Some Important Dates in the
History of Women/Feminism in the 19th Century
1762 Rousseau’s Emile advocates an education in coyness and deceit for women
1766 James Fordyce, Sermons to Young Women
1775 Dr. John Gregory, A Father’s Legacy to His Daughter
1790 Catherine Macauley’s Letters on Education
1792 Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women
1825 William Thompson, An Appeal of One Half the Human Race
1832 First Reform Bill enfranchises upper middle-class males
1839 Child Custody Act gives mother limited rights in her children--and right to petition for co-guardianship
1844 Charlotte Tonna, The Wrongs of Women
1844 Elizabeth Barrett, A Drama of Exile and Other Poems (“The Runaway Slave” 1848)
1845 Mrs. Hugo Reid, A Plea for Women
1847 Ten Hours Act limits work of women and children to ten hours daily
1847 Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
1847 Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
1847 first obstretrical operation using chloroform performed
1847 Tennyson’s The Princess describes the destruction of a women’s college
1848 Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton (“Lizzie Leigh,” 1855)
1848 The Communist Manifesto
1848 Queen’s College founded
1849 Bedford College
1850 Herbert Spencer’s Social Statics argues theoretically against legal restrictions on women
1853 Charlotte Bronte, Villette
1856 Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
1857 Matrimonial Causes Act permits limited divorce
1857 Society of Female Artists founded
1857 Englishwomen's Journal founded
1857 famous report on prostitution by William Acton presents conservative view of female sexuality
1859 George Eliot, Adam Bede
1860 George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
1865 Elizabeth Garrett Anderson passed the Society of Apothecaries examination and became the first British woman licensed as a doctor.
1867 John Stuart Mill introduces first women’s suffrage bill into parliament
1869 John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women
1869 women ratepayers receive municipal franchise
1870 first Married Women's Property Act allowed wives to retain earned income
1874 London Medical College for women opened
1878 legal separation permitted if wife is repeately assaulted
1878 University of London grants B. A. to women
1879 establishment of first women’s colleges at Oxford, Somerville and Lady Margaret Hall
1879 Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House
1882 Married Women’s Property Act
1882 Weisman’s theory of germ-plasm as sole transmitter of inherited traits
1884 Friedrich Engels’s Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
1885 Stead publishes articles on prostitution
1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act permits wives to testify against husbands in court
1886 repeal of Contagious Diseases Act
1886 Maintenance in Case of Desertion Act
1886 Guardianship of Infants Act--if father dies, guardianship passes to mother
1889 Patrick Geddes, The Evolution of Sex
1891 Herbert Spencer, Justice, opposes vote for women
1893 Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman
1893 New Zealand grants women’s suffrage
1894 George Moore, Esther Waters (heroine raises illegitimate child)
1903 discovery of sex hormones
1903 formation of Women’s Social and Politial Union (WSPU) by Emmeline Pankhurst and others
1909 Women’s Freedom League formed by Mrs. Despard and others
1911 Society of Women Musicians founded
1913 Cat and Mouse Act
1914 outbreak of war
1918 suffrage for wives of electors over thirty, female householders over thirty
1920 Oxford grants the B. A. degree to women
1922 Law of Property Act--in cases of intestacy, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, inherit equally
1923 Matrimonial Causes Act grants divorce on same ground to both sexes
1925 Guardianship of Infants Act--fathers and mothers in equal position with regard to children
1925 Widows' Pension Act passed
1928 Virginia Woolf, Orlando
1929 suffrage for all over 21
1938 Woolf, Three Guineas
1948 women permitted to receive degrees from Cambridge