Feminism, Politics and Social Change in Modern Britain
Dr. Laura Schwartz
Wednesday 10am-12pm, Room H103
Key Texts:
Sue Morgan (ed.), The Feminist History Reader (2007) [It would definitely be worth buying this.]
Heidi Safia Mirza, Black British Feminism: A Reader (1997) [Worth buying this too]
Special Issue: ‘Rethinking the History of Feminism’, Women: A Cultural Review 21:3 (2010) [Available online]
Margaret Walters, Feminism: A Very Short Introduction (2005) [This is a good overview, worth buying]
Barbara Caine, English Feminism 1780-1980 (1995) [And this would be very useful to always have on hand as a reference guide.]
P. Hollis (ed.), Women in Public: The Women’s Movement 1850-1900 (1979) [available in library, collection of extracts from primary sources]
Feminist Anthology Collective (ed.) No Turning Back: Writings from the Women’s Liberation Movement 1975-1980 (1981) [available in library, more primary sources]
Databases
Feminist Review [Seminal articles now online open access.]
Women in the National Archives [Online primary sources. Access via Warwick Library: Databases – History]
BBIH [bibliography for British and Irish History – allows you to search by theme and person. Lists articles as well as monographs]
ISS [bibliography for Social Science – ditto]
Note on Terminology
There is no clear distinction between primary and secondary sources in this course. Reading is divided into ‘documents’ (those primary sources emerging directly from the debates within the feminist movements we are studying) and ‘histories’ (work taking a more analytical approach to and overview of these debates). Some weeks, when we look specifically at debates occurring within the scholarship and history of feminism and at more contemporary issues, there will be no such distinction.
Reading
Because there are no lectures, this module really won’t work if you haven’t done the reading. Don’t let your fellow students down by turning up and expecting just a few people to do all the work!
You must read a minimum of 1 ‘document’ and 2 ‘histories’.
A little light reading/ listening for the summer holidays…
Podcasts
Episode 1. ‘4th Wave Feminism Gender Equal or Gender Different’ 4th Wave Feminism
http://www.newsuittheatre.com/podcast.html
[a good place to start as describes different waves of feminism. See whether you agree with the definition and historical periodisation of different waves.]
Dr. Rashmi Varma,‘Global Feminism’, Warwick University Podcasts:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/atoz/thinkingaloud/podcasts/?podcastItem=global_feminism.mp3
[bit more serious. Reminds us that feminism exists outside of UK and US!]
Episode 2. ‘Gender and Feminism’ LSE Review of Books Podcast:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/podcasts/
[Different interviews with feminist historians and theorists]
Autobiographies
S. Rowbotham, Promise of a Dream: Remembering the Sixties (2000)
L. Segal, Making Trouble: Life and Politics (2007)
A. Dowkin, Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant (2002)
Week 2.
What is feminism?
Competing definitions of feminism across the world
Questions to ponder whilst you read:
· What are the different political traditions of feminism? Are terms such as radical, socialist and liberal adequate to describing different feminist outlooks?
· How does feminism relate to other struggles for social justice?
· What are the differences between first, second, and third waves? Is there such a thing?
· How have definitions of feminism changed over time?
· How should historians deploy ‘feminism’ as a historical term?
· Do we still need feminism today?
Sally Haslanger, Nancy Tuana & Peg O’Conner, ‘Topics in Feminism’, The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (Summer 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.): online article http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2012/entries/feminism-topics/
[nice short overview – bit overly orientated towards United States but useful]
Barbara Caine, English Feminism 1780-1980 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997) [a good place to start]
Nancy F. Cott, N. F. (1987) The Grounding of Modern Feminism, (New Haven & London, Yale University Press). [Chapter 1 provides a good account of historical development of term]
Daisy Hernandez & Bushra Rehman, Colonise This! Young Women of Color in Today’s Feminism (Berkeley: Seal Press, 2002) [not yet in library]
Jenny Turner, ‘As Many Pairs of Shoes as She Likes’, London Review of Books 33:24 (15 Dec 2011), 11-15
[Generated much debate among the feminist literati/ grandmummies of the Women’s Liberation Movement. See letters in subsequent issues of LRB if you’re interested.]
bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Boston: South End Press, 1981)
Alice Walker, ‘Definitions of Womanist’, in Gloria Anzaldua (ed.) Making Face, Making Soul: Haciendo Caras (San Francisco: Aunt Lutte Books, 1990)
Week 3.
Domestic ideology and the home as workplace, 1860-1914
Please Note: This week the first half of the seminar will consist of a lecture. This lecture will link together what might seem like disparate themes in the reading, so worry not!
Questions to ponder whilst you read:
· How useful is a theory of ‘separate spheres’ to understanding the ‘realities’ of women’s lives during this period?
· How has the discipline of history itself been ‘gendered’?
· Is it possible to define domestic work as a job like any other?
· To what extent do you think feminist historians have succeeded in writing women and gender back into history as a whole?
