Timeline of Legislation, Events, and Publications Crucial to the Development of Victorian Feminism

1659 Anna Maria von Schurman: The Learned Maid; or, Whether a Maid May Be a Scholar.
1673 Mrs. Bathsua Makin: "An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen in Religion, Manners, Arts and Tongues."
1694 Mary Astell: "A Serious Proposal to the Ladies for the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest."
1716 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: "Answer to a Love Letter."
1778 Fanny Burney: Evelina.
1792 Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (elctronic text at Wiretap)
1795 Maria Edgeworth: Letters for Literary Ladies; Castle Rackrent (1800).
1801 Census reveals that women outnumber men by 400,000 (surplus of unmarried women).
1803 Elisabeth Barret : "Cry of the Children"; Poems.1845 Margaret Fuller (major inspiration of American feminist movement): Woman in the Nineteenth Century.
1846

Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot): translation of Strauss' Das Leben Jesu (Life of Jesus).
Anna Jameson: "'Woman's Mission' and 'Woman's Position"' "On the Relative Social Position of Mothers and Governesses."

1847 Chloroform first used in childbirth.
1847 & 1850

Factory Acts (women and children restricted to 10 1/2 hour day).
Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre.
Emily Brontë: Wuthering Heights.
Ann Brontë: Agnes Grey.

1848

Queen's College, London, established for women who intend to teach.
Women's Rights Association founded in United States.
Mrs. Gaskell: Mary Barton.

1849

Bedford College for Women founded.
Charlotte Brontë: Shirley.

1850

Emily Shirreff and Maria G. Grey: Thoughts on Self-Culture: Addressed to Women.
First National WomenÕs Rights Convention, Worchester, Massachusetts.

1851

Harriet Taylor: "The Enfranchisement of Women."
Women's Suffrage Petition presented to the House of Lords.

1852

Judge rules that a man may not force his wife to live with him.
Anna Jameson: Legends of the Madonna, as presented in the fine arts.
G.H. Lewes: "The Lady Novelists."

1853

Queen Victoria given chloroform during childbirth.
Charlotte Brontë: Villette.

1854 Barbara (Leigh Smith) Bodichon: A Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women.
1855

George Eliot: "Margaret Fuller and Mary Wollstonecraft."
Stephen Fullom: The History of Woman, And her Connexion with Religion, Civilization, and Domestic Manners, from the earliest period (denounced by George Eliot).
Mrs. Gaskell: North and South.
Harriet Martineau: Autobiography.

1856

Caroline Frances Cornwallis: "The Property of Married Women."
Bessie Parkes: Remarks on the Education of Girls.
Emily Shirreff: Intellectual Education, and its influence on the Character and Happiness of Women.

1857

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Aurora Leigh.
Barbara (Leigh Smith) Bodichon: Women and Work.
Caroline Frances Cornwallis: "Capabilities and Disabilities of Women."
Association for the Promotion of the Employment of Women established.
Matrimonial Causes Act (legally separated wife given right to keep what she earns; man may divorce wife for adultery, whereas wife must prove adultery aggravated by cruelty or desertion).
(through 1863): The Englishwoman's Journal.

1858 George Eliot: Scenes of Clerical Life.
1859

George Eliot: Adam Bede.
Harriet Martineau: "Female Industry."
Society for Promoting the Employment of Women.

1860 George Eliot: The Mill on the Floss.
1861

Prince Albert dies; Queen retires into mourning.
George Eliot: Silas Marner. [Charles Dickens: Great Expectations.]

1862 Christina Rosetti: Goblin Market and Other Poems.
1863 Barbara (Leigh Smith) Bodichon: "Of those who are the property of others, and of the great power that holds others as property."
1864, 1866, 1869:

Contagious Diseases Acts (women living in certain garrison towns liable to be declared prostitutes and forcibly examined for venereal disease).
(through 1860s): The Alexandra Magazine.

1866

Barbara (Leigh Smith) Bodichon: "Reasons for the Enfranchisement of Women."
Emily Davies: The Higher Education of Women.
(through 1910): The Englishwoman's Review, A Journal of Woman's Work.

1868 Josephine Butler: The Education and Employment of Women.
1869

First women's college at Cambridge founded (Girton College).
Extension of municipal franchise (right to vote) to women ratepayers.
John Stuart Mill: On the Subjection of Women. (electronic text at Wiretat)
American Woman Suffrage Association founded.

1870

First Married Woman's Property Act.
Ladies National Association for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts founded by Josephine Butler.
Josephine Butler: On the Moral Reclaimability of Prostitutes.
Education Act (right of women to serve on School Boards).
John D. Milne: Industrial Employment of Women, in the Middle and Lower Ranks.

1918 Voting Act (Enfranchised all men over 21, and all women over 30).
1928 Equal Franchise Act (Equal voting rights for both men and women).

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