Multifarious Feminisms: Ireland from 1870 to 1970
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Multifarious Feminisms: Ireland from 1870 to 1970 _____________________________________________________________________ _______ _ A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences Florida Gulf Coast University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts in History ______________________________________________________________________________ By Kaley Dietrich 2017 1 Approval Sheet This Thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in History ____________________________________ Kaley Dietrich Approved: ____________________________________ Elizabeth Bouldin, Ph.D. Committee Chair/Advisor ____________________________________ Nicola Foote, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Eric Strahorn, Ph.D. Florida Gulf Coast University Fort Myers, Florida The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. 2 Table of Contents Signature Page 1 Table of Contents 2 Acknowledgements 3 Introduction 4 Chapter 1 7 Literature Review Chapter 2 18 Education Reform in Ireland: The First “Manifestation” Chapter 3 33 A “Wave” and “Manifestation” Meet: The Irish War for Independence and Suffrage Chapter 4 57 The Backlash against Feminism in New Ireland Chapter 5 74 Looking Forward: Ireland on a Global Feminist Stage Conclusion 84 Bibliography 87 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my friends, my father, the history faculty at Florida Gulf Coast University, and the resources available through the Florida Gulf Coast University Library. I first want to thank my father for his unwavering support in all of my endeavors. Without him, I would not have pursued a career in history. I would also like to thank my friends Darcy Kelly-Laviolette and Joshua Fortin for always lending their time to act as an editor and as a support system. Throughout my time as an undergraduate and graduate student at FGCU, the history department faculty have gone above and beyond in their helpfulness and accommodation in allowing me to continue to study Irish history in whatever course I was enrolled in. The ability to weave this topic into multiple courses made it possible for me to dedicate the time needed to fully develop the arguments presented in this thesis. I would particularly like to thank Dr. Elizabeth Bouldin and Dr. Eric Strahorn for the time they have taken to work with me individually through formal classes and directed readings. Each have challenged me to be the best historian I can. Finally, this project would not have been possible without the FGCU Library system. I could not have completed this thesis without the ability to order books from across the country and have access to the extensive collection that the library has to offer. 4 Introduction This project developed out of a long term interest in Irish history as well as from my own journey as a feminist. While researching the role of women in the Irish War for Independence, I had noticed that Irish women did not experience feminism in the same way as their English and American neighbors. Much of the study of Irish women has fallen into the category of women’s history. This thesis argues that due to the unique nature of feminism in Ireland, the history of women in the country warrants a second look by placing the history into a feminist context. In analyzing Irish feminist history, this thesis also confronts the problematic aspects of the “waves” model that previous scholarship has liberally employed when attempting to track and quantify feminism. The “waves” model has proven to be limiting when attempting to accurately understand feminist history in regions outside Britain and the United States. As feminism, and feminist history becomes increasingly global, it is necessary to reconsider how women of the past experienced and fought for feminist ideals. This thesis reconsiders the “waves” model in the particular national context of Ireland as a case study between 1870 and 1970. Beginning in 1870s Ireland, Chapter One argues that feminism took its first real place in the Irish public narrative through education reforms. As education reform was tied to class issues, rather than being exclusively a women’s issue, activist women had more success in asserting their place within academia and, by extension, the public sphere. When activist women eased their way into the classroom without drastically altering the strict separate sphere system, the people and government of Ireland experienced an initial “manifestation” of feminism through the work of proto-feminists, which in turn assisted the republicans among them in the fight for an independent Ireland. For the purposes of this thesis, a “manifestation” of feminism will be defined as the introduction of feminist ideas that are present in the larger cultural narrative, and 5 results in gains for women’s equality, but does not significantly alter the structure of society on its own. Moving into the twentieth century, nationalism and the desire for an independent Ireland began to dominate the social and political arena. Republican women, who largely benefitted from access to higher education, were eager to be involved in the fight for independence. Throughout the rise of nationalism and the War for Independence, republican women had prominent roles as writers, smugglers, protestors, fighters, and leaders. Their involvement boosted the cause for women’s suffrage. While the “first wave” of feminism in Britain and the United States was centered on suffrage, the “first wave” in Ireland came out of the rise of nationalism. In order for Irish women to gain the vote, they felt the need to stand with republican men and fight for their country. For the purposes of this thesis a “wave” will be defined as the introduction of feminist ideas that have dominated the social and political narrative that result in significant social and political changes. The final two chapters explore how the government of the Irish Free State had balanced their strict Catholic ideals with a progressive global culture throughout the twentieth century. Chapter three argues that during the Irish Civil War and the transition period to independence that took place between 1922 and the 1950s, there was a great deal of political backlash against feminism. However, once activist women had exercised their agency through breaking out of the private sphere and having a role in public society, they could not fully return to only being wives and mothers. This chapter also addresses the place of the Catholic Church in government proceedings that directly affected women. Chapter four looks ahead to what is commonly referred to as “second wave feminism.” Feminism during 1960s and 1970s Ireland came out of a hibernation it had been in for nearly twenty-years due to the release of the birth control pill and 6 increased communication between international feminist organizations. While Britain and the United States faced the same questions concerning reproductive rights, the Catholic people and government in Ireland were affected beyond a simple change in legislation. This period can be defined as a “second wave” but it cannot be viewed as the same as Britain and America’s second wave. At the end of the second wave, Irish women did not receive the same reproductive rights as British and American women and due the nation’s deep relationship with the Catholic Church, Irish feminists did not necessarily mirror British or American feminists. Going forward, the Irish people and government will need multiple waves and manifestations to fully separate themselves from conservative Catholic ideals that had shaped the country from the beginning in order to achieve full gender equality. The chapters that follow are intended to provide an analysis of Irish feminism that has yet to be explored in the historiography, as well as introduce terminology that best describes the history of feminism in Ireland. As feminist history continues to develop as a sub-category of women’s history, the Irish people and government’s experience with feminism provides a unique case-study for feminist historians due to the Western and Catholic nature of their culture and political outlook, as well as the previous colonial status of the country. 7 Chapter One: Literature Review Women’s history in Ireland has grown immensely since the 1990s. As a field, the floodgates were opened concerning primary source material in the late 1990s and early 2000s. With this, historians wrote works that aimed to be comprehensive in addressing all aspects of life for Irish women. Margaret Ward, Louise Ryan, Rosemary Cullen Owens, and Ann Matthews have produced comprehensive and highly enlightening works across various historiographical schools of thought. These four women make repeat appearances throughout this research project, providing a unique look into the lives of Irish women across modern history. Maria Luddy, Tara Keenan-Thomson, and Tina O’Toole are three historians who exemplify the current state of the field. While Luddy has worked to make primary source material as accessible as possible, Keenan-Thomson and O’Toole incorporated feminist history in order to understand how feminism fits into the Irish experience. Each of these seven scholars bring something new in terms of primary source material and analysis to the field. Historians of Irish women’s history, like Keenan-Thomson have taken steps to be more interdisciplinary by bridging the gap between history and theory. As the relationship has just begun to be forged in recent years, there is still work to be done. The second portion of this literature review touches on the field of feminist history in its current state. Since the coinage of the term “waves” in 1968, scholars have come to see the “waves” model as problematic and not representative of the feminist experience in America or internationally, leading to this research project’s argument that Ireland’s feminism is unique and warrants revisiting the Irish woman’s experience over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.