Women In English Social History 1800 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.

Provides a systematic analysis of various aspects of women's lives between 1500 and 1800, concentrating on detailed research into specific groups of women where it has been possible to build up a picture in some detail.

An introduction to the field of women and gender in Victorian and Edwardian England. This set describes sources that offer a broad spectrum of opinions, debates, ideas and ideologies about "woman" as revealed in writings a bout sex roles, gender and womanhood; marriage, family and domestic life; health and medical treatment; law and amendments to legal definitions of women's place; religion; and education.