Elite Women in English Political Life c.1754-1790

Abstract

Abstract This book explores the gendered nature of politics and political life in 18th-century England by focusing on the political involvement of female members of the political elite. The book challenges the notion that only exceptional women were involved in politics, that their participation was necessarily limited and indirect, and that their involvement was inevitably declining after the 1784 Westminster Election. While exceptional women did exist and gender did condition women's participation, the personal, social, and particularly the familial nature of 18th-century politics provided more women with a wider variety of opportunities for involvement than ever before. Women from politically active families grew up with politics, their involvement extending from politicized socializing to borough control and election management. Their participation was often accepted depending upon family traditions, personal abilities, and the demands of political expediency. The book reveals that given contemporary concerns about the links between sex, politics, and corruption, their participation was largely unproblematic as long as their participation was seen as subordinate and supportive of men's. It was when they came to be seen as the leading political actors in a cause that they overstepped the mark and became targets of sexualized criticism. Contemporary critics worried that politically active women posed a threat to male polity, but what actually made them threatening was that they proved that women were not politically incompetent and implicitly demonstrated that gender was not a reason for political exclusion. Although the dividing line between acceptable and unacceptable female political behaviours was sharper from the late 18th century onward, this book suggests that women who were willing to work creatively within the familial model could and did remain politically active into, and through, the 19th century.

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