Access this book
Other ways to access
Table of contents (10 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
The Enlightenment emphasis on women's 'nature' and the evangelical stress on the moral potential of women contributed to a framework of ideas which could be used by conservatives and by feminists. Among the middle classes, discussion focused on the need to improve women's education and on the strengths and limitations of domesticity. Patterns of paid employment for women were shifting, and Jane Rendall suggests that the weak position of women in the labor market during the early stages of industrialisation restricted their ability to associate together. Yet involvement in religious, political and philanthropic movements could provide a means by which women might come together to identify their common concerns and learn the necessary political skills.
Jane Rendall places the origins of feminism in the broader context of social and political change in the nineteenth century, looking both at the changing relationship between paid work and domestic life and at the links between feminism and class and political conflict in three different societies.
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Origins of Modern Feminism
Book Subtitle: Women in Britain, France and the United States, 1780-1860
Authors: Jane Rendall
Series Title: Themes in Comparative History
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17733-2
Publisher: Red Globe Press London
eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy Collection, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: Macmillan Publishers Limited 1985
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 391
Additional Information: Previously published under the imprint Palgrave
Topics: Feminism