DOCSLIB.ORG

The National Association for the Promotion of Social Science and the Advancement of Victorian Women

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The National Association for the Promotion of Social Science and the Advancement of Victorian Women Atlantis Vol. 8 No. 1 Fall/Automne 1982 44-66 The National Association for the Promotion of Social Science and the Advancement of Victorian Women Kathleen E. McCrone University of Windsor The nineteenth century was an age of move• causes and rights. The Social Science Associa• ments and causes, a time when men and women tion made a major contribution to the advance• of strong character and profound conviction felt ment of Victorian women, but, as has the associ• that they could change society and that they had ation itself, this contribution has been largely a mission to do so. Undeterred by their ignor• neglected by social historians. ance of the real causes of complicated social problems, socially conscious Victorians attemp• The founding of the National Association for ted to solve the condition of England question the Promotion of Social Science is in itself strik• by organizing a plethora of societies dedicated to ing testimony to the rising tide of reform senti• every conceivable kind of improvement.1 Some ment in Victorian Britain. At the 1856 meeting of the more knowledgeable and far-sighted, of the British Association for the Advancement determined to form groups designed to tackle of Science, members of the statistical section crises scientifically. Foremost among these was proposed that the Association investigate such the National Association for the Promotion of subjects as jurisprudence, political economy and Social Science, the largest and most ambitious of education. When the general association refused the mid-nineteenth century organizations dedi• to concede that social laws could be accurately cated to social betterment, and one of the first to determined, several members, who called them• welcome women to full membership, to allow selves "social scientists," decided to proceed on them to speak in public, and to support their their own. In July 1857 a number of distin- guished men and women gathered at the Lon• and 160 papers were published or cited annually don home of Lord Brougham to consider the in a volume of Transactions that remain today best means of uniting all those interested in the association's chief monument. Although improving society and of coordinating their they make tedious reading, their contents are an hitherto splintered reform activities into a na• invaluable source of information on the mid- tional campaign.2 Manifesting the boundless Victorian approach to and perception of social optimism that characterized mid-Victorian nat• and economic problems.9 And "the occasional ural scientists and political and economic theor• vibrant flash of anger, pity or passion, which ists, Brougham and company were convinced unexpectedly illuminates [their] pedestrian that there actually was a science of society. They pages...makes them sometimes seem almost splen• maintained that if all the social reformers in the did."10 country could be united, and their ideas scientif• ically examined, tested and disseminated, ineluct• Not surprisingly, the grandiose ambitions able social laws could be ascertained precisely, and claims of the SSA aroused considerable hos• social reform could be made scientific, and social tility in the press, which nick-named it the processes could be effectively controlled, to the "Universal Palaver Association." The term "so• great benefit of the whole human race.3 cial science congresses" became an uncompli• mentary epithet suggesting exaggerated claims Out of their deliberations emerged the National and empty, undisciplined talk on every conceiv• Association for the Promotion of Social Science, able topic by a group of cranks, bores and buf• which held its first meeting in Birmingham the foons.11 Fortunately, the SSA had a few journal• following October, and which was presided over istic friends; and even The Times eventually for several years by the ubiquitous Lord Broug• mellowed sufficiently to admit that, by discuss• ham.4 To deal with the wide range of questions ing and publicizing pressing social problems, the Social Science Association (SSA) was expected the SSA gave voice to the collective conscience of to consider, an elaborate organizational struc• a generation.12 ture was developed,5 and annually, usually in the fall, large, week-long congresses were held in The National Association for the Promotion a major city. During these meetings, members of Social Science was quintessential^ Victorian, listened to lengthy addresses by the association's manifesting many of the paradoxes and contra• officers and then separated into the different dictions of the age in general and reformers in departments, where "reading of papers followed particular. Simultaneously progressive and con• by discussions which frequently culminated in servative, it was dedicated to enlightening the resolutions requesting the council to take action middle and upper classes on their duty to those to further proposals advanced in papers, occu• beneath them, all the while accepting the estab• pied [their] attention."6 The SSA attracted a lished social order and rarely questioning its