Brief description

This module surveys the history of women and gender relations in Britain in the 19th and early 20th Century. It considers the varying and changing experiences of women in different social, economic and political contexts, and sets these developments in Britain'r wider history during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Furthermore, the module examines the changing definitions of gender and their impact on gender relations in the study period. These aspects of women'r experiences will be set in a chronological framework that surveys the history of women and gender relations from the early nineteenth century to the Second World War.

Aims

Students will be introduced to some of the main experiences of British women in the period studied, and important ideas relating to gender and gender relations will also be considered.

Content

1. Introduction
2. The Construction of Gender in Nineteenth-Century Britain
3. The Struggle for the Breeches: Women and the Making of the British Working Class
4. Women and Chartism
5. Feminism in the Early Nineteenth Century
6. Fit Work for Women: Women'r Work in Nineteenth-Century Britain
7. Victorian Sexuality
8. The Female Experience of Family
9. Lady Bountifuls: Philanthropy
10. Women and Welfare in Victorian and Edwardian Britain
11. Degenerationism and the Medicalisation of Motherhood
12. The Campaign for Female Suffrage
13. Women and the First World War
14. Gender Relations during the Interwar Depression
15. The Campaign for Birth Control
16. Feminism during the Interwar Period
17. Women'r Experiences during the Second World War
18. Women and the Welfare State

Course Delivery

Assessment

Learning Outcomes

Brief description

Aims

Content

Notes