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Philanthropy for the middle class: vocational education for girls and young women in mid-Victorian Europe

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 41; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0046760x.2011.620011

1464-5130

James C. Albisetti,

Historical Education and Society

Abstract Footnote 1 Within a 20-year period from the late 1850s to the late 1870s, most European countries created programmes in response to what appeared as a new social problem: unwed daughters of the middle classes in need of jobs. Taking off from the 150th anniversary of the English Society for Promoting the Employment of Women, this paper examines the diffusion of such courses across Europe and the very similar occupations that most thought appropriate for their clientele. It also highlights variations in structures, leadership and funding that emerged, and in particular how the English pacesetter remained much smaller than many later creations. Sponsors seldom sought public funding, but they had no problem seeking charitable contributions to help middle-class young women avoid being ‘de-classed’. 1An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the International Standing Conference for the History of Education in Utrecht in August 2009. I would like to thank the audience for comments at that time, and Rebecca Rogers for several bibliographical suggestions. Keywords: comparativecareerVictorianvocationwomen Notes 1An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the International Standing Conference for the History of Education in Utrecht in August 2009. I would like to thank the audience for comments at that time, and Rebecca Rogers for several bibliographical suggestions. 2Anne Bridger and Ellen Jordan, Timely Assistance: The Work of the Society for Promoting the Training of Women, 1859–2009 (Ashford, Kent: Society for Promoting the Training of Women, 2009). I would like to thank Joyce Goodman for alerting me to this book, which is available only through the Society, and Dr. Carolyn Boulter, its chair, for sending me a copy gratis. 3Theodore Stanton, ed., The Woman Question in Europe (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1884); Helene Lange and Gertrud Bäumer, eds., Handbuch der Frauenbewegung, 5 vols (Berlin: W. Moeser, 1901–1906). Most relevant material is in volume 1. 4My access to such literature is, of course, also limited by my knowledge of foreign languages. 5Geneviève Fraisse and Michelle Perrot, eds., A History of Women in the West, vol. 4: Feminism from Revolution to World War (Cambridge, MA, and London: Belknap Press, 1987), 235, 487, 491, 502; Bonnie S. Anderson and Judith P. Zinsser, A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present, 2 vols (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 2: 185; Karen Offen, European Feminisms, 1700–1950 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 122–3; James C. Albisetti, Joyce Goodman and Rebecca Rogers, eds., Girls’ Secondary Education in the Western World: From the 18th to the 20th Century (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). 6Barbara Leigh Smith as cited in Bridger and Jordan, Timely Assistance, 1; ‘Association for Promoting the Employment of Women’, English Woman’s Journal 4, no. 1 (September 1859): 54–9; Englishwoman’s Review of Social and Industrial Questions 2 (January 1867): 121. Several relevant documents from SPEW are reprinted in Candida Ann Lacey, ed., Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon and the Langham Place Group (New York and London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987). 7Bridger and Jordan, Timely Assistance, 25. 