The spinster and her enemies - Feminism and sexuality 1880-1930

Sheila Jeffreys

Pandora

1997

232 páginas

7h 44m

ISBN-10: 0863580505

It is generally accepted by traditional historical interpreters that the sexual puritanism of Victorian England gave way to the first "sexual revolution" of the twentieth century. However, Sheila Jeffreys presents a different thesis in this, the first book to have been written by a feminist on the history of sexuality in Britain.

She examines the activities of feminist campaigners arouns such issues as child abuse and prostitution and assesses how these campaigns shaped social purity in the 1880s and 1890s. She demonstrates how the work of sexologists undermined and attacked the thriving and militant feminism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and asserts that the decline of this feminism was due largely to the promotion of a sexual ideology which was hostile to women's independence.

THE SPINSTER AND HER ENEMIES is an important book on a watershed period in the history of sexuality which challenges the reputations of established sexologists and sex reformers.

"An impressive number of studies on the struggle of women in history has appeared within the past decade. Sheila Jeffreys' is among the best; it is splendidly documented, provocative and never dull" - Phyllis Grosskurth, Times Literary Supplement

"Sheila Jeffreys is an excellent historian, and is no doubt an excellent feminist. Those who decide to follow her to the barricades will find her an able guide" - Anita Brookner, The Sunday Times

"Her energetic overturning of conventional notions about the period will make THE SPINSTER AND HER ENEMIES attractive reading for many; she has performed a valuable service in reminding us that heterosexual freedom is not necessarily sexual freedom for women" - Martha Vicinus, Women's Review of Books