Emily Davies and the Mid-Victorian Women's Movement

Emily Davies was a central figure in the mid-Victorian women's movement. Formidably intelligent, fiercely determined, and an indefatigable campaigner and organiser, the socially and politically conservative Davies directed the first campaign for female suffrage in 1866-7. She was one of the first women elected to public office in 1870, campaigned successfully for the admission of girls to school leaving examinations, played a significant part in the reform of girls' secondary school provision, and established Girton College, Cambridge, Britain's first university-level college for women.

This book combines the first scholarly biography of Davies with a radically new account of the mid-Victorian women's movement. From the late 1850s to the mid-1870s and through the life, work, and writing of Davies, the book traces the growth, influence, and division of the movement, including its institutional origins; its social, political, religious and intellectual allegiances; and its relation to other major social and intellectual developments. Drawing on Davies' published correspondence and a range of unused archival sources, the book explores the overlapping contexts that enabled the growth of the movement and the diverse motivations that brought women into it but then led them to pursue quite different paths. As the movement developed, these interacted with political differences, strategic disagreements, and personality clashes to split the movement into separate strands, all sharing the same broad objectives but with different practical foci.

This is the story of how a group of exceptional women, Emily Davies at their centre, challenged conventional ideas and created new opportunities for women. Situated in its broader social, cultural, and intellectual contexts, it will appeal to all those interested in Victorian social history, the history of feminism, and the history of education.

Author: John Hendry
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 09/24/2024
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.40lbs
Size: 8.80h x 5.90w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780198910237

About the Author
John Hendry, Fellow of Girton College, University of Cambridge

Trained initially in the history of science, John Hendry has published widely in history, philosophy, and sociology, often using historical and practice-based research to gain a more grounded understanding of issues in ethics and epistemology. His recent focus has been on the social history of morals and belief in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He has served on the faculties of UCL, Birkbeck, London Business School, and the Universities of Cambridge, Cranfield, Reading, Brunel, and Notre Dame. He first joined Girton College, Cambridge, as a Professorial Fellow and is now a Life Fellow.