Women in British Politics, 1760-1860: The Power of the Petticoat

by Kathryn Gleadle (Editor), S. Richardson (Editor)

Overview

This groundbreaking volume examines women's political involvement from a variety of innovative angles. In addition to exploring literary sources and women's contribution to electoral processes, pressure group politics are examined in depth (including Jewish civil rights and the campaigns against the Corn Laws and Indian widow-burning). The attention to neglected aspects of women's political activity, such as religion, domesticity, European nationalism, empire and life-style enable this book to challenge not only the historiography of Georgian and Victorian women, but also the nature of political history itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780333771426
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	08/17/2000
Edition description:	2000
Pages:	179
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

KATHRYN GLEADLE holds a British Academy Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in the Department of Politics and Modern History at London Guildhall University. She is the author of The Early Feminists: Radical Unitarians and the Emergence of the Women's Rights Movements, 1831-51.

SARAH RICHARDSON is a Lecturer in the Department of History, University of Warwick. She is co-editor (with Anna Clark) of History of the Suffrage, 1760-1867.

Table of Contents

Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Introduction: The Petticoat in Politics: Women and Authority, c. 1760-1860; K.Gleadle & S.Richardson Women, Electoral Privilege and Practice in the Eighteenth Century; E.Chalus Patriotism and Providence: The Politics of Hannah More; A.Stott 'Well-neighboured Houses': The Political Networks of Elite Women, 1780-1860; S.Richardson From Supporting Missions to Petitioning Parliament: English Women and the Evangelical Campaign against Sati (Widow-Burning) in India, 1813-1830; C.Midgley Women Writers and the Campaign for Jewish Civil Rights in Early Victorian England; N.Valman Domestic Economy and Political Agitation: Women and the Anti-Corn Law League 1839-1846; S.Morgan 'Our Several Spheres': Middle Class Women and the Feminisms of Early Victorian Radical Politics; K.Gleadle 'Jenny Rules the Roost': Women and Electoral Politics, 1832-1868; M.Cragoe Index

Editorial Reviews

Claiming for themselves the Petticoat Government metaphor used during the period by those who feared women's power both in political arenas and in domestic space, British historians examine the contexts in which those fears were based. They explore the nature of women's political involvement in the electoral process from a variety of innovative angles, and also women's contribution to pressure group politics such as Jewish civil rights, European nationalism, and campaigns against the Corn Laws and Indian widow-burning. They eight essays are from a May 1998 conference in Warwick. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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