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Women's Suffrage: A Series of Articles from the 1870 issue of Punch's Magazine

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years ago

Women's Suffrage: A Series of Articles from the 1870 Issue of Punch's Almanac

 

 

 "Song on Female Suffrage", Punch's Almanac, February 19, 1870.

 

The rights of women who demand,

     Those women are but few:

The greater part had rather stand

     Exactly as they do.

 

Beauty has claims, for which she fights

     At ease, with winning arms:

The women who want Woman’s rights

     Want, mostly, Woman’s charms.

 

 

"Women’s Worst Disabilities", Punch's Almanac, February 26, 1870. 

 

 

Alderman Cowen, the other day, presented in the House of Commons a petition from Newcastle—on—Thyne, “to remove the disabilities of women” [1] . It is to be wished the House of Commons could. Women are subject to disabilities other than political; and what a blessing it would be for them, and those who are charged with them, especially for men of moderate circumstances in the higher and middle classes, if Parliament could remove those! The Pope is often ridiculed for his continual use of an expression declaring disability in the sense of inability; want of power to do a thing. But women in general (not you, sweet readers,) are in the habit much more frequently than his Holiness is, of saying non possumus[2] . “I can’t take exercise.” “I can’t touch that horrid medicine.” “I can’t go about in those old things.” “I can’t dress under so much a year.” “I can’t do without a carriage.” “I can’t live any longer in this house.” “I can’t manage without so many servants.” “I can’t eat this.” “I can’t drink that.” “I can’t do”—anything whatever that implies the least degree of self-command. Unhappily no legislation can relieve women of their most grievous disabilities; those which all come under the general head of disability to act in any way against the bidding of their unreasoning inclinations. If it could, and the House of Commons would pass an Act to abolish all those female disabilities, poor Paterfamilias [3] would immediately have the pleasure of seeing his wife and daughters, habitually independent of cabs, walking to the theatres and to evening parties as the Pall Mall suggested the other day, in sensible short dresses and mud-proof goloshes of India-rubber [4] .

 

 

"Suffrage For Both Sexes", Punch's Almanac, April 2, 1870.

 

 

 Most Likely, this image of the woman as beetle would be to suggest,

                                                                                                                                 as expressed in the aritcle, that (through allowing women to partake

                                                                                                                                 in the political process) a man may be choosing someone quite unlike

                                                                                                                                 himself in politics.

The law which allows every male fool, not absolutely idiotic or insane, to vote for Members of Parliament, and forbids the very cleverest and best educated woman, is clearly no specimen of the perfection of human reason. Probably Mrs. Fawcett [5] had little trouble in demonstrating its un-wisdom in her lecture delivered at the Brighton Town Hall, the other night, on the electoral disabilities of women. The removal of those disabilities has been objected to as likely to introduce discord in families; but, as Mrs. Fawcett observed:--

 

“The political independence of women would have a similar effect to that produced by the recognition of the right of women to think for themselves on religious subjects—persons of similar politics would marry, and domestic harmony would be rather increased than lessened.”

 

This is true; and mutual endeavors to ascertain political views would improve the conversation of partners in a waltz for example, and so tend to social advancement [6] . The sphere of matrimonial advertising would be enlarged by female suffrage. We should have gentlemen inclined to matrimony notifying that they desire to meet ladies of congenial politics; or sometimes, even, of opposite. A Liberal gentleman, delighting in controversy, would perhaps announce that he wanted a Conservative wife, in order that he might enjoy the pleasure of discussion.

 

But if married women are to vote, the Ballot will be indispensable. The ruffians accustomed to beat their wives are not incapacitated by their brutality from voting; and they would coerce them by intimidation. The ladies of the higher classes would, doubtless, many of them bribed by their husbands in all manner of ways, and often in the most unblushing manner, unless we adopted the system of secret voting.

 

"Coercion for the Ladies, for use when they get votes", Punch's Almanac, April 16, 1870

 

Belgravia [7]

Sir Armine Lothair de Fitzbassinet [8] . While you’re out this afternoon, Esmeralda, manage to call at the polling place and vote for Charley Rattlecash. Here’s your card with number and all.