good many eccentrics7, but the practical recom• fundamental premises or configuration. Its mem• mendations of thoughtful and concerned mem• bers, while idealistic and courageous, were not bers revealed that the association was serious without self-interest. Their improving impulse about reform. With infinite patience, SSA mem• was inspired by feelings of guilt, by the convic• bers presented and listened to papers on hous• tion that poverty, disease and crime were ineffi• ing, infant mortality, juvenile delinquency, work• cient and unprofitable, and by the hope that a house paupers, sewage, vaccination, education, healthy, contented populace would assure the law reform and women's rights, occasionally stability of the political and social system.13 seeking relief from the weighty proceedings by Lacking real identification with the people it attending banquets and receptions.8 Between 60 aspired to help, the SSA often treated the symp- toms rather than the causes of problems. Its paid only lip service to the unity of social activities and attitudes reflected middle-class science. Its departments grew like topsy, rather value judgments and the middle-class view that than out of an analysis of the legitimate div• social evils were "remediable within the frame• isions of social scientific labour, and their treat• work of a mature capitalist system."14 Hence, it ment of problems was fragmented because a held no attraction for socialists or members of synoptic view of the social system was never the working class. developed and because members were jealous of surrendering territory from their own special As time passed the association became increas• fields.19 ingly insulated from the dynamic intellectual and social forces which were to lead to the foun• Nevertheless, the SSA was much more than a dation of the labour party and the welfare state.15 device used by the privileged orders to try to As early as the 1870s the Transactions reveal the protect themselves against taxes, disease and onset of torpor. Year after year the same kind of revolution. Its annual meetings brought together papers were given by the same kind of people on many of the most important and concerned peo• the same kind of subjects. Attendance dropped ple of the age. Their consideration of controver• off dramatically, exacerbating omnipresent finan• sial questions was a significant factor in raising cial problems.16 The last congress was held in the consciousness and gaining the acceptance of Birmingham in 1884, and finally, in April 1886, the public, and they did influence legislation on at a meeting of officers in London, George Hast• education, prison administration, public health ings formally moved that the association sus• and the law.20 A body of sincere social reformers, pend operations.17 the SSA The Social Science Association failed to agree was not the collection of impractical enthus• on how to achieve its ambitious goals or whether iasts, busy-bodies, theorists or dilettantes it should act as a pressure group or simply as a its critics made it seem; the questions it forum for disinterested discussion. After almost discussed were not trivial; the papers its thirty years it could not point to the revelation of members contributed were frequently val• a single social law, and examples of its failures uable; and many of the measures they and ineffectiveness were embarrassingly numer• advocated have been vindicated by events. ous. When all was said and done, despite its They were prophets without honour but founders' scientific objectives, the SSA never not without perception.21 really attempted It was natural that a liberal organization, to work out a systematic approach to an ostensibly dedicated to determining the laws and understanding of the absolute laws which principles which governed the structure of society governed the contact of men as social and the operation of human nature, should con• beings.... Having pronounced the words cern itself with the disadvantaged position of "social science" in a sort of incantation, the one half the human race - women. From its SSA then proceeded to go about its unscien• beginning the SSA admitted women to full tific business in a completely unscientific membership and recognized their help as essen• way.18 tial to the successful achievement of the most urgent social reform. It even went so far as to Anxious to avoid treading on vested intellectual accept George Hastings' bold appointment of a interests, it avoided developing the theoretical woman, Isa Craig, as assistant secretary in part of its supposedly scientific task, and thus 1857,22 despite warnings that "it was impossible that a woman fill such a position, and that it was Emily Faithfull, Elizabeth Garrett, Rhoda Gar• improper that she should do so."23 Fortunately for rett, Maria Grey, Florence and Rosamond Hill, the cause of women, Craig carried out her duties Florence Nightingale, Bessie Rayner Parkes, with such distinction that when she resigned in Maria Rye, Emily Shirreff, Barbara Leigh Smith, 1865 to marry, she was given a large measure of Louisa Twining, Elizabeth Wolstenholme.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Gender, Knowledge and Power in Radical Culture
