ABSTRACT
Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904), was an Anglo-Irish author, social reformer and theorist, particularly involved in women’s rights, the franchise as well as animal welfare. Her duty-based moral theory also extended to women and animals. Cobbe’s analysis of duties included relationships, contracts, being mistress of the house, being a member of society and finally a citizen of the state. Her lectures changed the nature of discussion on women’s domestic duties towards establishing agency for them in a wider context. Cobbe’s stress on duties as opposed to rights may seem strange, but she sees these developments as a woman’s responsibility to be men’s equivalents but not equals. She argued that women should remain proud of their gender, and use it to achieve power in a male-dominated world. Cobbe emphasizes that the home sphere is the place where future possibilities will materialise. She sees the home as a point of access to greater and more widespread influence. Home spaces allow personal duty to be developed into social duty, through the power of influence.