8Centralverein für das Wohl der arbeitenden Klassen, ed., Die Erwerbsgebiete des weiblichen Geschlechts (Berlin: O. Janke, 1866); Jenny Hirsch, Geschichte der fünfundzwanzigjährigen Wirksamkeit des … Lette Vereins zur Förderung höheren Bildung und Erwerbsfähigkeit des weiblichen Geschlechts (Berlin: Berliner Buchdruckerei, 1891), 40; Doris Obschernitzki, ‘Der Frau ihre Arbeit!’ Lette Verein: Zur Geschichte eines Berliner Institution 1866 bis 1986 (Berlin: Edition Hentrich, 1987), 22, 74, 106–11; Dorothea Roberts, Two Royal Lives: Gleanings at Berlin and from the Lives of Their Imperial Highnesses, the Crown Prince and Princess of Germany (New York: Scribner and Welford, 1887), 212. 9Obschernitzki, ‘Der Frau ihre Arbeit’, 24; Gerard Noel, Princess Alice: Queen Victoria’s Forgotten Daughter (London: Constable, 1974), 137–44; Susanna Winkworth, ‘The Alice Ladies’ Society of Darmstadt’, Contemporary Review 21 (December 1872): 138–58, here 142; Die Berliner Frauen-Vereins-Conferenz an 5. und 6. Dezember 1869 (Berlin: C. G. Lüderitz’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1869). On the school in Hamburg, see Christine Mayer, ‘The Struggle for Vocational Education and Employment Possibilities for Women in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century in Germany’, History of Education Researcher 80 (November 2007): 85–99, esp. 91–95. 10See, for example, the discussions of Lemonnier in Rebecca Rogers, ‘Culture and Catholicism in France’, in Albisetti et al., Girls’ Secondary Education, 32; and Marc Suteau, Une ville et ses écoles: Nantes, 1830–1940 (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 1999), 132–3. 11Charles Lemonnier, Élise Lemonnier: Foundateur de la société pour l’enseignement professionnel des femmes (Saint-Germain: L. Toinon, 1866), 29–31; Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, Le travail des femmes au XIXe siècle (Paris: Charpentier, 1873), 333–4, 459. 12Suteau, Une ville, 132–5. 13Mathilde Dubesset and Michelle Zancarini-Fournel, Parcours de femmes: Réalités et représentations: Saint-Etienne, 1880–1950 (Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 1993), 36–7. 14Éliane Gubin, ‘Politics and Anti-Clericalism: Belgium’, in Albisetti et al., Girls’ Secondary Education, 124–6; Association pour l’enseignement professionnel des femmes: École professionelle (Brussels: T. Lombaerts, 1898), 8, 17. 15Francisca de Haan, Gender and the Politics of Office Work: The Netherlands, 1860–1940 (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1998), 12–13, 20; Stanton, The Woman Question, 161; Maria Grever and Berteke Waaldijk, Transforming the Public Sphere: The Dutch National Exhibition of Women Labor in 1898, trans. Mischa F.C. Hoynick and Robert E. Chesal (Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2004), 30; http://www.tesselschade-arbeidadelt.nl/english (accessed July 8, 2010). A history of this Dutch women’s association exists but is not in any library in the United States: Vilan van der Loo, Toekomst door Traditie: Honderdvÿfentwintig jaar Tesselschade-Arbeid Adelt (Zutphen: Walberg Press, 1996). 16Johann Jakob Binder, ‘Űber die Bildung der Mädchen für Haus, Familie und Beruf’, Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Gemeinnützigkeit 7 (1868): 379–91, here 383, 389–90.; Franz Dula, ‘Über die Bildung der Mädchen für das Haus und die Familie’, ibid. 8 (1869): 18–69, here 56–7; Emilie Benz, ‘Die Geschichte der Frauenbewegung in der Schweiz’, in Lange and Bäumer, Handbuch, 1: 194; Gottlieb Rothen, Hundert Jahre Mädchenschule in der Stadt Bern (Bern; n. p., 1936), 73. See also Claudia Crotti, Lehrerinnen – frühe Professionalisierung: Professionsgeschichte der Volkschullehrerinnen in der Schweiz im 19. Jahrhundert (Bern: Peter Lang, 2005), 260–76. I have not seen Binder’s earlier pamphlet: Über die Ausbau der Zürcherischen Sekundarschule und die Berufsbildung unserer Töchter (Zurich: Orell Füssli, 1866). 