    POETESSES AND POLITICIANS: GENDER, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER IN RADICAL CULTURE, 1830-1870 HELEN ROGERS submitted for the degree of D.Phil University of York History Department and Centre for Women's Studies September 1994 CONTENTS PAGE Acknowledgements Abstract Introduction - Poetesses and Politicians: Rethinking Women and Radicalism, 1830-1870 1 I Poetesses and Politicians 2 II Rethinking Women and Radicalism, 1830-1870 12 Chapter One - The Politics of Knowledge in Radical Culture, 1790-1834 25 I Reason, Virtue and Knowledge: Political and Moral Science in the 1790s 27 II "Union is Knowledge": Political and Moral Economy in the 1820s and 1830s 37 Chapter Two - "The Prayer, The Passion and the Reason" of Eliza Sharples: Freethought, Women's Rights and Republicanism, 1832-1852 51 I The Making of a Republican, 1827-1832 i The Conversion 54 ii "Moral Marriage": A Philosophical Partnership? 59 iii The Forbidden Fruit of Knowledge 64 II "The Lady of the Rotunda" 72 III "Proper Help Meets for Men": Eliza Sharpies and Female Association in Metropolitan Radical Culture, in the Early 1830s 81 IV "The Poverty of Philosophy": Marriage, Widowhood, and Politics, 1833-1852 94 Chapter Three - "A Thinking and Strictly Moral People": Education and Citizenship in the Chartist Movement 102 I Chartist Debates on Education as Politics 111 II "Sound Political Wisdom from the Lips of Women": Chartist Women's Political Education 120 III Chartist Women and Moral and Physical Force 130 IV Conclusion "What Power has Woman...?" 138 Chapter Four - "The Good Are Not Always
    [Show full text]
  • Elizabeth Garrett Anderson in Context: the Origins of the Women’S Movement in Mid- Victorian Britain
    Elizabeth Garrett Anderson in context: the origins of the women’s movement in mid- Victorian Britain By Professor Lawrence Goldman In 1840 in London at the first World Anti-Slavery Convention, a woman rose to speak from the separate enclosure where all women attendees at the meeting had been corralled. There was consternation and uproar and she was silenced. The following day The Times carried an editorial on the meeting and made unkind remarks on the manners of our American cousins because the woman in question was from the United States. Her name was Elizabeth Cady Stanton and she is often compared with Millicent Garrett Fawcett, the equally famous sister of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. Elizabeth Cady Stanton led the movement for women’s enfranchisement in America in the late-19th century and often attested that it was her treatment in London in 1840 which made her the leading American feminist of her generation. In Britain in 1840 no respectable woman would speak in public; that was the privilege of men only. Yet fast-forward to Birmingham in October 1857 and the opening congress of an organisation called the Social Science Association, and here, for the first time, 17 years later, a middle-class woman spoke in open and mixed company. Her name was Mary Carpenter and she spoke about her work rescuing street children in Bristol and educating them in so-called ragged schools. Miss Carpenter was already a famous female philanthropist and the audience for this landmark speech was so large that the meeting was delayed while everyone moved to a bigger venue.
    [Show full text]
  • By Emily Davies This Volume, First Published in 1866, Discusses the State of Female Education After the Ages of 16-18
    Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Higher Education of Women (Cambridge Library Collection - Education) by Emily Davies This volume, first published in 1866, discusses the state of female education after the ages of 16-18. Davies explores the contemporary differences between male and female education and advocates women's entry into higher education, providing specific suggestions on how this could occur and the benefits it could bring to both men and women. Aside from being a pioneer for women's suffrage in England, Emily Davies also sought out the rights to university access for women. The same year that Davies became involved in women's suffrage,... Mar 06, 2009 · The higher education of women by Davies, Emily, 1830-1921. Publication date 1973 Topics Women Publisher [New York, AMS Press Collection americana Digitizing sponsor Google Book from the collections of University of Michigan Language English. Book digitized by Google from the library of the University of Michigan and uploaded to the Internet ...Pages: 199People also askWhen did Emily Davies become mistress of Cambridge?When did Emily Davies become mistress of Cambridge?Davies served as Mistress of the College in 1873–1875. In 1877, Caroline Croom Robertson joined the management team as secretary to reduce the load on Emily Davies. The College (and the rest of Cambridge University) would only begin to grant full Cambridge University degrees to women in 1940.Emily Davies - Wikipedia Jul 01, 1988 · The Higher Education of Women, 1866 book. Read reviews from world’s largest community for readers. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a...2.6/5(5)The higher education of women (1866) | THE CUSU WOMEN'S ...https://www.womens.cusu.cam.ac.uk/resources/...The Higher Education of Women by Emily Davies, first published in 1866, makes a forthright and vigorous case for the extension of professional and university education to women.
    [Show full text]
  • The Old New Journalism?
