A sort of land debatable

Female Influence, Civic Virtue and Middle-Class Identity, C 1830- C 1860[1]

Bibliographic Data

ID4348247
AuthorsSonya J Morgan (0000-0002-7436-3248, University of East Anglia, corresponding author), Simon Morgan
Year2004
Volume13
Issue2
Pages183-209
Publication date2004-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWomen s History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0961-2025 • E-ISSN: 1747-583X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09612020400200768
OpenAlexW4234469480
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited17

The recent emphasis on the bourgeois public sphere as a predominantly masculine space means that the wider meanings and interpretations of respectable women's presence at public occasions have been ignored or misunderstood. This article addresses the contribution of urban middle-class women to the public construction and expression of middle-class identity in the mid-nineteenth century, and examines the way in which women were written into civic narratives as champions of public virtue. It is argued that the notion of ‘female influence’ allowed women to expand their public roles, and even to participate in potentially subversive political activities. However, it also effectively contained such activities by distancing ‘respectable’ women from the potentially corrupting arena of political controversy

Aesthetics · Arithmetic · Bourgeoisie · Distancing · Epistemology · Genealogy · Literature · Middle class · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Public space · Public sphere · Social science · Sociology · sort · Upper class · Virtue · Australian History and Society · Gender Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy

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