ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the period 1688 to 1928, and argues that this was the crucial phase in the development of notions of citizenship in Britain. It aims to create a new synthesis and to trace the themes of citizenship and gender through the crucial period in British history. The book also argues that the debate around citizenship was fundamentally concerned with the position of men and women in politics and society. It focuses on women’s suffrage and women who were prepared to critique the society in which they lived. The book shows how there was an enduring association of citizenship with male domesticity in the nineteenth century. It presents structures of politics – the monarchy, the House of Lords and the House of Commons – as they were redefined at the end of the seventeenth century.