17Johanna Leitenberger, ‘Austria’, and Elise Krásnohorská , ‘Bohemia’, in Stanton, The Woman Question, 170 and 451; Margret Friedrich, ‘Ein Paradies ist uns verschlossen …’: Zur Geschichte der schulischen Mädchenerziehung in Österreich im ‘langen’ 19. Jahrhundert (Vienna, Cologne, and Weimar: Böhlau, 1999), 182–4; Helene Volet-Jeanneret, La femme bourgeoise à Prague, 1860–1895: De la philanthropie à l’émancipation (Geneva: Editions Slatkine, 1988), 110, 213; Jitka Malečková, ‘The Emancipation of Women for the Benefit of the Nation: The Czech Women’s Movement’, in Women’s Emancipation Movements in the Nineteenth Century: A European Perspective, ed. Sylvia Paletschek and Bianka Pietrow Ennker (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004), 167–88, here 174, 178. 18Giovanni Scavia, Dell’istruzione professionale e femminile in Francia, Germania, Svizzera, Italia (Turin: T. Vaccarino, 1866), 161; Emanuele Celesia, Le scuole professionali femminili (Genoa: E. Ferrando, 1869); Aurelia Cimino Folliero de Luna, ‘Italy’, in Stanton, Woman Question, 315; Simonetta Soldani, ‘Il libro e la matassa: scuole per ‘lavori donneschi’ nell’Italia da costruire’, in L’educazione delle donne: Scuole e modelli di vita femminile nell’Italia dell’Ottocento, ed. Soldani (Milan: Angeli, 1989), 87–129, esp. 97, 111. I have not seen Celesia’s book and base my comments on Soldani’s article. 19Katharina Rowold, The Educated Woman: Minds, Bodies, and Women’s Higher Education in Britain, Germany, and Spain, 1865–1914 (New York and London: Routledge, 2010), 159–60; Consuela Flecha, ‘Between Modernization and Conservatism: Spain’, in Albisetti et al., Girls’ Secondary Education, 77–92, here 81, which draws on Rosa Maria Capel Martinez, Trabajo y la educación de la mujer en Espana (1900–1930) (Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura, 1986), 333–5; Yvonne Turin, L’éducation et l’école en Espagne de 1874 à 1902: Libéralisme et tradition (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1959), 275–6; Mercedes Garcia de la Torre and Manuel Ledesma Reyes, ‘Un hito historico en la educación femenina: La asociación para la enseñanza de la mujer’, in Mujer y Educación en Espagna, 1868–1975, ed. Sociedad Espanola de Historia de la Educación (Santiago: Universidade de Santiago, 1990), 615–22. 20Kristine Frederiksen, ‘Denmark’, Rosalie Olivecrona, ‘Sweden’ and Camilla Collett, ‘Norway’, in Stanton, Woman Question, 225, 200, and 189–98, respectively; Gina Krog, ‘Die Geschichte der Frauenbewegung in Norwegen’, in Lange and Bäumer, Handbuch, 1: 308. See also Rosalie Olivecrona, Notices sur l’éducation et sur l’activité de la femme en Suède (Stockholm: Imprimerie Centrale, 1878), 8. This pamphlet was prepared for the international exhibition in Paris; she had previously written similar works for Vienna in 1873 and Philadelphia in 1876. These institutions are not included in Agneta Linné, ‘Lutheranism and Democracy: Scandinavia’, in Albisetti et al., Girls’ Secondary Education, 133–47. 21Richard Stites, The Women’s Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism, and Bolshevism, 1860–1920 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), 69–70. 22Friedrich, ‘Ein Paradies’, 182; Soldani, ‘Il libro’, passim. 23Jessie Boucherett, ‘England: The Industrial Movement’, in Stanton, Woman Question, 98; Stites, Women’s Liberation Movement, 69; Bridger and Jordan, Timely Assistance, 45. 24Boucherett, ‘England: The Industrial Movement’, 98; Olivecrona, Notices, 15. 25Lacey, Langham Place Group, passim; Lemonnier, Élisa Lemonnier, 27–8; Association pour l’enseignement professionnel, 8, 35–6; Christine Mayer, ‘Macht in Frauenhand: Fallbeispiele zur Berufsbildung im 19. Jahrhundert’, in Geschlecht und Macht: Analysen zum Spannungsfeld von Arbeit, Bildung und Familie, ed. Martina Löw (Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2009), 193–213, here 205–9; Noel, Princess Alice, 137–45. 