The woman question

"The woman question" is a phrase usually used in connection with a social change in the latter half of the nineteenth century which questioned the fundamental roles of women in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, and Russia. Issues of women's suffrage, reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, property rights, legal rights, and medical rights, and marriage, dominated cultural discussions in newspapers and intellectual circles. While many women were supportive of these changing roles, they did not agree unanimously. Often issues of marriage and sexual freedom were most divisive.

History

The term is first used in France: the "Querelle des femmes". From 1450 into the years that witnessed the beginning of the Reformation, the institution of marriage had fallen into question. This began a long literary quarrel.^[1]

The term is used in England in the Victorian era, stimulated for example by the Reform Act 1832 and the Reform Act 1867. The Industrial Revolution brought hundreds of thousands of lower-class women into factory jobs, presenting a challenge to traditional ideas of a woman's place.^[2]

A prime issue of contention was whether what was referred to as women's "private virtue" could be transported into the public arena; opponents of women's suffrage claimed that bringing women into public would dethrone them, and sully their feminine virtue.^[3]

Areas of discussion

The woman question was raised in many different social areas. In religion, for instance, the United States saw extensive discussion in the second half of the nineteenth century on the participation of women in church. In the Methodist Episcopal Church, the woman question was the most pressing issue in the 1896 conference.^[4]

Literature

Literature pertaining to the "woman question" includes:

• Helsinger, Elizabeth K.; Robin Lauterbach Sheets; William Veeder (1983). The woman question: society and literature in Britain and America, 1837-1883, Volume 1. Manchester University Press ND. ISBN 978-0-7190-0986-0. 
• Crosby, Christina (1991). The ends of history: Victorians and "the woman question". Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-00936-2. 
• Smith, Thomas Robert; Ellen Key; Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson (1919). The woman question. Boni and Liveright. 
• Evans, Mary (1994). The woman question. Sage Publications. ISBN 978-0-8039-8747-0. 
• Sarah Stickney Ellis: "The Women of England: Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits"
• Alexandra Kollontai: "The Social Basis of the Woman Question"
• Bernard Shaw: "Candida" and "Mrs. Warren's Profession"
• Otto Weininger: "Sex and Character"

See also

• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

References