Male Voices on Women's Rights

Martine Monacelli is Professor Emeritus at the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis

• IntroductionPart I: Comrades in struggle1 ‘Arouse! Awake! Rescue your sex’ (William Thompson, 1825)2 ‘Throw off the degrading yoke’ (R. J. Richardson, 1840)3 The root causes of women’s subjection (J. S. Mill, 1869)4 Against the sexual double standard (W. T. Stead, 1885)5 ‘A thousand-times-told tale’ (Edward Aveling and Eleanor Marx Aveling, 1886)6 The time is come to act (George Holyoake, 1892)7 ‘Woman … cast aside the chains’ (R. P. Downes, 1900)8 Banding together in the fight for human liberty (Dr W. Moore Ede, 1912)9 What is feminism? (W. L. George, 1913) Part II: Provisions to be made for the education of women1 The cultivation of a woman’s understanding (The Rev. Sydney Smith, 1809) 2 What is learnt from teaching girls (The Rev. F. D. Maurice, 1865) 3 ‘The highest aim of any true system of education’ (W. Cooke Taylor, 1868)4 A system of public education for girls (Charles Kingsley, 1869)5 ‘They will not be unsexed by education’ (Alexander Grant, 1872)6 Admission of women to University degrees (William Forsyth, 1875)7 Progress in the cause of women’s higher education (The Rev. J. L. Davies, 1879)8 Are women's brains inferior to men’s? (D. G. Ritchie, 1889)9 ‘The moral benefits of co-education’ (The Rev. Cecil Grant, 1908) Part III: The vindication of women’s civil rights1 A proposal to make marriage a civil contract (W. B. Adams, 1833)2 ‘Talents merely to fold in a napkin?’ (W. J. Fox, 1833)3 A law to protect married women’s property (Lord Brougham, 1857)4 ‘The remnant of an old barbarous law’ (Arthur Hobhouse, 1870)5 A question of justice (Henry Fawcett, 1873)6 A eugenicist point of view on the marriage question (Karl Pearson, 1885)7 ‘A sanatorium with female attendants’ (Henry W. Nevinson, 1909)8 ‘Why I went to prison’ (Victor D. Duval, 1910) 9 Women’s share in the Co-operative movement (Joseph Clayton, 1912)Part IV: Towards a new sexual culture1 ‘The most important discovery made upon mankind’ (Richard Carlile, 1826) 2 A man’s devotion to his children (William Cobbett, 1829)3 United only by nature’s laws (Robert Owen, 1844) 4 ‘The return of powerful sexual feelings’ (G. R. Drysdale, 1855) 5 A father’s role in the education of his children (J. R. Seeley, 1870)6 A Malthusian view of married life (Montague Cookson, 1872) 7 ‘A new code of manners between the sexes’ (Edward Carpenter, 1896) 8 A new age about to commence (The Rev. Frederick A. M. Spencer, 1912)9 ‘A new avatar of love’ (Havelock Ellis, 1912)Index

‘Martine Monacelli’s collection of texts written by men in favour of women’s rights could hardly have come at a better time to redefine the contours of the extent of men’s political engagement throughout the 20th century for women’s rights. The question of men and women’s equality is one that concerns everyone.’Nicolas Pierre Boileau, E-rea