1894

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
Preface[vii]
I.Ancient History And British Women[1]
II.The Modern Bases of Privilege[15]
III.Royal Women[27]
Queens Consort[27]
Queens Regnant[28]
Queens Regent[33]
IV.Noblewomen[35]
They paid Homage[36]
They received Homage[37]
They held Courts Baron[37]
They held by Military Service[40]
They could be Knights[42]
They could inherit Public Offices[42]
They could be High Sheriff[43]
They could be Earl Marshal[45]
They could be High Constable, High Steward, High Chamberlain[47]
They could be Champion, Governor of Royal Castles[48]
They could be appointed to various offices[51]
They could act as Femes Soles when married[51]
They had the Cure of Churches[53]
As Peeresses summoned to Parliament in person or in proxy[53]
V.County Women[60]
Could be Freeholders[61]
Could act as Femes Soles when married[61]
Could hold by Military Tenure[62]
Paid and received Homage[63]
Could present to Churches[63]
Could hold Motes and attend Motes[64]
Could be Suitors at County Courts, Pares, Judges or Jury[64]
Could elect Knights of the Shire[67]
Could elect Members of Private Boroughs[69]
VI.Freewomen[77]
Could be Members of Guilds[79]
Could have Guilds of their own[83]
Were free of the City of London[84]
Were free in other Boroughs[86]
Could be Members of Corporation[90]
Could vote for Members of Parliament[94]
VII.The Long Ebb[99]
The Errors of Sir Edward Coke[99]
A Believer in Coke’s Views[107]
Protesting Women[112]
Anne Clifford[112]
Mary Astell’s Protest[124]
Mary Wolstonecroft Godwin[127]
Legal Cases decided in their favour[128]
The Reform Bill of 1832[136]
The Reform Bill of 1867[139]
Chorlton v. Lings[140]
VIII.The Turn of the Tide[146]
Something has been done[147]
Municipal Franchise—School Boards[148]
Married Women’s Property Acts[149]
Lady Sandhurst’s Case[150]
What a Woman can do[152]
Women and the Universities[155]
IX.Other Women[159]
The Test of Civilisation[162]
Labour the basis of Property[165]
The Unrecorded Increment of Women’s Labour[166]
The Duality of Humanity[176]
The Woman God’s Fellow-worker[178]
Appendix
Eldest Daughters[180]
The Countess Lucy[180]
Women’s Service[180]
Women’s Guilds[181]
Free Kent[181]
The Learned Selden[181]
Sir Edward Coke[181]
Judge or Jury[182]
Physical Force Argument[182]
Women and the Universities[182]

PREFACE

In the spring of 1885, when planning to attend the British Association meeting in Aberdeen that summer, it struck me that I might prepare a paper on a Woman’s Subject, and try to find an opportunity of reading it before the Section of Economics and Statistics there. The paper divided itself into two, which I carefully entitled—I. The History and Statistics of Woman’s Privilege; and II. The Economic Effects of the Abstention of Women from Voting.

They were, as might have been expected, both rejected. I was told that, though they formed valuable contributions to Constitutional History, the Committee felt they would certainly lead to political discussion, which must not be risked. At a public meeting in Aberdeen the same week, I gave a resumé of my arguments, and the materials then collected I have frequently used since in Drawing-room Addresses, and in private conversation; in public papers, and in friendly correspondence. So many have been surprised at the facts, and interested in the results, that, at the present crisis, I thought it advisable to spend another six months in careful verification of details, and in grouping apparently disconnected data, so that their full import might be seen at a glance. My first authorities were Sydney Smith’s “Enfranchisement of Woman the Law of the Land” (1876), and Mr. Chisholm Anstey’s Book and Papers on “The Representation of the People’s Acts” (1876).