The first scholarly biography of Emily Davies, a central figure in the women's movement of the long 1860s, and a significant new account of that movement, including its institutional origins; its social, political, religious and intellectual allegiances; and its relation to other major social and intellectual developments of the period.

Her intensely engaged life placed Davies at the very heart of the events that transformed her era.

Since the late twentieth century, there has been a strategic campaign to recover the impact of Victorian women writers in the field of English literature. However, with the increased understanding of the importance of interdisciplinarity in the twenty-first century, there is a need to extend this campaign beyond literary studies in order to recognise the role of women writers across the nineteenth century, a time that was intrinsically interdisciplinary in approach to scholarly writing and public intellectual engagement.

This book presents a study of the development of the feminist movement in Britain and America during the 19th century. Acknowledging the similar social conditions in both countries during that period, the author suggests that a real sense of distinctiveness did exist between British and American feminists. American feminists were inspired by their own perception of the superiority of their social circumstances, for example, whereas British feminists found their cause complicated by traditional considerations of class. Christine Bolt aims to show that the story of the American and British women's movement is one of national distinctiveness within an international cause. This book should be of interest to students and teachers of American and British political history and women's studies.

This book provides the first full-length biography of Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy (1833–1918) – someone referred to among contemporaries as ‘the grey matter in the brain’ of the late-Victorian women’s movement. A pacifist, humanitarian ‘free-thinker’, Wolstenholme Elmy was a controversial character and the first woman ever to speak from a public platform on the topic of marital rape. Lauded by Emmeline Pankhurst as ‘first’ among the infamous militant suffragettes of the Women’s Social and Political Union, Wolstenholme Elmy was one of Britain’s great feminist pioneers and, in her own words, an ‘initiator’ of many high-profile campaigns from the nineteenth into the twentieth century. Wright draws on an extensive resource of unpublished correspondence and other sources to produce an enduring portrait that does justice to Wolstenholme Elmy’s momentous achievements.

Votes for Women provides an innovative re-examination of the suffrage movement, presenting new perspectives which challenge the existing literature on this subject. This fascinating book charts the history of the movement in Britain from the nineteenth century to the postwar period, assessing important figures such as; * Emmeline Pankhurst and the militant wing * Millicent Garrett Fawcett, leader of the constitutional wing *Jennie Baines and her link with the international suffrage movements.

An accessible narrative biography, Frances Power Cobbe traces the details of Cobbe's life and work, analyzes her writing, and sets both in the context of the social and intellectual debates of her time.

This is an account of the British Suffrage movement from its inception until its victory in 1918. It is based around the experiences of seven women whose participation in the British Suffrage movement is little-known.

This book tells the story of the women's suffrage movement in Britain beginning with John Stuart Mill's proposal of a women's suffrage amendment to a reform bill. It ends with the victory of 1928, concluding more than 50 years of repeated defeats, anti-suffragism, militancy, imprisonment, hunger strikes and forcible feeding, and multiple internal splits and their only partial victory of 1918. It is not intended to break new ground in academia, but to provide an introduction to the general reader that covers the entire relevant time period and introduces major themes and issues.

Featuring the biographies of leading feminists of the era - Emily Davies, Frances Power Cobbe, Josephine Butler and Millicent Garrett Fawcett - this study explores feminist ideas and strategies of the late 19th century, analyzing the tensions which arose as feminism sought to achieve its aims.