Women’s Economic Writing in the Nineteenth Century is the first comprehensive collection of women’s economic writing in the long nineteenth century. The four-volume anthology includes writing from women around the world, showcases the wide variety and range of economic writing by women in the period, and establishes a tradition of women’s economic writing; selections include didactic tales, fictional illustrations, poetry, economic theory, social theory, reports, letters, novels, speeches, dialogues, and self-help books. The anthology is divided into eight themed sections: political economy, feminist economics, domestic economics, labor, philanthropy and poverty, consumerism, emigration and empire, and self-help. Each section begins with an introduction that tells a story about women writers’ relationship to the section theme and then provides an overview of the selections contained therein. Women’s Economic Writing in the Nineteenth Century demonstrates just how common it was for women to write about economics in the nineteenth century and establishes important throughlines and trajectories within their body of work.
Volume 1
General Introduction
Part 1. Political Economy
1. Jane Marcet, excerpts from Conversations on Political Economy [1816] (London: Longman,
Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green 1827), pp. iii-vi, 2-29.
2. Harriet Martineau, ‘Preface’, ‘Berkeley the Banker, Pt. 1’ and ‘For Each and For All’, in
Illustrations of Political Economy (London: Charles Fox, 1832), pp. iii-xviii, 37-64.
3. Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, excerpts from Women and Work (London: Bosworth and Harrison, 1857), pp. 5-15.
4. Bessie Raynor Parkes, ‘Apropos Political Economy’, The English Woman’s Journal, Vol. 12,
No. 68, October 1863, pp. 73-80.
5. Anon., ‘Political Economy and Christianity’, The English Woman’s Journal. Vol. 12, No. 71, January 1864, pp. 289-296
6. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, excerpts from Political Economy for Beginners [1870] (London:
Macmillan and Co., 1876), pp, 1-4, 9-23, 38-42.
7. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Tales in Political Economy (London: Macmillan and Co., 1874), pp. 1-13.
8. Victoria Woodhull, ‘A Speech on the Principles of Finance’ (1871)
9. Mary Paley Marshall, excerpts from The Economics of Industry [1879], pp. 1-7, 27-35.
(London: Macmillan and Co, 1879).
10. Annie Besant, ‘The Social Aspects of Malthusianism’, (London: Freethought Publishing, 1880).
11. Olive Schreiner, ‘The Policy in Favour of Protection’ (1892)
12. Olive Schreiner, Woman and Labour (London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1911), pp. 33-68
13. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics, (Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1898), pp. 1-22, 76-98, 270-294.
14. Mrs. Bernard Shaw, ‘Rent and Value’, London, The Fabian Society, 1909.
Index
Volume 2
General Introduction
Part 2. Feminist Economics
1. Harriet Martineau, ‘Independent Industry of Women’, Daily News, 17 November 1859, p. 4.
2. Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, ‘Report of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women’, Vol. IV, No. 33, November 1860, pp. 146-151.
3. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, ‘Volunteer Hospital Nursing’, Paper read at the Tenth Annual
Meeting of the National Association for the promotion of Social Science, Manchester, 1866.
4. Matilda Joslyn Gage, ‘Woman as an Inventor’, The North American Review, Vol. 136, No. 318, May 1883, pp. 478-489.
5. Eleanor Marx Aveling and Edward Bibbins Aveling, ‘The Woman Question’, Westminster
Review, Vol. 125, January 1886. pp. 207-22.
6. Clara E. Collet, ‘The Economic Position of Educated Working Women’ (February 1890), in Educated Working Women: Essays on the Economic Position of Women Workers in the Middle Classes (London, P.S. King & Son, 1902), pp. 1-26.
7. Anna Julia Cooper, ‘What Are We Worth?’, pp. 175-186.
8. Anna Julia Cooper, ‘Colored Women as Wage-earners’, Southern Workman and Hampton
School Record, August 1899, pp. 295-98.
9. Frances M. Abbot, ‘The Pay of College Women’, The North American Review, Vol. 163, No. 478, Sept. 1896, pp. 337-344.
10. Margaret Bateson, ‘A Pound a Week – Why Girls Should Earn It’, A Girls Own Paper. October 1896, pp. 14-15.
11. Fannie Barrier Williams, ‘The Problem of Employment for Negro Women’, Southern
Workman, Vol. 32, September, pp. 432-47.
12. Edith Abbott, ‘Harriet Martineau and the Employment of Women in 1836’, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 14, No. 10, Dec. 1906, pp. 614-626.
13. Mabel Atkinson, ‘The Economic Foundations of the Women’s Movement’, Fabian Women’s
Group Series, no. 4 Fabian Tract, no. 175 (London: Fabian Society, 1914).
