1st Edition

The Making of Modern Woman

By Lynn Abrams Copyright 2002
    380 Pages
    by Routledge

    380 Pages
    by Routledge

    Modern woman was made between the French Revolution and the end of the First World War. In this time, the women of Europe crafted new ideas about their sexuaity, motherhood, the home, the politics of femininity, and their working roles. They faced challenges about what a woman should be and how she should act.  From domestic ideology to women's suffrage, this book charts the contests for woman's identity in the epoch-shaping nineteenth century.

    Introduction; Part I Imaging Woman; Chapter 1 Body, Mind and Spirit; Chapter 2 Learning to be a Woman; Part II Private Lives, Public Worlds; Chapter 3 Marriage; Chapter 4 Mothers and Children; Chapter 5 Home, Kinship and Community; Chapter 6 Sex and Sexuality; Chapter 7 Working for a Living; Part III Power and Contest; Chapter 8 Politics, Nation and Identity; Chapter 9 Women’s Mission to Empire; Chapter 10 First-Wave Feminism; Chapter 11 The Great War;

    Biography

    Lynn Abrams is Senior Lecturer in History, University of Glasgow.

     'a convincing synthesis of a vast body of recent research in this exciting and significant area of history'

    Richard J Evans, University of Cambridge, UK

    'an excellent introduction to the subject of women's lives in Europe's long nineteenth century'

    Kelly Boyd, Middlesex University, UK

    'This text is set to become the classic survey in its field'

    June Purvis, University of Portsmouth, UK

    'The Making of Modern Woman: Europe 1789-1918 is a wide-ranging and exciting book. Covering a period of enormous significance for women, Lynn Abrams moves deftly from women's experiences of private life into more publicly scrutinised areas. This is a book written not only with historiographical sophistication but with great lucidity and passion.'

    Eileen Yeo, University of Strathclyde, UK

    'A considerable feat of synthesis, which surveys in remarkable and telling detail the social, political and cultural histories, which shaped women’s changing sense of self. This is a challenging new study, the most up-to-date available in English, which will be invaluable to anyone, teacher, student, or general reader, who wants to understand the balance between continuity and change in the gender relations of modern Europe.'

    Jane Rendall, University of York, UK

    `This is a bold and ambitious synthesis of the history of European women in the

    period 1789-1918. Rightly dismissive of the idea that women had only a walk-on

    part to play in the unfolding of Europe's destiny, Abrams succeeds in

    integrating them into the grand narratives of European history. ‘

    James McMillan, University of Edinburgh, UK