The Truest Form of Patriotism: Pacifist Feminism in Britain, 1870-1902

208 Pages·2003·4.265 MB·English

by  Heloise Brown

brown.cvr 25/9/03 2:27 pm Page 1
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Metropolitan Millicent Garrett Fawcett, to lesser-known P
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Women’s work within male-dominated 1
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organisations, such as the Peace Society and the International 8
Arbitration and Peace Association, is covered alongside single- 7IO
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sex organisations, such as the International Council of Women.
Also reviewed are the arguments put forward in feminist –T
journals like the Englishwoman’s Review and the Women’s 1I
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Penny Paper. Brown uncovers a wide range of pacifist,
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internationalist and anti-imperialist strands in Victorian
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feminist thought, focusing on how these ideas developed within
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the political and organisational context of the time.
This book will be of interest to anyone studying nineteenth-
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century social movements, and essential reading for those with
an interest in the history of British feminism.
Brown
Heloise Brown completed her PhD in York
and now works as a researcher in Belfast
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front cover—Lady with a Dove: Madame Loeserby John Brett
(1864, Oil on canvas). Photograph by John Webb © Tate, London 2003
(cid:2) (cid:3)
Heloise Brown
in
GENDER HISTORY
Series editors:
Pam Sharpe, Patricia Skinner and Penny Summerfield
(cid:1)(cid:2)
The expansion of research into the history of women and gender since the
1970s has changed the face of history. Using the insights of feminist theory
and of historians of women, gender historians have explored the configura-
tion in the past of gender identities and relations between the sexes. They
have also investigated the history of sexuality and family relations, and
analysed ideas and ideals of masculinity and femininity. Yet gender history
has not abandoned the original, inspirational project of women’s history: to
recover and reveal the lived experience of women in the past and the present.
The series Gender in History provides a forum for these developments.
Its historical coverage extends from the medieval to the modern periods,
and its geographical scope encompasses not only Europe and North America
but all corners of the globe. The series aims to investigate the social and
cultural constructions of gender in historical sources, as well as the gendering
of historical discourse itself. It embraces both detailed case studies of spe-
cific regions or periods, and broader treatments of major themes. Gender in
History titles are designed to meet the needs of both scholars and students
working in this dynamic area of historical research.
‘The truest form of patriotism’
also available
in the series
(cid:1)(cid:2)
Masculinity in politics and war:
gendering modern history
Stefan Dudink, Karen Hagemann
and John Tosh (eds)
Noblewomen, aristocracy and power
in the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman realm
Susan Johns
‘THE TRUEST FORM
OF PATRIOTISM’
pacifist feminism
in britain, –
1870 1902
(cid:1) (cid:2)
Heloise Brown
Manchester University Press
Manchester and New York
distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave
Copyright © Heloise Brown 2003
The right of Heloise Brown to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Oxford Road, Manchester m13 9nr, UK
and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, USA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, USA
Distributed exclusively in Canada by UBC Press
University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall,
Vancouver, BC, Canada v6t 1z2
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
isbn 0 7190 6530 5 hardback
0 7190 6531 3 paperback
First published 2003
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Typeset in Minion with Scala Sans display
by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong
Printed in Great Britain
by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow
Contents
acknowledgements page vii
list of abbreviations viii
introduction
Pacifism and feminism in Victorian Britain 1
1 The physical force objection to women’s suffrage 13
2 ‘The women of the whole world form...a unity’:
feminist journals and peace questions 26
3 ‘Conspicuous’ philanthropists: nonconformist religion
in nineteenth-century pacifism 44
4 ‘The antagonism of sex’: the Peace Society and women 60
5 Priscilla Peckover and the ‘truest form of patriotism’ 79
6 Ellen Robinson: ‘“United action” in Continental politics’ 99
7 ‘Unity is strength’: the International Arbitration and
Peace Association 114
8 Awakening women: pacifist feminism in the IAPA 132
9 ‘A new kind of patriotism’? British women in
international politics 144
10 Feminist responses to the second Anglo-Boer war,
1899–1902 164
conclusion 179
select bibliography 185
index 195
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v

