This groundbreaking volume examines women's political involvement from a variety of innovative angles. In addition to exploring literary sources and women's contribution to electoral processes, pressure group politics are examined in depth (including Jewish civil rights and the campaigns against the Corn Laws and Indian widow-burning). The attention to neglected aspects of women's political activity, such as religion, domesticity, European nationalism, empire and life-style enable this book to challenge not only the historiography of Georgian and Victorian women, but also the nature of political history itself.
Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Introduction: The Petticoat in Politics: Women and Authority, c. 1760-1860; K.Gleadle & S.Richardson Women, Electoral Privilege and Practice in the Eighteenth Century; E.Chalus Patriotism and Providence: The Politics of Hannah More; A.Stott 'Well-neighboured Houses': The Political Networks of Elite Women, 1780-1860; S.Richardson From Supporting Missions to Petitioning Parliament: English Women and the Evangelical Campaign against Sati (Widow-Burning) in India, 1813-1830; C.Midgley Women Writers and the Campaign for Jewish Civil Rights in Early Victorian England; N.Valman Domestic Economy and Political Agitation: Women and the Anti-Corn Law League 1839-1846; S.Morgan 'Our Several Spheres': Middle Class Women and the Feminisms of Early Victorian Radical Politics; K.Gleadle 'Jenny Rules the Roost': Women and Electoral Politics, 1832-1868; M.Cragoe Index