    ORBIT-OnlineRepository ofBirkbeckInstitutionalTheses Enabling Open Access to Birkbeck’s Research Degree output The development and impact of campaigning journal- ism in Britain, 1840-1875 : the old new journalism? https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40128/ Version: Full Version Citation: Score, Melissa Jean (2015) The development and impact of campaigning journalism in Britain, 1840-1875 : the old new journalism? [Thesis] (Unpublished) c 2020 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copy- right law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit Guide Contact: email Birkbeck, University of London The Development and Impact of Campaigning Journalism in Britain, 1840–1875: The Old New Journalism? Melissa Jean Score Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2014 2 Declaration I, Melissa Jean Score, declare that this thesis is all my own work. Signed declaration_________________________________________ Date_____________________ 3 Abstract This thesis examines the development of campaigning writing in newspapers and periodicals between 1840 and 1875 and its relationship to concepts of Old and New Journalism. Campaigning is often regarded as characteristic of the New Journalism of the fin de siècle, particularly in the form associated with W. T. Stead at the Pall Mall Gazette in the 1880s. New Journalism was persuasive, opinionated, and sensational. It displayed characteristics of the American mass-circulation press, including eye-catching headlines on newspaper front pages. The period covered by this thesis begins in 1840, with the Chartist Northern Star as the hub of a campaign on behalf of the leaders of the Newport rising of November 1839.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise of Leagues and Their Impact on the Governance of Women's Hockey in England
    ‘Will you walk into our parlour?’: The rise of leagues and their impact on the governance of women's hockey in England 1895-1939 Joanne Halpin BA, MA A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Submission date: May 2019 This work or any part thereof has not previously been presented in any form to the University or to any other body for the purposes of assessment, publication or for any other purpose (unless otherwise indicated). Save for any express acknowledgements, references and/or bibliographies cited in the work, I confirm that the intellectual content of the work is the result of my own efforts and of no other person. The right of Jo Halpin to be identified as author of this work is asserted in accordance with ss.77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. At this date copyright is owned by the author. Signature: …………………………………….. Date: ………………………………………….. Jo Halpin ‘Will you walk into our parlour?’ Doctoral thesis Contents Abstract i List of abbreviations iii Acknowledgements v Introduction: ‘Happily without a history’ 1 • Hockey and amateurism 3 • Hockey and other team games 8 • The AEWHA, leagues and men 12 • Literature review 15 • Thesis aims and structure 22 • Methodology 28 • Summary 32 Chapter One: The formation and evolution of the AEWHA 1895-1910 – and the women who made it happen 34 • The beginnings 36 • Gathering support for a governing body 40 • The genesis of the AEWHA 43 • Approaching the HA 45 • Genesis of the HA
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 1 Victorian Feminism and the Periodical Press
    Notes Chapter 1 Victorian Feminism and the Periodical Press 1 F.P. Cobbe, Life, p. 535. 2 For further discussion, see B. Caine, ‘Feminism, Journalism and Public Debate.’ Another central suffrage figure, the Mancunian Lydia Becker, was also involved in the British Association for the Advancement of Science, advocated for girls’ science education, and had aspired herself to a profession in science. She printed Botany for Novices privately, though Star Gazing for Novices remained unpublished. See J.E. Parker, ‘Lydia Becker’s “School for Science”.’ See also A. Kelly, Lydia Becker and the Cause. 3 S. Collini, Public Moralists, p. 53. 4 S. Collini, Public Moralists, p. 55. 5 S. Peacock, Theological and Ethical Writings, notes that Froude, editor of Fraser’s Magazine during Cobbe’s time there, tells her that they risk courting controversy over her theist pieces for the magazine, a salutory reminder that what constitutes risk taking has shifted considerably from 1862 to now. See also J.L. Larsen, ‘Where is the Woman in this Text?,’ who analyses Cobbe’s rhetorical style in Broken Lights as a form of feminist activism. 6 B. Caine, ‘Feminism, Journalism and Public Debate,’ 110. The three volumes of E.K. Helsinger, R. Sheets Lauterbach and W. Veeder (eds), The Woman Question gives a very full sense of how thoroughly the question of ‘woman’ infused Victorian books, papers, and periodicals. 7 For an overview of these points, see W. Houghton, ‘Periodical Literature and the Articulate Classes’ and L. Brake, Subjugated Knowledges. For a discussion of the rise of a professional intellectual class see T.W.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study of the Women's Suffrage Movement in Nineteenth-Century English Periodical Literature
    PRINT AND PROTEST: A STUDY OF THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH PERIODICAL LITERATURE Bonnie Ann Schmidt B.A., University College of the Fraser Valley, 2004 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREEE OF MASTER OF ARTS In the Department of History 43 Bonnie Ann Schmidt 2005 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fa11 2005 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name: Bonnie Ann Schmidt Degree: Master of Arts Title: Print and Protest: A Study of the Women's Suffrage Movement in Nineteenth-Century English Periodical Literature Examining Committee: Dr. Ian Dyck Senior Supervisor Associate Professor of History Dr. Mary Lynn Stewart Supervisor Professor of Women's Studies Dr. Betty A. Schellenberg External Examiner Associate Professor of English Date Defended: NOV.s/15 SIMON FRASER UN~VER~~brary DECLARATION OF PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital copy for use in its circulating collection, and, without changing the content, to translate the thesislproject or extended essays, if technically possible, to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation of the digital work.