Acknowledgements
This work owes a great deal to the feminist environment of the Centre for
Women’s Studies at the University of York. I would particularly like to thank
Jane Rendall for her careful supervision of the D. Phil. thesis in which this
book has its origins. Mary Maynard, Treva Broughton and Ruth Symes were
immensely supportive in the early stages of my research, and Karen Hunt of
Manchester Metropolitan University and Joanna de Groot of the University of
York examined the completed thesis and gave valuable feedback and encourage-
ment, as well as advice on how to go about turning it into a book.
I am grateful to the British Academy for the scholarship that enabled me to
complete my D. Phil., and to the Royal Historical Society for funding a visit
to Geneva to consult the International Peace Bureau archives. My thanks also
to the following people, who have advised me and granted permissions: the
Rev. Clive Dunnico for access to the Peace Society Archives at Fellowship
House; Christina Swaine and the National Trust for access to Peckover House,
Wisbech; and in particular, Ursula Maria Ruser and the staff of the League of
Nations Archive Room at the United Nations Library in Geneva. I am grateful
to the National Council of Women of Great Britain for allowing me to make
copies of their first minute book, and for the assistance provided by numerous
libraries and archives, including: Manchester Central Library, the Fawcett
Library at London Guildhall University, Friends’ House Library in Friends’
House, London, the British Library, London, the archives of the British Library
of Political and Economic Science at the London School of Economics, London
Metropolitan Archives, Wisbech Public Library and Wisbech Museum, Wisbech,
Cambridgeshire.
Finally, I would like to express my immense gratitude to my friends and
family for their love and support over the years. In particular, my thanks and
love to Julie Magill, Madi Gilkes, Deborah Wilson, Ann Kaloski and my parents
Christine and Alan Brown, for their emotional and intellectual support, as well
as undertaking the tedious task of actually reading and commenting on the
manuscript. Last but by no means least, much love and thanks to Sam Riches,
Catherine Elliott, Penny Vivian, Hilary Doran, Simon Clarke and Vicki Harding,
Hanneke Hazeveld, Colin Moran, Amanda Hayler, Kate Moody and Nuala
McGale for being such good friends.
Belfast, Co. Antrim
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vii
List of abbreviations
BWTA British Women’s Temperance Association
CCNSWS Central Committee of the National Society for Women’s Suffrage
CD Acts Contagious Diseases Acts
CNSWS Central National Society for Women’s Suffrage
IAPA International Arbitration and Peace Association
ICW International Council of Women
ILP Independent Labour Party
ILPL International League of Peace and Liberty
IPB International Peace Bureau
LBWPAS Liverpool and Birkenhead Women’s Peace and Arbitration Society
LPA Local Peace Association
MRU Moral Reform Union
MWPA Manchester Women’s Peace Association
NCW National Council of Women
NCWGBI National Council of Women of Great Britain and Ireland
NUWW National Union of Women Workers
NWSA National Woman Suffrage Association
P&G Peace and Goodwill: A Sequel to the Olive Leaf
SACC South Africa Conciliation Committee
WIPA Women’s International Peace Association
WIPU Women’s International Peace Union
WLA Women’s Liberal Association
WLF Women’s Liberal Federation
WLPA Wisbech Local Peace Association
WPA Workmen’s Peace Association
WPAA Women’s Peace and Arbitration Association
WPAAPS Women’s Peace and Arbitration Auxiliary of the Peace Society
WPP Women’s Penny Paper
WSJ Women’s Suffrage Journal
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viii
introduction
Introduction
Pacifism and feminism in Victorian Britain
War is an essentially masculine pursuit. Women do not as a rule seek
to quench their differences in blood. Fighting is not natural to them.
(Lydia Becker)1
It is the truest form of patriotism to do our utmost to save our coun-
try from the crime and shame of an unjust war. (Priscilla Peckover)2
In 1870, the outbreak of war between France and Prussia prompted
many of the women active in the emergent feminist movement to
consider their position on the use of physical force. In doing so,some,
such as Lydia Becker in the first quotation above, drew upon essentialist
arguments of sexual difference. Many reinforced their construction of
women as moral agents who relied upon debate rather than physical
force in both individual and collective relations. Some, including Priscilla
Peckover, also quoted above, began to re-evaluate concepts of peace to
argue that it meant more than simply the absence of war, and toredefine
patriotism as a force that was primarily moral, rather than national, in
its points of reference. These arguments were founded upon analysesthat
made pacifist ideas fundamentally useful for feminism. Because both
theories could be based upon arguments about the (mis)use of power
and the importance of morality, and both could accommodate a wide
range of political perspectives, many feminists during the early phase of
the movement were attracted to pacifist rhetoric and principles.
As a prominent, but hitherto neglected, aspect of the Victorian
women’s movement, it is important to understand why many feminists
employed peace arguments, often relying upon the construction of femin-
inity as passive and even pacifist, and representing these women/peace
connections as located in women’s reproductive role. The use of these
ideas has significant implications for arguments of sexual difference,indi-
vidualism versus relationalism, and maternalism in nineteenth-century
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1