8 - British women and cultures of internationalism, c.1815–1914

Summary

Writing on British women's international interests in the nineteenth century has tended to focus on three areas: pacifism; links between national feminist movements; and the relationship between feminists and women subjects of the British empire, particularly India. Relatively little attention has been paid to women's involvement in the shaping of national foreign policy, where they are usually depicted as either following male politicians and activists or being cultivated (or manipulated) as a particular ‘emotional’ constituency. This chapter – while not suggesting that male and female internationalisms were at all times separate and distinct – argues that the growth of a movement for sexual equality in this period led many women to develop their own criteria for judging the international issues of the day. Three main case-studies are chosen to explore the development of female internationalism: the Italian unification movement, conflicts between the Ottoman empire and its Christian subjects, and the Boer War of 1899–1902. However, it is also necessary to examine campaigns which might at first sight appear to have little international relevance, and above all to explore the religious roots of women's public interventions, in order to understand how their networks of international activism came into being.

If the growth of a movement for female emancipation influenced women's perception of international issues, scandals and controversies in the international arena in their turn inflected the development of a feminist movement. The connections between these currents pose a complex set of questions.