    [Show full text]
  • Jessie Boucherett's “Feminist Life” and the Importance of Being Wealthy
    “AN UNEXPECTED RECRUIT TO FEMINISM”: JESSIE BOUCHERETT’S “FEMINIST LIFE” AND THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING WEALTHY by Ellen Jordan University of Newcastle, Australia <[email protected]> and Anne Bridger University of Gloucestershire, UK <[email protected]> Published as Ellen Jordan and Anne Bridger, ‘“An unexpected recruit to feminism”: Jessie Boucherett, the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women, and the importance of being wealthy’. Women’s History Review,15:3 (July, 2006), 385 - 412. 2 ABSTRACT In 1859 Jessie Boucherett, the daughter of a Lincolnshire landowner possessed of an independent income, was inspired by press discussions of the need to find alternative occupations for women to make contact with the women who were already spreading this message through the English Woman’s Journal. With their rather grudging support she founded a society, which still exists, to further this aim, the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women (now the Society for Promoting the Training of Women). Using the records of this Society, now housed at Girton College, Cambridge, this paper looks at the way commitment to this cause allowed a woman from a wealthy, high Tory, landed background to turn herself in six years into the feminist who put up the initial money for the women’s suffrage campaign, and went on to be a leading figure in campaigns to reform the married women’s property laws and against legislation restricting women’s work. It examines in particular the use she made of her personal wealth to direct the strategies of the activist groups to which she belonged.
    [Show full text]
  • Casting Her Gentility on the Waters: Middle Class
    CASTING HER GENTILITY ON THE WATERS: I MIDDLE CLASS WOMEN AND EMPLOYMENT WITH REFERENCE TO THE ENGLISHWOMAN'S JOURNAL AND ^ENGLISHWOMAN'S REVIEW ROSEMUND ROSS This thesis is presented for the honours degree of History of Murdoch University, 1987, and is an account of my own research. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my thanks to Dr. Pat Jalland for her enthusiasm. encouragement and guidance during the preparation of this thesis. Professor Geoffrey Bolton and the History in Progress' seminar group made helpful comments on an early draft. Ms. Leonie Liveris provided invaluable assistance by her generous loan of many of the secondary sources. Finally my very special thanks to my mother, Paulanna, and sister, Pauline, for their support and assistance with the typing of this thesis. i # INTRODUCTION Chapter One: Industrialisation and the ’Woman Question' 1750 1850 p.9 The Industrial Revolution p.9 The ’Woman Question' p. 15 The Origins of the Women's Movement p. 20 The Plight of Middle Class Spinster p. 24 Chapter Two: The Englishwoman's Journal and Work for Women 1858 1864 p. 29 The ishWoman's Journal p. 31 Readers and Critics p. 45 Chapter Three:The Englishwoman's Review and the Response to Protective Legislation 1866 - 1910 p. 56 The Englishwoman's Review p. 58 The Feminist Response to State Intervention p. 62 The Women's Industrial Defence Committee and the Freedom of Labour Defence p. 68 Chapter Four: Theory into Practice: The Society for Promoting the Employment of Women 1859 - 1910 p. 77 Membership and Structure p. 78 'Experimental Ventures' p.