Part 3. Domestic Economics
14. Mary Anne Radcliffe, ‘The Story of Fidelia’, in The Female Advocate, or an Attempt to Recover the Rights of Women from Male Usurpation (London, Vernor and Hood, 1799), pp. 97-127.
15. Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent (London, J. Johnson, 1800).
16. Lydia Marie Frances Child, The American Frugal Housewife, Dedicated to Those Who Are Not Ashamed of Economy (Boston, Marsh & Capen and Carter & Hendee, 1832), pp. 3-7.
17. Mrs. J. H. Riddell, Mortomley’s Estate: A Novel (London, Hutchinson & Co, 1874), pp. 1-9.
18. Catherine Selden, ‘The Tyranny of the Kitchen’, The North American Review, Vol. 157, No. 443, October 1893, pp. 431-440.
19. Ada Heather-Bigg, ‘The Wife’s Contribution to Family Income’, The Economic Journal, Vol. 4, No. 13, March 1894, pp. 51-58.
20. Marie Corelli, Flora Annie W. Steel, Lady Susan Hamilton Ardagh and Baroness Susan Mary St. Helier Jeune. The Modern Marriage Market (London, Hutchinson, 1898).
21. Jane Addams, ‘The College Woman and the Family Claim’, Commons. Vol. 3, 1898, pp. 3-7.
22. Kate Sheppard, ‘Economic Independence of Married Women’, (1899).
23. Helen Bosanquet, ‘The Economic Importance of the Family’, in The Strength of the People: A Study in Social Economics (London: Macmillan, 1903), pp. 180-192.
24. Katherine Susan Anthony, extracts from Mothers Who Must Earn (New York: Survey Associates, 1914), pp. 18-24, 85-89, 199-200.
25. Olive Malvery, ‘Women Who Work and Babes Who Weep – ‘What "Home Industries" Mean’, in The Soul Market (New York, McClure, Phillips, and Company, 1907), pp. 182-201.
26. Cecily Hamilton, Marriage as a Trade (New York, Moffat, Yard and Company, 1909).
Index
Volume 3
General Introduction
Part 4. Labour
1. Mary Lamb, ‘On Needlework’, The Lady’s Magazine or Entertainign Companion for the Fair
Sex, Appropriated Solely to Their Use and Amusement, April 1815.
2. Caroline Norton, A Voice from the Factories. In Serious Verse (London, John Murray, 1836), pp. 15-23, 32, 38-40.
3. Anna Jameson, The Communion of Labour, a Second Lecture on the Social Employments of Women (London, Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, 1856)
4. Bessie Raynor Parkes, ‘A Year’s Experience in Woman’s Work’, Paper read at the conference of the National Association for Promotion of Social Science and published in English Woman’s Journal. No 6, October, pp. 112-121.
5. Rebecca Harding Davis, ‘Life in the Iron Mills’, The Atlantic Monthly. Vol 7, Issue 42, April 1861, pp. 430-451.
6. Mary Merryweather, Experience of Factory Life: Being a Record of Fourteen Years’ Work at
Mr. Courtauld’s Silk Mill at Halstead, In Essex (London, Victorian Press, 1862), pp. 6-17, 76-79.
7. Josephine Butler, ‘The Education and Employment of Women’, (Liverpool: T. Brakell, 1868), pp. 3-28.
8. Josephine Butler, An Appeal to the People of England on the Recognition and Superintendence of Prostitution by Governments (1869).
9. Emily Faithfull, ‘Women’s Work, with Special Reference to Industrial Employment, a Paper Read at the Meeting of the Society of Arts, March 29th 1871.
10. Ellen Barlee, Sketches of Working Women (London: Seeley and Co, 1871), pp. iii-iv, 190-206.
11. Emma Paterson, ‘The Position of Working Women and How to Improve It’, Labour News, April 1874, pp. 20-24.
12. Edith Simcox, ‘The Industrial Employment of Women’, Fraser’s Magazine, 19 February 1879, pp. 246-255.
13. Victoria Jeans, Factory Act Legislation: Its Industrial and Commercial Effects, Actual and Prospective (London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1892), pp. 5-19, 81-96
14. Nelly Booth Simmons, ‘Battle Hymn of Labor’, Arena 5, March 1892, pp. 401-4.
15. Adeline Knapp, One Thousand Dollars a Day: Studies in Practical Economics (Boston, The
Arena Publishing Company, 1894).
16. Clementina Black, An Agitator: A Novel (London: Bliss, Sands & Foster, 1894), pp. 1-14.
17. Jessie Boucherett and Helen Blackburn, ‘Women’s Work and the Factory Act’, The Condition of Working Women and the Factory Acts (London: Elliot Stock, 1896), pp. 64-76.