 

Lady de F.B. I have told you, Armine, not to open my letters. I have no intention of voting for Colonel Rattlecash. I dislike the man, and he knows less of politics than my Algernon at Eton.

 

Sir A. By Jove! Aw! You won’t vote for my friend?

 

Lady de F.B. I wish you had better friends, and I shall vote for Mr. M’Choakumchild.

 

Sir A. By Jove! Aw! Knew I’d something else to say. I shan’t  subscribe to either opera this season.

 

Lady de F.B. You are not serious?

 

Sir A. You’ll see. [Exit Lady  de F.B. sinks upon a couch, in tears.

 

 

Russell Square [9]

Mr. Recouper [10] . I’ve had a little constitutional, and served my country into the bargain. I walked round and voted for Tim Twister. Get round some time early, Maria, and do the same, before twelve if you can, as there’s no crowding till then.

 

Mrs. Recouper. Not for all the money in your counting house, John. I promised my vote to Lady Periwinkle’s friend, Mr. Mumbleton, and I shall keep my word.

 

Mr. Recouper. Stop a bit. Let’s hear about that again.

 

Mrs. Recouper. It takes two to make a quarrel, and I don’t mean to be one of them, John, but I shall do as I say.

 

Mr. Recouper. It takes two to make a tour to Switzerland, and I don’t mean to be one of them, Maria. I always do as I say.

 

Mrs. Recouper. Not go to Switzerland?

 

Mr. Recouper. Not if you don’t vote for Tim.

 

Mrs. Recouper. But I have promised.

 

Mr. Recouper. Keep your promise, and write for lodgings at Ramsgate [11] . [Exit

 

The Strand [12]

Mr. Mahogany. Now, Eliza, get on your bonnet, and we’ll go round to Covent Garden together—two votes for Dabchick.

 

Mrs. Mahogany. I am prepared to accompany you to the polling-place, Mr. Mahogany, but I shall exercise my suffrage in favor of Mr. Cracker [13] .

 

Mr. M. Hay hay?

 

Mrs. M. I believe that I spoke distinctly, Mr. Mahogany.

 

Mr. M. What’s that fad? What’s Cracker to you?

 

Mrs. M. Having perused his address, I approve his principles, and propose to tender him my support.

 

Mr. M. Tender! You’re a pleasant person to talk of tenderness. Where’s your tenderness for me, I should like to know?

 

Mrs. M. I am aware of my duty, both to you and to the country.

 

Mr. M.  Are you? Then it’s little the country will see of you this year. I’ll take nobody out of town that don’t harmounise with my sentiments. Gravesend will be at your entire service, M’m, and I shall take my holiday at Boulogne.

 

Mrs. M. It is impossible that you can be guilty, even in imagination, of such insupportable tyranny. It was indeed time that we should have the franchise.

 

Mr. M. Cracker’s a very fine candidate, M’m, and the shrimps at Gravesend are remarkably fine, also.

 

 

The New Cut [14]

Mr. Bonassus. Bin out and voted blue, Sarah? As, if so, I’ll reward myself with a screwfor minding the shop [15] .

 

Mrs. Bonassus. I have been out and voted red, James, as I told you I should.

 

Mr. B.  You haven’t?

 

Mrs. B. As we have yet no ballot, you can find out for yourself. Do you think I’d stoop to tell you a crammer [16]?

 

Mr. B.  Better for you if you had.

 

Mrs. B. When I say a thing, I stick to it.

 

Mr. B. Then you’d better say “shop”, for you’ll stick to that tomorrow. Bill! Go over to Sam Podge’s and say I shan’t want that gig for Hendon to-morrow. Suckumstances have changed.

 

Mrs. B.  You won’t drive me to the “Harp” to-morrow?

 

Mr. B. No. For you wouldn’t be led, nor driven neither, to-day. There’s a moral lesson for you, Mrs. Bonassus, M’m.

 

Buggins’s Rents

Tom Spandril. Now, old woman, let’s go and exercise our rights, and poll for Wilkins [17] .

 

Mrs. Spandril. Take your basket of dirty tools off my table when I’ve just washed it. I shan’t vote for Wilkins.

