Conclusion

The political worlds of British middle-class women in the nineteenth century were both expansive and restrictive. The new century offered opportunities: the growth of cities; the development of a vibrant voluntary and associational culture; an extensive communication and print media; the fast pace of political change; and a shrinking world with cheap and accessible travel to Europe and the Empire. But there were also limitations on women’s access to the public sphere and, hitherto, it has usually been these constraints that have been emphasised by historians. Thus, early assessments of the dominant ‘separate spheres’ discourse often focused on the limitations it placed upon women in the nineteenth century by its focus on domesticity whereas more recent analyses are sensitive to its nuances, contradictions, and tensions. ¹ Indeed Kathryn Gleadle has argued that ‘the discourses of spheres did not imply the denial of female political identity’ but instead informed political expression and agency. ² A similar debate has taken place over the distinctions between the public and private spheres. ³ They were clearly gendered and contested spaces, but were not distinct and had multiple manifestations. Much emphasis has been placed upon the fact that the 1832 Reform Act, by limiting the franchise to ‘male persons’ withdrew the right to vote from female ancient rights property-owners in older boroughs ‘by reflex action.’ ⁴ James Vernon asserted that ‘the significance of this cannot be overplayed,’ yet women continued to exploit the opportunities offered by older forms of government, such as the parish, and other institutions including the East India Company and the Bank of England. ⁵ Indeed, as Sydney Smith pointed out in his article, ‘Enfranchisement of Women: the Law of the Land,’ women’s right to vote in the East India Company meant they were:

voting for directors with power of life and death, taxation, imprisonment and banishment, over hundreds of thousands of English-born men, and a hundred millions of Indian-born men. ⁶