Imperialism the regulation of sexuality and vice the development of organised sport and leisure the rise of consumer society. This book is an ideal reference resource for students and teachers alike.