The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality, 1880-1930The Spinster and Her Enemies is an important book on a watershed period in the history of sexuality." ... splendidly documented, provocative and never dull"--Times Literary Supplement"Sheila Jeffreys is an excellent historian"--Sunday TimesThe much-anticipated re-release of this classic feminist text includes a revised and updated introduction. Sheila Jeffreys examines the activities of feminist campaigners around such issues as child abuse and prostitution and how these campaigns shaped social purity in the 1880s and 1890s. She demonstrates how the thriving and militant feminism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was undermined, and asserts that the decline of this feminism was due largely to the promotion of a sexual ideology which was hostile to women's independence |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Womens campaigns to gain legislation | 72 |
Spinsterhood and Celibacy | 86 |
Womens Friendships and Lesbianism | 102 |
Antifeminism and Sex Reform before the First | 128 |
The Decline of Militant Feminism | 147 |
The Invention of the Frigid Woman | 165 |
The Prudes and the Progressives | 186 |
Afterword | 194 |
Bibliography | 215 |
Other editions - View all
The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality, 1880-1930 Sheila Jeffreys No preview available - 1985 |
Common terms and phrases
1st published abuse of children abuse of girls age of consent AMSH assault Association for Moral attack Bill birth control cause chapter child Christabel Pankhurst clause Committee concern Contagious Diseases Acts contemporary described double standard Ellis's explained female feminism feminist campaigns Francis Swiney Freewoman frigidity Gallichan Havelock Ellis heterosexual historians homosexuality Hopkins husband Ibid idea ideology incest involved journal legislation lesbian London male sexual behaviour marriage married masculine men's sexual Moral Reform Union mother motherhood National NSPCC offences organisations passionate friendships physical pleasure police political pre-war promoted prostitution protect prude pseudohomosexuality psychic love rape Rathbone relationships seen sex reform sexological sexologists sexual abuse sexual intercourse sexual morality sexual revolution Sheila Jeffreys Social Hygiene social purity social purity movement society spinsters Stekel Stella Browne Stopes suffrage tion Victorian vote whilst Wolstenholme Elmy woman Woman's Leader Women's Freedom League women's movement World writing wrote