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Thanks
for your note to FEMINIST.COM.
Not knowing much about British
history circa 1910 I turned
to the British Historian Sheila
Rowbotham and specifically her
book A
Century of Women. In short,
this is what I found out:
--Women began to rebel against
marriage--and even against men.
Others were reforming education.
The difference between these
women and women from the previous
century was described this way:
"in the period of 1900-1914,
the personal aspiration for
freedom was accompanied by a
militant suffrage movement and
widespread social upheaval."
The militant movement (Emmeline
and Christable Pankhurst for
example) were fighting for the
vote. These women "stormed the
House of Commons, heckled cabinet
ministers, broke windows and
went to prison....this ingenuity
and daring of the suffragettes
exploded gender stereotypes....The
bravery of the suffragettes
won them admiration, not only
from women, but from men.....Though
the feminist movement had a
decisive influence on the politics
and culture of the pre-war era,
the majority of women joined
organizations not to transform
gender relations, or society
as a whole, but to conserve
women's sphere...A preoccupation
with social motherhood could
thus emphasize working-class
women's duties as reproducers
to society or develop into radical
political demands for new social
and economic rights...It was
assumed from the start of their
working lives that their position
as wage earners was temporary....."
The only thing specific to D.H.
Lawrence was this: "Ironically,
[D.H.] Lawrence, who hated emancipated
women and inveighed against
the pleasures of the clitoris,
was to become the symbol of
sexual freedom during the 1960."
I hope that helps--and to learn
more I suggest you get a hold
of this book. It's full of great
information.
—Amy
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