18. Beatrice Webb, Women and the Factory Acts, Fabian Tract No. 67. London, The Fabian Society, February 1896.
19. Olive Malvery, ‘In the Sweating Dens of West and East London’,te The Soul Market (New York, McClure, Phillips, and Company, 1907), pp. 169-181.
Part 5. Poverty and Philanthropy
20. Priscilla Wakefield, The Reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor, Vol. IV. London, 1805, pp. 206-210.
21. Emma Sheppard, Experiences of a Workhouse Visitor (London, Nisbet and Co., 1857)< pp. 3-10.
22. Joanna Margaret Hill, ‘How Can We Eradicate the Pauper Taint from Our Workhouse
Children’, Paper read at the Social Science Congress held at Birmingham, 1868.
23. Florence Nightingale, ‘A Note on Pauperism’, 1869
24. Adelaide Procter, ‘The Homeless Poor’, in The Poems of Adelaide A. Procter (New
York: Universal Publishing Company, 1870).
25. Octavia Hill, ‘Organized Work Among the Poor’, in Homes of the London Poor (New York, State Charities Aid Association, 1875).
26. Jane Addams, ‘The Subtle Problems of Charity’, Atlantic Monthly. Vol. 83, Feb 1899, pp. 163-78.
Index
Volume 4
Generail Introduction
Part 6. Consumerism
1. Hannah More, ‘The Market Woman, a True Tale; or Honesty Is the Best Policy’, Cheap
Repository Tracts (London, J. Marshall, 1795).
2. Elizabeth Coltman Heyrick. Immediate, Not Gradual Abolition; or, An Inquiry into the Shortest, Safest, and Most Effectual Means of Getting Rid of West Indian Slavery (London, J. Hatchard & Son, 1824), pp. 3-7, 24.
3. Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, Wrongs of Woman (New York, M.W. Dodd, 1845), pp. 9-14, 45-63, 86-90, 93-98, 106-108
4. Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford (London: Chapman and Hall, 1853), pp. 189-203.
5. Caroline H. Dall, ‘The Market’, The College, The Market, and The Court; Or, Women’s Relation to Education, Labor, and Law (Boston, Lee and Shepard, 1867), p. 133-150
6. Mary P. Whiteman, ‘Saleswomen in the Great Stores’, Cosmopolitan. Vol. 14, No. 1, May 1895, pp. 79-85.
7. Lady [Susan] Jeune, ‘The Ethics of Shopping’, Fortnightly Review, n.s. 57, January 1895, pp.
123-32.
Part 7. Emigration and Empire
8. Mathilda Hays, ‘Letter to the Editor’, The Times, Tuesday, April 29, 1862, pp. 14.
9. Marie Rye, ‘Emigration of Educated Women’, (London, Emily Faithfull/Victoria Press, 1861), pp. 3-14.
10. Jane Lewin, ‘Female Middle Class Emigration’, a paper read at the Social Science Congress, October 1863.
11. Jessie Boucherett, ‘How to Provide for Superfluous Women’, in Josephine Butler (ed.), Woman’s Work and Woman’s Culture (London: Macmillan, 1869), pp. 27-47.
12. Miss Stuart, ‘Openings for Women in the Colonies’, Englishwoman’s Review, n.s. 177, January 1888, pp. 6-9.
13. Vera Anstey, The Economic Development of India (London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1929).
Part 8. Self Help
14. Bessie Raynor Parkes, ‘What Can Educated Women Do?’, English Woman’s Journal, Vol. 4, No. 22, December 1859, pp. 217-27.
15. Ella Rodman Church, Money-Making for Ladies (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1882), pp. 3-5, 128-136.
16. Jessie Boucherett, ‘The Industrial Movement’, in Theodore Stanton (ed.), The Woman Question in Europe (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1884), pp. 90-107.
17. Dinah Mullock Craik, About Money and Other Things: A Gift Book (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1887), pp. 1-26.
18. Mrs. H. Coleman Davidson, What Our Daughters Can Do for Themselves: A Handbook of Women’s Employments (London, Smith, Elder, 1894), pp. 148-151, 256-262.
19. Helen Churchill Candee, ‘For All Workers’, How Women May Earn a Living (London, Macmillan & Co, Ltd, 1900), 1-13.
20. Katharine Newbold Birdsall (ed.), How to Make Money: Eighty Novel and Practical Suggestions for Untrained Women’s Work, Based on Experience (New York: Doubleday, 1903), pp. ix-xii, 91-92, 120, 121.
Index
Biography
Lana L. Dalley is Professor of Victorian Literature, California State University, Fullerton, USA
