ABSTRACT
Definitions of ‘Victorian feminism’ continue to be the subject of historical debate. The nineteenth-century movement for women’s emancipation was so diverse and continually developing that historians have urged caution with regards to overly unitary terminology (Offen, 1988, p. 131). Women who declined to see themselves as women’s rights advocates often worked to further the interests of their sex alongside others who proudly laid claim to such a political identity; while individuals not necessarily motivated by specifically feminist aims may still have contributed or been important to a feminist tradition (Caine, 1997, p. 3). Feminist ideas did not derive from any one key text or thinker, nor did the English women’s movement as a whole acknowledge an official leader or produce official propaganda. It is not possible, therefore, to ‘measure’ its development solely according to criteria or patterns of growth arising from studies of predominantly male social movements or political organisations (Levine, 1987, p. 20; Caine, 1997, p. 6).
