Feminism and Women's Rights

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the efforts of the Bluestocking Society social group and the feminist influence of Mary Wollstonecraft. The paper discusses the obstacles that European women faced in achieving their rights including the Contagious Diseases Act. The paper also notes the accomplishments of Octavia Hill, a social reformer that set out to develop more suitable social housing. The paper shows how through their activism, women were able to gain more opportunities to participate in both business and political activities.

From the Paper:

"The eighteenth and nineteenth century in Europe was a time that great importance was put upon family life, romantic love and child rearing. Society felt that maternal bonds were more significant than having women in the workforce; therefore a steep decline occurred in the number of employed women. Women were tied to the private sphere of the home and were encouraged to remain subordinate to men. Their attention was being confined to their private world of the family. For Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a Western philosopher whose ideas were immensely influential in England at this time, the separation of the public from the private sphere, the confinement of women to the private and domestic world, and the establishment of an orderly domestic and familial life were not only important in themselves, but were integral to the establishment and maintenance of social and political order."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brion, Marion. Women in the Housing Service. New York: Routledge, 1995.
• Caine, Barbara. English Feminism, 1780-1980. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
• Caine, Barbara. Victorian Feminists. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

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