Victorian Feminists

‘Conspicuous’ philanthropists

“…A number of feminists in this period (Josephine Butler being a prominent example) identified conversion experiences that turned them towards religious and philanthropic work. 2 Women's religious 'mission' was borne out by activism, not only in the sense of spreading the gospel but also, throughout the mid-to late nineteenth century, through social work and philanthropy. The two were, for Victorian society, closely intertwined.…”

Feminist responses to the second Anglo-Boer war, 1899–1902

“…Caine documents Fawcett's vehement opposition to sexual immorality among those in public life (particularly her disapproval of Harry Cust and eventual hounding of him out of office), which mirrored her concern with the sexual conduct of the inmates of the concentration camps. 32 She was greatly concerned with male sexual immorality, but less interested in the effects of war, and as a result it appears that she condemned sexual violence but took a more lenient view of the physical violence that was being practised by the British against the Afrikaners.…”

From Fashion Colours to Spectrum Analysis: negotiating femininities in mid-Victorian women's magazines

“…., sexual relations and the whole gender order were undergoing a major upheaval'. 62 The anxiety and tension caused by these changes greatly intensified when early feminist thinking publicly started to question the middle-class equation of femininity with domesticity, proposing a confusing variety of roles and options for women in society. As the authors of Gender and the Victorian Periodical put it, mid-century feminist thinking formulated not one but many answers to the vexed 'woman question', 'embrac[ing] a diversity of socio-cultural contexts, lived experiences and subject positions', and the periodical press often 'reflect[ed] this multiplicity'.…”