Judith Lowder Newton

Mary P. Ryan

Judith R. Walkowitz

Essays examine from a feminist point of view the social conditions of women in the United States and Great Britain during the nineteenth century

Sex and Class in Women's History

Essays from Feminist Studies

First published in 1981, this book explores the reactions of some female writers to the social effects of industrial capitalism between 1778 and 1860. The period set in motion a crisis over the status of middle-class women that culminated in the constructed idea of "women’s proper sphere". This concept disguised inequities between men and women, first by asserting the reality of female power, and then by restricting it to self-sacrificing influence. In this book, Judith Newton analyses novels such as Fanny Burney’s Evelina, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte Brontë’s Villette and George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss in order to demonstrate how some female writers reacted to the issue by covertly resisting inequities of power and reconciling ideologies in their art. She argues that in this time period, novels became increasingly rebellious as well as ambivalent . Heroines were endowed with power, and emphasis was given to female ability, rather than to feminine influence.

Social Strategies in British Fiction, 1778-1860

Women, Power and Subversion (Routledge Revivals)

From Panthers to Promise Keepers draws on intimate observations of the men and networks who were involved in what some have called Othe menOs movementO and tells us why these networks mattered. Focusing on the decades between 1950 and 2000, it argues that while public, structural change is necessary for gender equality, getting men involved in efforts at social justice may well depend on their making changes with respect to feelings and with respect to their unconscious fears and anxieties as well.

Judith Lowder Newton

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