 

Tom. What for?

 

Mrs. S. He’s a stuck-up monkey. I vote Jenkins.

 

Tom. He’s a fool.

 

Mrs. S. Better a fool than a monkey. And he ain’t.

 

Tom.  I say he is.

 

Mrs. S.  That don’t prove nothing. I shall go for Jenkins.

 

Tom.  Will you—once? Twice? Three times? [She nods

 

Mrs. S. Three-thousand, if you come to that.

 

Tom. And I had plotted a bit of supprise for you. Pit of the Wic.

 

Tom and Jerry. Me and my pal Bob’ll go. He votes Wilkins [Exit to find Bob.

 

 

"To Mrs. Professor Fawcett", Punch's Almanac,  April 16, 1870

 

 

 

(From Punch’s own Correspondence)

 

 

 

Dear Mrs. Professor,

 

 

 

            You have lately been delivering lectures on the Electoral Disabilities of Women. I quite sympathize with your wifely desire to keep abreast of your excellent and irrepressible husband[18] . As it seems to be his special function to start untimely hares in the House of Commons, you cannot be more congenially occupied than in agitating crude changes out-of-doors. I can only hope that if your agitation for the electoral rights of your sex ever carries it as far as the polling-booth, it will be content to stop there, and not press forward to the House. I own I do not like to contemplate the possibility of two Fawcetts in the field—or rather on the Commons—at once, and one of them in petticoats, uniting the normal feminine unwillingness to take an answer, to the special irrepressibility and deafness of all reasons but his own of the eminent man whose wife, by natural selection, you have become.

            I find now that you have dropped the limitation with which your sister agitators started, and that you go in for repealing the electoral disabilities of all women—married as well as single [19] . You are logical in this, as well as wise in your generation. I am not aware whether you admit that man and wife is one flesh. I know you refuse to admit that man and wife is one purse. I cannot wonder that you should refuse to admit, by implication, that man and wife is one mind, and that a vote given to the wife will be only another given to the husband.

            One object of the various movements you are so active in promoting—Women’s Suffrage Movement, Women’s Separate Property Movement, Women’s Examination Movement, Women’s University Movement, Women’s Admission to the Professions Movement [20] , &c.—is the cultivation of a bold spirit of self-dependence and self-assertion in your sex, which, if you could develop it to the full, would, I doubt not, soon dispose of all objections to a married woman’s franchise founded on the assumption that the wife would be likely to be guided by her husband in giving her vote.

            Besides, if married women are not to have votes, you lose what seems likely to be one of the chief motives to electoral activity among your sex. As a rule, women—married women, in particular, with home cares and labours heavy upon them—care little, as yet, about politics [21] . You admit this, but explain it by their exclusion, thus far, from political functions. But one thing they do care about—bless em!—and that is the comfort of their homes, and the satisfaction of “paying their way”. Women as far as I have seen, hate and fear debt, far more than men, and when trusted with any voice or control in money matters, are keener bargainers, and better husbands of their husbands’ earnings than we are. One value, at least, the franchise will have in their eyes—it will be worth money. As they don’t care for politics, and do care for money—for family needs, above all—they will be likely enough not only to see that their husbands vote for the side that pays best—as the election reports show they do now [22], very generally, in the class usually influenced by bribes—but will bring another vote to the agent’s book, for another lump of “sugar”. But the unanimity of the vote will be the wife’s work, not the husband’s; and what oftenest determines it will be the colour of the candidate’s money. I feel pretty sure that whatever the female franchise may cost the country, it will cost candidates a pretty penny.

            Has it ever occurred to you that in parcelling out life into two great fields, the one inside, the other outside the house-doors, and creating two being so distinct in body, mind, and affections as men and women, the Framer of the Universe must have meant the two for different functions? Can you deny, or shut your eyes to the fact that a similar distinction runs through the whole animal kingdom? Surely, so long as the masculine creature keeps aloof from the domain of the feminine, and leaves to her the nursing and rearing and training of the family, and the ordering and gracing of the home, there lies a tremendously strong  presumption against the wisdom of the feminine entry on the masculine domain of business and politics [23]?

