Questions to ponder whilst you read…

• Was first wave feminism secular?
• Does religion oppress women more than it supports them?
• How can historians understand the religious beliefs of women in the past?
• What is the relationship between religion and politics in the context of the first wave women’s movement?

 Preparatory Activity

Come prepared to speak on your allocated reading.

Core Reading

L. Schwartz, ‘Review Article: Women, Religion and Agency in Modern British History’, Women’s History Review 21:2 (2012), 317-323 (Charlie, Tamyla)

H. Mathers, ‘Evangelicalism and Feminism: Josephine Butler, 1828-1906’, in S. Morgan, Women, Religion and Feminism in Britain (2002), pp.123-138 digitised (Megan, Emily)

Further Reading

Margaret Jane Menzies, Eighth monthly letter to young women (1880) [MRC document available digitally] (Harprit, Charlie)

A. Besant, Autobiographical Sketches (1885) esp. chapters VII and IX (Ateeq, Emily)

J. Butler, Personal Reminiscences of a Great Crusade (1928) esp. conclusion (Megan, Tamyla)

The Catholic Suffragist, volume 1, number 1 (15 January 1915) [MRC document available digitally]

J. De Vries, ‘More Than Paradoxes to Offer: Feminism, History and Religious Cultures’, in S. Morgan & J. De Vries (eds.), Women, Gender and Religious Cultures in Britain 1800-1940 (2010) (Harprit and Ateeqa)

J. Dixon, ‘Sexology and the occult: sexuality and subjectivity in Theosophy's new age’, Journal of the History of Sexuality 7 (1997), 409-33

L. Schwartz, The Bible and the Cause: Freethinking Feminists vs. Christianity, England 1870-1900’, Women: A Cultural Review 21:3 (2010), 266-278

L. Schwartz, Infidel Feminism: Secularism, Religion and Women’s Emancipation, England 1830-1914 (2013)

J. Dixon, Modernity, ‘Heterodoxy and the Transformation of Religious Cultures’ , in S. Morgan & J. De Vries (eds.), Women, Gender and Religious Cultures in Britain 1800-1940 (2010), pp. 211-230

K. Gleadle, The Early Feminists: Radical Unitarians and the Emergence of the Women’s Rights Movement 1831-1851 (1995)

C. Midgley, ‘Women, Religion and Reform’, in S. Morgan & J. De Vries (eds.), Women, Gender and Religious Cultures in Britain 1800-1940 (2010), pp.138-58

B.Taylor, Eve and the New Jerusalem: Feminism and Socialism in Nineteenth-Century England (1983), [chapter 5].

M. Vicinus, Independent women : work and community for single women : 1850-1920 (1985) [chapters 2,6, and 7, especially pp.268-80]

L. Davidoff & C. Hall, Family Fortunes. Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780-1850 (1987) [chapter 2]