26Stites, Women’s Liberation Movement, 69; Marianne Hainisch, ‘Die Geschichte der Frauenbewegung in Österreich’, in Lange and Bäumer, Handbuch, 1: 170 ; Wilhelmine Wiechowski, Frauenleben und -Bildung in Prag im 19. Jahrhundert (Leipzig: Frauen-Rundschau, 1899), 11. 27Benz, ‘Frauenbewegung in der Schweiz’, 192; Obschernitzki, ‘Der Frau ihre Arbeit!’, 21, 23, 45–6; Turin, L’éducation et l’école, 273. 28Smith’s work as excerpted in Lacey, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, 39; Dula, ‘Über die Bildung’, 50; Stites, Women’s Liberation Movement, 57. 29Ellen Jordan, The Women’s Movement and Women’s Employment in Nineteenth-Century Britain (London and New York: Routledge, 1999), 9; Harrad-Ulrike Bussemer, Frauenbewegung und Bildungsbürgertum: Sozialgeschichte der Frauenbewegung in der Reichsgründungszeit (Weinheim and Basel: Beltz, 1985), 21–4; Catherine L. Dollard, The Surplus Woman: Unmarried in Imperial Germany, 1871–1918 (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2009), 3, and 66–88 (a chapter entitled ‘Imagined Demography’). 30Mayer, ‘Struggle for Vocational Education’, 95; Suteau, Une ville, 137. 31Albisetti et al., Girls’ Secondary Education, passim; James C. Albisetti, Schooling German Girls and Women: Secondary and Higher Education in the Nineteenth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 39. 32Linné, ‘Lutheranism and Democracy: Scandinavia’, 140; Bussemer, Bildungsbürgertum, 95; Berliner Frauen-Vereins-Conferenz, 66. 33Parkes as reprinted in Lacey, Langham Place Group, 183; de Haan, Gender and the Politics of Office Work, 19; Anna Schepeler-Lette and Jenny Hirsch, ‘Germany’, in Stanton, Woman Question, 143; Binder, ‘Über die Bildung’, 382–83. 34Volet-Jeanneret, La femme bourgeoise, 218. See also Olivecrona, Notices, 8; and Lemonnier, Élisa Lemonnier, 31. 35Jordan, The Women’s Movement, 174; Bridger and Jordan, Timely Assistance, passim; Centralverein, Die Erwerbsgebiete, 40–2; Englishwoman’s Journal 8 (July 1868): 534; Thirteenth Annual Report of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women (London: Society for Promoting the Employment of Women, 1872), 18–21, 26ff. The generous donor was most likely the long-time backer of SPEW Jessie Boucherett, though that name should have been listed as B, J, to be consistent with the rest. 36Ibid., 22–5, 18; Englishwoman’s Journal 11 (April 1869): 224. 37Mayer, ‘Struggle for Vocational Education’, 99, n. 56. For an interesting look at a similar theme in the United States, see Kathryn Kish Sklar, ‘Who Funded Hull House?’, in Lady Bountiful Revisited: Women, Philanthropy, and Power, ed. Kathleen D. McCarthy (New Brunswick and London: Rutgers University Press, 1990), 94–115. 38Soldani, ‘Il libro’, 97, 116; Capel Martinez, Trabajo, 34; Garcia de la Torre and Ledesma Reyes, ‘Un hito historico’, 619. 39Lemonnier, Élisa Lemonnier, 27–8; Leroy-Beaulieu, Le travail des femmes, 327–30. On this German boarding school, see Jean Roland, Marie Hillebrand (1821–1894): Ihr Leben und erziehliches Wirken (Giessen: Ricker, 1895). 40 Association pour l’enseignment professionnel, 8–10; P. Kauch, ‘Jonathan-Raphaël Bischoffsheim’, Biographie Nationale, 30, part 2 (Brussels: H. Thiry-Van Buggenhoudt, 1959), col. 171–4; François Stockmann, ‘George Montefiore Levi’, ibid., 38, part 2 (1974), col. 596–618. 41Hirsch, Geschichte, 40, 44, 46, 52; Obschernitzki, ‘Der Frau ihre Arbeit!’, 26, 34, 74. 42Jordan, The Women’s Movement, 169–78; Stites, Women’s Liberation Movement, 59. 43See James C. Albisetti, ‘The Feminization of Teaching in the Nineteenth Century: A Comparative Perspective’, History of Education 22, no. 3 (Sept. 1993): 253–64. 44‘Introduction’, in Akira Iriye and Pierre-Yves Saunier, eds., The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History: From the Mid-19th Century to the Present Day (Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), xvii.