            I have not the pleasure of your acquaintance; but I have never pictured you to myself as one of those formidable, bass-voiced, bug-armed, men-women, whose assult on the position of our sex is inspired by an unfitness to rule in their own. On the contrary, I should expect to find you as charming, graceful, and feminine as your pretty name—Millicent. May I presume on that impression to ask you, entre nous, and in strictest confidence, how you manage matters with the Professor when you want to carry a point [24] ? Do you argue with him? I should hope not, judging from my experience of him in the House. I see how Gladstone [25] fares at his hands. I imagine you must have a very different way of going to work with him. If you have that wifely power which is your right, at home, may I ask how this is acquired and retained? Is it by any arts within masculine reach, or by a magic all feminine, and all your own—such as men succumb to from the wand of some Circe or other?

            Don’t trouble yourself to give an answer. I read it in your face—on your lips, that smile without speaking. Ah! there is the female franchise, Frau professorin. Give women votes! Bless you, dear, bewitching creatures,--so strong while you are willing to be weak, so irresistible while you choose your own weapons,--if you cared for votes, you have them already. Have you not the men’s? In a word here is my dilemma, dear Mrs. Professor. Either women don’t care for votes—in which case they will make a bad use of them; or they do care for them, in which case they have ours.

            Look how you rule in that Parliament for the business of which you do care, and whose budget you control and appropriate. What man dares call his home his own? What man, that deserves to be called a man, with a good wife, wishes to be other than her humble servant, bread-winner, hewer of wood and drawer of water, within the walls of that sacred sphere, of which the household hearth is the central sun? Depend upon it, if Nature had meant you for the franchise, you would have had it long ago. But then, if you had been in our place, we should have been in yours. Do you think it would be a better world for the change? Leaving you to ponder the question, I remain, my dear Mrs.Professor,

 

 

 

Your faithful friend and servant,

 

 

 

Punch.

 

 

 

 

 

"Fears of Female Emancipation", Punch's Alamanac, April 23 1870

  

          We cannot but express the fear that if women had the votes to which they are, as a matter of abstract justice, entitled, their conduct, in relation to the franchise and the hustings, would be generally of a frailish character [26] . If a ten-pound note were wanted in the house, the lady thereof would, in too many cases, there is reason to fear, think that consideration the best of all possible reasons to determine her vote for a particular candidate, and, in voting accordingly, she would consider herself to vote for the true Liberal. Treating, by means of ices and champagne, or tea and shrimps, is quite as possible as with gin and beer and legs of mutton and trimmings. It might prove very usual; and bribery might be practised to a great extent with gloves and bouquets.

            The progress of Liberalism would render it necessary that the years of discretion, for electoral purposes, of women, should be prolonged to twenty-five or twenty-six. The political opinions of a girl of twenty-one would in most cases be moulded by the young officers and other young gentlemen she was in the habit of dancing with—nearly all of them Conservatives. Or else she would derive her politics from her brothers fresh from school or University, almost sure to be violent Tories, who would make her dispose the Liberal party by calling its members snobs and cads. By the time a damsel is thirty she has ceased to worship her brothers; and officers and other youths have ceased to dance with her.

            However, fiat justitia ruat coelum[27] . It is possible, though, that we might extend the elective franchise to the softer sex without bringing the firmament of the British Constitution about our ears.

 

 

 

 

 

"Vote For The Ladies", Punch's Almanac, November 26, 1870

 

 

 

Vote for the Three Ladies who offer themselves in different districts, as candidates for election to the Metropolitan School Board: Miss Garrett, M.D., Mrs. Grey, and Miss Davies [28-30] .

            Of course you all know that the London School Board [31] is to consist of forty-nine members, and that its duties will be to report on all existing schools in the Metropolitan districts, and to establish new schools, where the Board thinks it necessary. It is to settle the amount of school fees, and when necessary, to compel parents to send to school all children between five and thirteen.

            Does not this seem exactly the sort of superintendence which should be shared by ladies, who are not only really interested in education (that is a good thing, but not enough), but who are acquainted with the humbler classes, and know their habits, prejudices, and difficulties?

