Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T19:03:45.806Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anna Doyle Wheeler (1785–1848): Philosopher, Socialist, Feminist∗

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Margaret McFadden
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay examines the life and work of early socialist thinker Anna Doyle Wheeler, who, with the Owenite theorist William Thompson, was author of The Appeal of One Half the Human Race, Women, Against the Pretentions of the Other Half, Men … (1825). In analyzing her thought, I employ a typological model for the development of a feminist consciousness proposed by Michèle Riot-Sarcey and Eleni Varikas (1986). These authors posit three types of a feminist “pariah” consciousness: 1) exceptional woman feminism 2) subversive feminism, and 3) collective feminism. Within this framework Anna Wheeler falls between positions one and two; she was an exceptional or token woman who nevertheless advocated subversive feminist doctrines of radical change, including calls for collective female action (in which she nonetheless did not participate). The essay ends with a discussion of Wheeler's relationship to William Thompson as example of woman's traditional access to philosophy, that is, through a male mentor.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 4 , Issue 1: Special Issue: The History of Women in Philosophy , Spring 1989 , pp. 91 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

∗

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Third International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, July 6–10, 1987. The beginning research was carried out and presented in a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar, “The Woman Question in Western Thought,” Department of History, Stanford University, 1986. I would like to thank the following for their helpful suggestions throughout the writing process: Karen Offen (Seminar Director), Catherine Boyd, Bud Gerber, Gail Savage, and Eleni Varikas.

References

Bell, Susan Groag, and Offen, Karen eds., 1983. Women, the family, and Freedom: The debate in documents. (2 vols.). Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Burke, Stephen. 1976. Letter from a pioneer feminist—Anna Wheeler. Studies in Labor History 1: 19–23.Google Scholar
Devey, Louisa. 1887. Life of Rosina, Lady Lytton. London: Swan, Sonnenschein, Lowren.Google Scholar
Doyle, Arthur. 1911. A hundred years of conflict: Being some records of the services of six generals of the Doyle family, 1756–1856. London: Longmans, Green.Google Scholar
Galgano, Michael. 1979. Anna Doyle Wheeler. In Biographical dictionary of modern British radicals, (vol. 1). Baylen, Joseph O. and Gossman, Norbert J. eds., Sussex: Harvester Press, 519–524.Google Scholar
Gans, J. 1964. Les relations entre socialistes de France et d'Angleterre au debut du XIXe siecle. Le Mowement Social 46: 105–118.10.2307/3777268CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Doeuff, Michèle. 1987. Women and philosophy. In French feminist thought. Moi, Toril, ed. London: Basil Blackwell, 181–209.Google Scholar
Leslie, Rev.Canon, J.B. 1958. Biographical index of the clergy of the Church of Ireland. Typescript. Representative Church Body Library, Dublin.Google Scholar
Pankhurst, Richard K.P. 1954. Anna Wheeler: A pioneer socialist and feminist. The Political Quarterly 25: 132–143.10.1111/j.1467-923X.1954.tb00153.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riot‐Sarcey, Michele and Varikas, Eleni. 1986. Feminist consciousness in the nineteenth century: A pariah consciousness? Praxis International 5: 443–465.Google Scholar
Riot‐Sarcey, Michèle and Varikas, Eleni. 1987. Reflexions sur la notion d'exceptionalitè. Typescript in preparation for Les CahieTS du GRIF. My translation.10.3406/grif.1988.1756CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sadleir, Michael. 1931. Bulwer and his wife: Apanorama 1803–1836. London: Constable.Google Scholar
Thompson, William. [1825] 1983. Appeal of one half the human race, women, against the pretensions of the other half, men, to restrain them in political and thence in civil and domestic slavery. Intro. Richard Pankhurst London: Virago.Google Scholar
Tristan, Flora. 1982. The London journal of Flora Tristan, 1842. Hawkes, Jean, ed. Trans, And. London: Virago.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Anna Doyle. 1830. Rights of women. The British Co-operator 1: 1, 2, 12–15, 33–36.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Anna Doyle, trans. 1833a. Appel auxfemmes, by Jeanne‐Victoire [pseud.]. The Crisis, 15 June; reprinted in Bell and Offen 1983, 1:146–147.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Anna Doyle. 1833b. Letter to Charles Fourier, 28 May 1833. Archives Nationales (Paris), Archives societaires, 10 AS25, doss. 3.Google Scholar