In this chapter you will learn about: • The status of women in society during the period 1870–1914 • How women campaigned for greater equality • The key concepts of feminism and women’s suffrage • The contribution of Isabella Tod and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington to women’s rights
By the end of this chapter you will be able to:
• Understand the role of women in Irish society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and why they demanded change
• Discuss a number of campaigns for women’s rights and assess their successes and failures • Assess the influence key figures had on securing greater rights for women
Different but Equal in mainland
Alongside the growing socialist movement
Europe
during the 1870s was a fledgling feminist
movement. Feminists
sought to improve the rights of women in society by campaigning for equal treatment to men.
FEMINISM
In 1860s Ireland, women were discriminated against in education, employment conditions, and most notably the right to vote. When a woman married, her wealth became the property of her husband. Many women gave up their jobs once they did marry. The social norm at the time was that it was a man’s responsibility to provide for his family, while a woman’s role was to look after the housekeeping and raise the children.
Feminism is the belief that women should have equal rights and opportunities to men. To achieve equality, supporters of feminism, women and men, form organisations and campaign for women’s rights. The term feminism was first used in the mid- 19th century to describe the activities of women who sought greater access to education, equality in marriage and the right to own property. One of the most significant feminist campaigns was for female suffrage – the right to vote as equals with men.
In the late 1860s and early 1870s women started to campaign against their treatment. Isabella Tod was one of the first feminists to demand rights for women.