            Mr. Punch thinks that this is woman’s work, and he hopes that the three ladies will be elected to Marylebone, Chelsea, and Greenwich, respectively. As for Miss Garrett who, to her long practical acquaintance with the above things, adds some medical knowledge, and can advise on all sanatory questions connected with schools, she will be an invaluable acquisition to the Board; and Marylebone should be proud that the richest and most educated of the districts can send to that Council one who will render such services. Miss Garrett and the other ladies profess no “strong-minded women’s” doctrines, but those which all rational men would teach [32] .

            There are some very good men in the candidature, but they are well known, and can speak for themselves. Mr. Punch, only wishes to point out that three ladies desire to do Woman’s Work, and he hopes that they will be accredited to the Board. He seldom condescends to treat of mere political elections, but these Educational Elections are important, and wise men had better look to them.

 

 

               Notes on the Text

 

 

Annotations

 

1. Sir Joseph Cowen, a prominent citizen and Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle   upon Tyne from 1865 to 1873 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Cowen).

 

 

 2. Non possumus: Latin phrase meaning “we cannot” (Dictionary.com)

 

 

 3. Paterfamilias: the male head of household or the father in a family (dictionary.com)

 

 4. The Pall Mall Gazette—a London evening newspaper started in 1865. The newspaper’s name is taken from the imaginary newspaper featured in Thackeray’s novel titled The History of Pendennis. Thackeray’s “Pall Mall” is a magazine designed for gentlemen by gentlemen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pall_Mall_Gazette). By Punch’s writer referencing this newspaper, he is suggesting that, in order to remove women’s disabilities, one would have to eliminate everything unreasonable about their natures (which is quite a bit, apparently) to the degree that they even change their dress for something more pragmatic and perfectly logical to the gentlemen.

 

5. Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847-1929) was the president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. In 1869 she spoke at the firs public meeting of the London National Society for Women’s Suffrage. She was the wife of Henry Fawcett, professor of political economy and Radical Liberal MP for Brighton (Crawford 214).

 

6. I believe we are supposed to read “social advancement” as a double entendre suggesting both advancement of social causes like woman’s suffrage and the advancement of a social intimacy between two individuals.

 

7. Belgravia is “a district of central London in the City of Westminster, situated to the south-west of Buckingham Palace… Belgravia is characterised by grand terraces of white stucco houses, and is focused on the Belgrave Square and Eaton Square. It was one of London's most fashionable residential districts” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgravia).

 

8. Although the name in its entirety is fictitious, the word “Lothair” is the title of an 1870 book by the founder of the Modern Conservative Party, Benjamin Disraeli.

 

 

9. Russell Square is “a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden… The square contained large terraced houses aimed mainly at upper middle class families” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russel_Square).

 

10. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, “recoup” is:

 

-To receive an equivalent for; make up for: recoup a loss.

 

-To return as an equivalent for; reimburse.

 

-A law that allows one to deduct or withhold (part of something due) for an

 

 equitable reason.

 

 

11. Ramsgate is a seaside town in East Kent, England.

 

 

12. “The Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length has been longer than this… In the Victorian era, the Strand became a fashionable address. Many avant-garde writers and thinkers gathered here, among them Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, and the scientist Thomas Henry Huxley” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strand%2C_London).

 

 

13. According to Dictionary.com, “cracker” could refer to

 

-a firecracker

 

-a paper wrapped party favor

 

-a term referring to someone who is boastful

 

 

14. The New Cut refers to a farming area near the canal in Norfolk, England.

 

 

15. Screw: a small paper packet, as of tobacco. (American Heritage Dictionary)

 

16. Crammer: a lie (Coleman)

 

17. Spandril (spandrel): The space between two arches and a horizontal molding or cornice above them. Middle English spaundrell, probably from spandre, space between supporting timbers (American Heritage Dictionary). Not that this word is exceedingly important to understanding this section of the skit, but Mr. Spandril is noted for having a bag of dirty tools, which would certainly be true of a carpenter. This is just another example of Punch’s Almanac constantly layering meanings or associations within their humorous texts.

