Although the dividing line between acceptable and unacceptable
female political behaviours was sharper from the late eighteenth
century onward, Chalus suggests that women who were willing to work
creatively within the familial model could and did remain
politically active into - and through - the nineteenth century.
Description:
- Examines assumptions regarding women in political life in the
eighteenth-century
- Combines women's history, social history, and political
history
- Full of details and anecdotes
Based on wide-ranging, original research into political, personal,
and general correspondences across a period of significant social
and political change, this book explores the gendered nature of
politics and political life in eighteenth-century England by
focusing on the political involvement of female members of the
political elite. Elaine Chalus challenges the notion that only
exceptional women were involved in politics, that their
participation was necessarily limited and indirect, and that their
involvement was inevitably declining after the 1784 Westminster
Election. While exceptional women did exist and gender did
condition women's participation, the personal, social, and
particularly the familial nature of eighteenth-century politics
provided more women with a wider variety of opportunities for
involvement than ever before. Women from politically active
families grew up with politics, absorbing its rituals, and their
own involvement extended from politicized socializing up to borough
control and election management. Their participation was often
accepted, expected, or even demanded, depending upon family
traditions, personal abilities, and the demands of political
expediency.
Chalus reveals that, although women's involvement in political
life was always potentially more problematic than men's, given
contemporary concerns about the links between sex, politics, and
corruption, their participation was largely unproblematic as long
as their activities could be explained by recourse to a familial
model which depicted their participation as subordinate and
supportive of men's. It was when they came to be seen as the
leading political actors in a cause that they overstepped the mark
and became targets of sexualized criticism. Contemporary critics
worried that politically active women posed a threat to male
polity, but what actually made them threatening was that they
proved that women were not politically incompetent and implicitly
demonstrated that gender was not a reason for political exclusion.
Although the dividing line between acceptable and unacceptable
female political behaviours was sharper from the late eighteenth
century onward, Chalus suggests that women who were willing to work
creatively within the familial model could and did remain
politically active into - and through - the nineteenth
century.
Contents
- Introduction
- 1 Women and Politics
- 2 Women's Political Roles
- 3 Women and Social Politics
- 4 Women and Patronage
- 5 Women and the Electoral Process
- 6 Maintaining the Family Interest
- 7 'Up to the Ears in Electioneering'
- 8 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
...[an] excellent book History Workshop Journal a very welcome exploration of a new aspect The English Historical Review
Inhaltsangabe
Introduction 1. Women and Politics 2. Women's Political Roles 3. Women and Social Politics 4. Women and Patronage 5. Women and the Electoral Process 6. Maintaining the Family Interest 7. 'Up to the Ears in Electioneering' 8. Conclusion Bibliography Index
