Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Lives of Scottish Women: Women and Scottish Society, 1800-1980

2008; Oxford University Press; Volume: CXXIII; Issue: 500 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ehr/cem418

1477-4534

John McDermid,

Scottish History and National Identity

William Knox narrates the lives of ten women with the intention of exploring the relationship between each of them and the patriarchal society in which they spent all or parts of their lives over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Each woman represents a particular theme: Sophia Jex-Blake encapsulates women's struggle for entry into higher education, particularly medicine; Elsie Inglis (another pioneering medical woman who began her studies with Jex-Blake then split to form a rival medical school for women) reflects the relationship between women and militarism as well as conflicts over prioritising gender, nation, state, or empire; Lady Frances Balfour and Katherine, Duchess of Atholl, stand for women and establishment politics; Mary Brooksbank for poor women, community politics and culture; Eliza Wigham, a Quaker, for religion, radicalism and the origins of feminism in the nineteenth century; Mary Slessor, the missionary, for women, religion and race; Madeleine Smith for Victorian attitudes to female sexuality; Jane Welsh Carlyle and Willa Muir for the difficulties of, and the self-sacrifices made, living with a male genius. Knox also provides a useful, if rushed, annotated bibliography for each of his subjects and for general works on Scottish women. Overall, the author's aim is to provide insights into wider issues faced by women in Scotland since 1800.