    [Show full text]
  • Women's Periodicals Came Become Good Wives
    Gale Primary Sources Start at the source. Women’s Periodicals Solveig Robinson Pacific Lutheran University Various source media, 19th Century UK Periodicals EMPOWER™ RESEARCH Although periodicals expressly for women appeared as articles and stories offered in these magazines early as 1693 (with The Ladies Mercury) and increased in addressed such concerns as how to manage household number throughout the eighteenth century, it was in servants and the best ways to educate daughters to the nineteenth century that women's periodicals came become good wives. The fashion features and of age. Increased literacy and the many technological accompanying illustrations kept readers up-to-date advances that lowered publication costs contributed to about styles in both London and Paris, and the an explosion of periodicals targeted to expanding new magazines vied to present the most elegant and readerships, especially women. Publishers offered an attractive layouts and plates. increasing number of magazines, reviews, newspapers and journals that catered to women's tastes and interests. And as the realities and possibilities of By mid-century, as the costs of periodical production women's lives changed throughout the century, so did began to drop, domestic women's magazines the publications marketed to them. increasingly sought a broader readership by lowering their prices, publishing more frequently and expanding their content. For example, the weekly Lady's Domesticity and Fashion Newspaper and Pictorial Times offered women a fairly traditional domestic-oriented content, but it also At the beginning of the century, women's periodicals included 'Striking Events' and other news, all for only were largely devoted to domestic concerns and fashion.
    [Show full text]
  • Libertarian Feminism in Britain, 1860-1910 Stephen Davies
    LIBERTARIAN FEMINISM IN BRITAIN, 1860-1910 STEPHEN DAVIES CONTENTS Preface by Chris R. Tame and Johanna Faust Libertarian Feminism in Britain, 1860-1910 by Dr. Stephen Davies I The Origins II Organisational Origins III Some Publications IV The Suffrage Issue V The Female Employment Issue VI The Education Issue VII The Contagious Diseases Act VIII The Married Womens’ Property Act IX Other Involvements X The Ideological Character of Libertarian Feminism XI Critique of Society XII Historical Theory XIII Practical Proposals XIV The Historiography of Libertarian Feminism XV A Methodological Error XVI What Happened? XVII Conclusions A Selective Bibliography Some Comments on Stephen Davies’ Paper by Johanna Faust Libertarian Alliance Pamphlet No. 7 ISSN 0953-7783 ISBN 0 948317 98 1 A joint Libertarian Alliance/British Association of Libertarian Feminists publication. © 1987: Libertarian Alliance; British Association of Libertarian Feminists; Stephen Davies; Chris R. Tame; Johanna Faust. Stephen Davies is Lecturer in History at Manchester Polytechnic. He is a supporter of the British Association of Libertarian Feminists and also Treasurer of the Manchester Society. His Essays have appeared in a number of books and he has delivered papers to conferences of both the Libertarian Alliance and the Adam Smith Club. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the British Association of Libertarian Feminists or the Libertarian Alliance. Libertarian Alliance 25 Chapter Chambers, Esterbrooke Street, London SW1P 4NN www.libertarian.co.uk email: [email protected] Director: Dr Chris R. Tame Editorial Director: Brian Micklethwait Webmaster: Dr Sean Gabb BRITISH ASSOCIATION OF LIBERTARIAN FEMINISTS 1 PREFACE by Chris R.
    [Show full text]
  • Margery Spring Rice UCY LUCY POLLARD Pioneer of Women’S Health in the Early P Twentieth Century OLLARD
    L Margery Spring Rice UCY LUCY POLLARD Pioneer of Women’s Health in the Early P Twentieth Century OLLARD LUCY POLLARD This book vividly presents the story of Margery Spring Rice, an instrumental fi gure in the movements of women’s health and family planning in the fi rst half of the twen� eth century. Margery Spring Rice, née Garre� , was born into a family of formidable female trailblazers — niece of physician and suff ragist Elizabeth Garre� Anderson, and of Millicent Fawce� , a leading suff ragist and campaigner for equal rights for women. Margery Spring Rice con� nued this legacy with her co-founding of the North Kensington birth control clinic in 1924, three years a� er Marie Stopes founded the fi rst clinic in Britain. Engaging and accessible, this biography weaves together Spring Rice’s personal and professional lives, adop� ng a chronological approach which highlights how the one impacted the other. Her life unfolds against the M turbulent backdrop of the early twen� eth century — a period which sees ARGERY the entry of women into higher educa� on, and the upheaval and societal upshots of two world wars. Within this context, Spring Rice emerges as a dynamic fi gure who dedicated her life to social causes, and whose ac� ons � me and again bear out her habitual belief that, contrary to the S Shakespearian dictum, ‘valour is the be� er part of discre� on’. PRING This is the fi rst biography of Margery Spring Rice, drawing extensively on le� ers, diaries and other archival material, and equipping the text with family trees and photographs.
    [Show full text]