Documents
Frances Power Cobbe, ‘Household Service’ in P. Hollis, Women in Public: The Women’s Movement 1850-1900 (1979), pp.63-4
'Why do girls dread domestic service?' (pp.26-7) and 'Domestic service versus business employments' (p.56), Our Own Gazette (YWCA) vol. XVII (1900) Modern Records Centre MSS.243/5/11
Liberal Party ‘A Word to the Women’ (1906) [available digitally as part of MRC documents http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/studying/modules/docs/feminism]
Histories
L. Davidoff & C. Hall, Family Fortunes. Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780-1850 (1987)
L. Davidoff, 'Gender and the "Great Divide": Public and Private in British Gender History', Journal of Women's History, 15:1 (2003), 11-27.
A. Vickery, ‘Golden Age to Separate Spheres? A Review of the Categories and Chronology of English Women's History’, The Historical Journal 36:2 (June 1993), 383-414
A. McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (1995).
M. Poovey, Uneven Developments: The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England (London: Virago, 1989).
J. Scott, Gender and the Politics of History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988)
J. Scott, Gender: ‘A Useful Category of Historical Analysis’, The American Historical Review 91:5 (Dec 1986), 1053-1075
A. Summers, Private Lives, Moral States: Women, Religion and Public Life in Britain 1800-1930 (Newbury: Threshold Press, 2000). [esp. Introduction]
Week 4.
Feminism, religion and secularisation, 1880-1914
· Was first wave feminism secular?
· Does religion oppress women more than it supports them?
· How can we approach the religious beliefs of women in the past?
· What is the relationship between religion and politics in the context of the first wave women’s movement?
Documents
Margaret Jane Menzies, Eighth monthly letter to young women (1880) [available digitally at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/studying/modules/docs/feminism]
A. Besant, Autobiographical Sketches (1885)
J. Butler, Personal Reminiscences of a Great Crusade (1928)
The Catholic Suffragist, volume 1, number 1 (15 January 1915) [available digitally at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/studying/modules/docs/feminism]
Histories
J. De Vries, ‘More Than Paradoxes to Offer: Feminism, History and Religious Cultures’, in S. Morgan & J. De Vries (eds.), Women, Gender and Religious Cultures in Britain 1800-1940 (2010)
J. Dixon, ‘Sexology and the occult: sexuality and subjectivity in Theosophy's new age’, Journal of the History of Sexuality 7 (1997), 409-33
L. Schwartz, The Bible and the Cause: Freethinking Feminists vs. Christianity, England 1870-1900’, Women: A Cultural Review 21:3 (2010), 266-278
L. Schwartz, ‘Review Article: Women, Religion and Agency in Modern British History’, Women’s History Review 21:2 (2012), 317-323
J. Dixon, Modernity, ‘Heterodoxy and the Transformation of Religious Cultures’ , in S. Morgan & J. De Vries (eds.), Women, Gender and Religious Cultures in Britain 1800-1940 (2010), pp. 211-230
H. Mathers, ‘Evangelicalism and Feminism: Josephine Butler, 1828-1906’, in S. Morgan, Women, Religion and Feminism in Britain (2002), pp.123-138
K. Gleadle, The Early Feminists: Radical Unitarians and the Emergence of the Women’s Rights Movement 1831-1851 (1995)
C. Midgley, ‘Women, Religion and Reform’, in S. Morgan & J. De Vries (eds.), Women, Gender and Religious Cultures in Britain 1800-1940 (2010), pp.138-58
B.Taylor, Eve and the New Jerusalem: Feminism and Socialism in Nineteenth-Century England (1983), [chapter 5].
M. Vicinus, Independent women : work and community for single women : 1850-1920 (1985) [chapters 2,6, and 7, especially pp.268-80]
L. Davidoff & C. Hall, Family Fortunes. Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780-1850 (London: Hutchinson, 1987) [chapter 2]
Week 5.
The women’s movement and imperial subjects, 1860-1914
Questions to ponder whilst you read:
· To what extent did the imperial context shape feminism in Britain?
· Was first wave feminism concerned only with the rights of white women?
· Could British feminism be said to have ‘benefitted’ from imperialism?
· How did British women interact with Indian women?