 

18. Henry Fawcett was the husband of Millicent Garrett Fawcett, a major Woman’s Suffrage activist from the late 1860’s- 1920’s. He was a professor of political economy at Cambridge and a Radical Liberal MP.

 

 

19. An amendment to the Municipal Franchise Act of 1869 allowed unmarried women householders to vote in local elections, however married women could not vote (Simkin).

 

 

20. Women’s Suffrage Movement: The organized movement seeking to give women the right to vote. In England, in1820, James Mill claimed that “there was no need to extend the suffrage to women because their fathers and husbands would protect their interests” (Smith). In 1832, Parliament passed legislation that reserved suffrage for men only. In response to these political movements, women’s right to the vote became a matter of public concern. The Women’s Suffrage Movement organized around the time of a new reform bill in the 1860’s.

 

Women’s Separate Property Movement: Most likely a reference to the Married Women’s Property Act, which passed in its initial stages in 1870. The act gave women, who married after 1870, the right to own and control certain types of personal property. Prior to this 1870 law, “a wife retained legal ownership of her property (such as land) but could not negotiate, receive rents from, sell, or mortgage the property independent of her husband’s consent. “As a feme covert, the wife’s legal identity cam under the cover of her husband; by law she could not make a contract or leave property by will” (Combs 142). In 1882, the Act of 1870 was amended to allow both married and single women ownership of all their property, regardless of whether it was obtained before or after marriage.

 

The Women’s Examination Movement, Women’s University Movement, and Women’s Admission to the Professions Movement all focused on women seeking validated higher education, the ability to attend university lectures and examinations at Universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. Although Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon established Girton College in 1870, the college was not recognized by many University Authorities (Simkin). It was not until the 1878 that university colleges allowed women to attend alongside men.  The University of London was the first to grant degrees to women in 1882. Cambridge and Oxford first allowed female students to take examinations in 1881 and 1884 (respectively), but it took them longer to receive degrees if they passed (Banerjee).

 

21. In order to present both sides to Mr. Punch’s issue. I thought it just to list a few of the quotes from women writing at the time:

 

“I came to know Dr. Richard Pankhurst, a lawyer… who was a supporter of woman's suffrage… Dr. Pankhurst acted as counsel for the Manchester women who tried in 1868 to be placed on the register as voters. He also drafted the bill giving married women absolute control over their property and earnings, a bill, which became law in 1882.

 

About a year after my marriage my daughter Christabel was born, and in another eighteen months my second daughter Sylvia came. Two other children followed and for some years I was rather deeply immersed in my domestic affairs. I was never so absorbed with home and children, however, that I lost interest in community affairs. Dr. Pankhurst did not desire that I should turn myself into a household machine”—Emmeline Pankhurst, suffragist, re-printed on Victorian Web.  

 

 

 

“It has been objected that conferring the franchise on women, and thus holding out to them an inducewment to occupy their attention with political affairs, would tend to withdraw their minds from domestic duties, and take up their time to the disadvantage of those pursuits which have a more special claim on their attention. This seems to imply that women are the only persons who have peculiar duties, and that the privilege of voting properly belongs to those who have nothing to do…it is true that the peculiar duty of women is to mind the house, and attend to the comfort if the inmates; but it is equally true that it is man’s special province to labour for the maintenance of the household, and in this division of family cares, the share of the man is at least as important and engrossing as that of the woman”—Lydia Becker, from “Female Suffrage”

 

 

 

In response to the claim that women’s suffrage cannot pass because “changes of enormous importance, which have never been adequately considered, would be introduced into home life”, an appeal placed by the Nineteenth Century Protest, Millicent Fawcett replied that “He must be very unhappy if he fells that the quiet life of home depends for its existence on an Act of Parliament”

 

 

 

22. Although anti-suffragists had no concrete evidence that women would be easily bribed by politicians, the assumption was that women would react similarly to lower-class voters. The issues of lower classes in relation to political affairs is one of the primary focuses of the novel Felix Holt, the Radical by Mary Ann Evans, who is better known by the pen name George Eliot.

