‘A band of public‐spirited women’: middle‐class female philanthropy and citizenship in Bolton, Lancashire before 1918

Abstract

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, despite the cultural ideal of private and public as separate spheres and a lack of formal voting rights, many middle-class women engaged in philanthropic and social work outside the home. Taking as its focus a group of middle-class women in Bolton, Lancashire, this paper conducts a prosopography, or group biography, in order to shed light on female citizenship and make a historical contribution to literature on citizenship beyond voting rights. The paper uses archive traces to reconstruct the experience of the female philanthropist and understand her motivations. The focus of the paper is a new theoretical approach to women's citizenship in the early 20th century. Using Michel Foucault's concept of biopolitics, or life politics, the paper reconceptualises women's social work as a form of biopolitical patriotism that was the basis of a scalar claim to citizenship. This historical evidence from Bolton reveals that biopolitical action was not solely the preserve of the state. Women claimed fitness for citizenship and the vote by nation-building, carrying out work that shaped children into the citizens of the future and safeguarded the moral and physical health of the nation.

Gender construction and the invisibility of women’s accounting activities: the All Nations’ Fair of 1895

“…As with most socially constructed notions concerning the gendering of women, it was not based in fact, because women managed households, often with many servants, without recourse to men (McMillan, 2002). The All Nations' Fair is one of many examples (Moore, 2016;Rosslyn, 2006) of women undertaking philanthropic activities without requiring the supervision or direct assistance of men. However, the historical gendering of women has never been based on fact: it has always been about subjugation and male control (Bourdieu, 2001).…”

“…Philanthropy has long been considered a suitable pastime for women which means that, historically, it was not a pastime for men (Elliott, 1995a, b; Labanyi, 1999; McTighe, 1986; Moore, 2016; Parker, 1997; Raughter, 1997; Rosslyn, 2006). This makes it of interest to accounting researchers because it provides an opportunity to explore the historical contribution of women to accounting when they move beyond the male gaze.…”

Historical geography in Transactions

“…Across these three periods Mitchell detects a relationship between humanitarian educational reason and ‘interlinked anxieties of freedom, security and economic development of the nation’ (2017, 358). Finally, Moore's () paper connects well with Mitchell's work in that it too explores the historical geographies of philanthropy. Moore examines the philanthropic and social work carried out by middle‐class women outside the home in early 20th‐century Lancashire.…”

Women's philanthropy and religion: The ladies of the Northampton shoe trade, 1870–1950

“…Some of these are naturally interlinked and‐ as Gleadle argues‐ this mix of cultural influences gave women the confidence to engage with the ‘public sphere’ (p. 154). As a result, despite the ideology of separate spheres, many middle‐class women engaged in philanthropic activities outside of the family home (Moore, 2016, p. 149). The obligation and duty to serve the wider community did have a tendency to operate as a gender‐based defence but as Digby (1992) argues, public and private spheres are a moving boundary.…”