Documents
Choose 2 readings from section B ‘Women, Politics and Empire’, in A. Burton (ed.), Politics and Empire in Victorian Britain
‘Introduction’ plus choose 2 readings, in P. Tuson (ed.) The Queen’s Daughters: An Anthology of Victorian Feminist Writing on India (1995)
Primary Sources presentation in class
Frances Swiney, Our Indian Sisters (1914) [available as part of digitised MRC documents at
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/studying/modules/docs/feminism]
Leaflet Advertising the Indian Female Evangelist (1880)
[available as part of digitised MRC documents at
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/studying/modules/docs/feminism]
Historical Works
A. Burton, Burdens of History. British Feminists, Indian Women, and Imperial Culture, 1865-1915 (1994)
A. McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (1995) [esp. Introduction]
C. Midgley, ‘Can Women’s Be Missionaries? Envisioning Female Agency in the Early Nineteenth-Century British Empire’, Journal of British Studies 45:2 (2006), 335-358
C. Midgley, Feminism and Empire. Women Activists in Imperial Britain, 1790-1865 (London ad New York: Routledge, 2007)
C. Midgley, ‘From Supporting Missions to Petitioning Parliament: British Women and the Evangelical Campaign against Sati in India, 1813-30’, in K. Gleadle and S. Richardson (eds.), Women in British Politics 1760-1860. The Power of the Petticoat (2000), pp.74-92
C. Midgley, ‘Anti-Slavery and the Roots of “Imperial Feminism”’, in C. Midgley (ed.), Gender and Imperialism (1998), pp.161-179
G. Spivak, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, in C. Nelson and L. Grossberg, Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (1988) [Also widely available online if you google. Don’t worry if you find this tough – it is – but also worth it as a significant theoretical piece which underpins much of the historical writing on this subject.]
J. De Groot, ‘Feminism in Another Language: Learning from Feminist Histories of Iran and/or from Histories of Iranian ‘Feminism’ Since 1830’, in Women: A Cultural Review Special Issue: Rethinking the History of Feminism 21:3 (2010), 251-265
C. Bressey, ‘Victorian Anti-Racism and Feminism in Britain’, Women: A Cultural Review Special Issue: Rethinking the History of Feminism 21:3 (2010), 279-291.
P. Anagol, ‘Indian Christian Women and Indigenous Feminism c.1850-c.1920’, in K. Offen (ed.), Globalising Feminisms 1789-1945 (2010), pp.96-110
Catherine Hall, ‘Introduction’ to Civilising Subjects, in S. Morgan (ed.), The Feminist History Reader, pp.339-359
Week 6: Reading Week, no seminar
Week 7
Feminism, class and suffrage 1900-1928
· To what extent did the suffrage movement represent the interests of all women?
· To what extent was the suffrage movement part of a broader movement for social change?
· Was militancy an elitist tactic? If so, why?
· How great a threat to the social order did the suffragettes represent?
Documents
‘Imprisonment of Teresa Billington for alleged assault…’ from Women in the National Archives Collection HO 45/10345/141956 [download these for greater ease of reading]
‘Suffragists: Outrage at the National Gallery’, from Women in the National Archives Collection, AR1/38
‘Suffragists: Descriptions and Photographs’, from Women in the National Archives Collection, AR1/528
‘Song Sheet sold by the East London Federation of Suffragettes’ (nd), MRC MSS.240/R/5/5/4 [available as part of digitised MRC documents at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/studying/modules/docs/feminism]
Caroline E. Martyn, ‘Women in the World’ (July 1895) [available as part of digitised MRC documents
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/studying/modules/docs/feminism
Lily Gair Wilkinson, ‘Woman’s Freedom’ (1914) [available as part of digitised MRC documents at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/studying/modules/docs/feminism]
Histories
Jill Liddington, Rebel Girls (2009)
J. Liddington, One Hand Tied Behind Us:The Rise of the Women’s Suffrage Movement (1978) [important for working-class element]
J. Purvis, ‘Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928), Suffragette Leader and Single Parent in Edwardian Britain’, Women’s History Review 20:1 (2011) 87-108
C.J. Bearman, ‘The Legend of Black Friday’, Historical Research 83:222 (2010) 693-718
M. Joanou & J. Purvis, The Women’s Suffrage Movement: New Feminist Perspectives (1998)
S.S. Holton, Suffrage Days: Stories from the Women’s Suffrage Movement (1996) [chapter 5]
J. Purvis, ‘The prison experiences of the suffragettes in Edwardian Britain’, Women’s History Review 4 (1995) 103-33
S.S. Holton, ‘Silk dresses and lavender kid gloves : the wayward career of Jessie Craigen, working Suffragist’, Women’s History Review 5:1 (1996) 129-50
A.V. John, ‘Radical reflections? Elizabeth Robins : the making of suffragette history and the representation of working-class women’, in Owen Ashton, Robert Fyson and Stephen Roberts (eds.), The Duty of Discontent: Essays for Dorothy Thompson (1995)
S.S. Holton, Feminism and Democracy: Women’s Suffrage and Reform Politics in Britain 1900-1918 (1986)
J. Purvis & S.S. Holton (eds.), Votes for Women (2000)
Week 8.
Sex, Sexuality and Sex Work 1870-1930
This week the readings will be divided into three inter-related themes:
1. Struggles for sexual freedom
2. Writing ‘lesbian’/ queer history.
3. Campaigns against prostitution
Each group will give a 20 minute presentation giving an overview of the literature of the theme, outlining for the rest of the seminar group the key historiographical debates.
Documents
L. Hall (ed.), Outspoken Women: An Anthology of Women’s Writing on Sex 1870-1969 (2005) [choose your relevant extracts, decide for yourselves whether the historiography adequately illuminates the primary sources.]
Also have a look at the MRC digitised sources available at
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/studying/modules/docs/feminism