 

 

23. Here Mr. Punch is referring to the Victorian idea of the “Angel in the House”—the notion that women were to be the caretakers, peacemakers, decorators, and general overseers of all things domestic. “The doctrine of “separate spheres” had been socially established at the beginning of the nineteenth century and suggested that men and women were designed by God and nature to operate in quite different arenas—men in the public world of exploit, war, work, intellect, and politics; women in the world of nurturance and the affections centered on the home. This theory had offered an appealing solution for ordering the relations of the sexes in a modern liberal democracy. In effect, it manipulated the subordination of women without necessarily harping on their inferiority…Nevertheless the whole doctrine rested on the premise that women’s lives were always ancillary to those of men, and that women should be dependent on men” (Matthews 5).

 

24. Entre nous: between us, in private, confidentially (Webster’s dictionary)

 

25. William Ewart Gladstone was a member of the British Liberal Party and Prime Minister. Interestingly enough, he was also famous for his professional and personal rivalry with Benjamin Disaraeli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladstone), the Conservative Party Leader whose published book title forms a portion of the eleite husband’s name in the skit-like article previous to this entry, published April 16, 1870 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladstone)

 

26. Hustings, according to American Heritage Dictionary is:

 

 

 

    1. A place where political campaign speeches are made: a candidate out on the hustings in the farm belt.

       

    2. The activities involved in political campaigning: a veteran of the hustings.

       

    3. A platform on which candidates for Parliament formerly stood to address the electors.

       

    4. The proceedings of a parliamentary election.

       

 

27. Fiat justitia ruat caelum is “a Latin legal phrase, translating to ‘Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.’ The maxim signifies the belief that justice must be realized regardless of consequences” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_justitia_ruat_caelum).

 

 

28. Elizabeth Garrett (later Garrett Anderson) was the first woman in England to gain a medical qualification. She was the sister of Millicent Fawcett, a feminist, and the first of the Fawcett sisters who Henry Fawcett proposed to. In 1870, she was indeed elected to the first London School Board: “the body newly devised to to supplement the the voluntary education system and for which women rate-payers were eligible to vote. She polled three times as many votes as the next highest candidate, T.H. Huxley” (Crawford).

 

 

29. Maria Grey was a writer, and one of the founders of the Girls' Day School Trust, an organization compiled of 29 independent day schools for girls around England and Wales. The Girls’ Day School Trust sought to provide affordable schooling for girls ages 3-18 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Georgina_Grey)

 

 

30. Sarah Emily Davies was a feminist and driving force in the campaign that ultimately resulted in Cambridge University’s admittance of women to its local examinations—enableing Elizabeth garret to earn her medical degree (Crawford). Like Elizabeth Garrett and Maria Grey, Davies was elected to the London School Board and (with the help of Barbara Bodichon) founded Girton College, the first residential college for women in England.

 

 

31. The  London School Board was “the first to provide education for the whole population of England and Wales. It created elected school boards, which had power to build and run schools where there were insufficient voluntary school places; they could also compel attendance. In most places, the school boards were based on borough districts or civil parishes, but in London the board covered the whole area of the Metropolitan Board of Works -- the area today known as Inner London. Between 1870 and 1904, the SBL was the single largest educational provider in London and the infrastructure and policies it developed were an important influence on London schooling long after the body was abolished” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_School_Board).

 

 

32. It is quite amusing that Mr. punch assured his readers that Garrett (the older sister of the Punch-ridiculed Mrs. Fawcett and the first woman doctor in England), Grey (who wrote an aritcle asking Is the Exercise of the Suffrage unfeminine? in 1870 to negate the argument that if women voted they would lose their femininity) and Davies (a less Radical but extremely tenacious suffragist) “professes no strong-minded women’d doctrines”. Collectively, these three women changed the shape of education for all children in London during the 1870’s, especially women, and forced open doors for collegiate women scholars and suffragists for decades to come. I am not certain how one would classify those women, if not strong-minded. Note to reader--the text following the title of Grey's article should not be italicized. However, it seems the wiki is unable to un-italicize this section of font at this time. Please disregard the italic font style following Grey's article title, it is not intended.

