ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the writings of two feminists, Mary Leman Grimstone and Eliza Meteyard, published in the 1830s and 1840s. The 'degraded and insulted woman, 'the suffering stultified schoolboy', 'the back-branded, spirit broken soldier and sailor', were all examples of 'an oppressed people, the victims of power, whether physical or political'. Grimstone and Meteyard indicated ways in which the women of the higher classes might serve the people, but their ideal of service often meant the instruction of others in their rights and duties. If Grimstone eulogised the virtues of sobriety, industry and self-help, these were not simply the familiar themes of 'middle-class morality' for they stemmed from a feminist critique of gender norms. Radical feminists may have played a more instrumental role in the formation of new conceptions of politics and citizenship in the wake of the Chartist movement, than has been envisaged.