 

Commentary on the Text

 

Nicole Bryant, 02/25/2008

Women's suffrage was a controversial topic for many reasons in the 1870's. Punch's Almanac focused its disapproval on the assumption that women were inherently unfit to occupy the same positions as men. Millicent Fawcett noted that the fear of women voters lied in the fear that, through deeming women mentally and emotionally adequate and independent enough to vote, society would be suggesting that women were as capable as men to function in all realms of society including property negotiation and ownership, the workforce, Parliament, and University education. These suggestions undermined the idea that women and men "naturally" occupied different roles in society, each attending to those roles naturally (and Divinely) designed for each specific gender. To award women the right to vote, then, would be the first step toward completely reordering social roles and, as some believed, reconsidering the suggested Christian societal order.

 

Although no women earned the right to vote in England until 1918 (and then only for a select group of women dependent upon age, property ownership, and education) and all women did not earn the same voting rights as men until a decade later, the fifty-year span between the beginning of the forcible push for women's suffrage and the award of the vote was not dead space. Between 1870-1920, huge changes took place in the areas of education, enfranchisement, labor, property ownership, custody of children, prostitution and forcible detainment in relation to women. Through the suffrage campaign, men from lower social classes and non-property owners also slowly began to earn rights toward voting and Parliamental representation. In effect, Mrs. Fawcett was absolutely correct in her assessment of why dominant society feared Women's Suffrage. Although it took over fifty years for women to earn the right to vote, because of their relentless efforts, the 1918 society that allowed women voters was radically more equal and socially conscious to all persons than the society of 1870. Women may not have directly voted for the significant changes that occurred in England during those fifty years, but it is certain that their continual cry for equality among peoples was a major force. 

 

                Works Cited

 

Banerjee, Jacqueline. “Social History”. Victorian Web. 7 Feb.2007 <http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/socialhistov.html>

 

 

 

Becker, Lydia. “Female Suffrage.” Literature of the Women’s Suffrage Campaign in England. Ed. Carolyn Christensen Nelson. Toronto: Broadview Press Ltd.,

      2004.19

 

 

 

“Belgravia” Wikipedia.Org. 15 Feb 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgravia>

 

 

 

Coleman, Julie. A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries, Volume II 1785-1858. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

 

 

 

Combs, Mary Beth.“Wives and household wealth: the impact of the 1870 British Married Women’s Property Act on wealth-holding and share of household

      resources”. CambridgeUniversity Press. 19 (2004):141-163.

 

 

 

“Cowen, Joseph.” Wikipedia.Org. 15 Feb 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Cowen>

 

 

 

 

Crawford, Elizabeth. The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. London, UCL Press, 1999.

 

 

 

 

Fawcett, Millicent. “The Appeal Against Female Suffrage: A Reply. I” Literature of theWomen’s Suffrage Campaign in England. Ed. Carolyn Christensen

     Nelson.Toronto: Broadview Press Ltd., 2004.30

 

 

“Fiat justitia ruat caelum” Wikipedia.Org. 15 Feb 2008  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_justitia_ruat_caelum>

 

 

 

“Gladstone, William” Wikipedia.Org. 15 Feb 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladstone>

 

 

 

“Grey, Maria” Wikipedia.Org. 15 Feb 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Georgina_Grey>

 

 

 

“London School Board” Wikipedia.Org. 15 Feb 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_School_Board>

 

 

 

Matthews, Jean V. The Rise of the New Woman. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2003.

 

 

 

“Pall Mall Gazette” Wikipedia.Org. 15 Feb 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pall_Mall_Gazette

 

 

 

“Russel Square” Wikipedia.Org. 15 Feb 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russel_Square>

 

 

 

Simkin, John. “Women’s Suffrage”. Spartacus Educational Website. 1997  <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/resource.htm>

 

 

 

Smith, Harold. The British Women’s Suffrage Campaign, 1866-1928. New YorkAddison Wesley Longman Limited, 1998.

 

 

 

“The Strand” Wikipedia.Org. 15 Feb 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strand%2C_London> 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                Project Group Members

 

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 Nicole Bryant  Eastern Michigan University  Litr 565
     
     
     
     

 

 

             

 

 

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