'Real Men' and Anti-Feminism

Abstract

The important part played by men in the history of British feminism, particularly in the nineteenth-century struggle for women’s rights, has long been recognized. As Olive Banks pointed out some decades ago, a common feature among Victorian feminist activists was the presence of supportive fathers who encouraged their daughters to seek education, and to pursue goals that challenged the limits imposed on them as women.1 Husbands mattered too, often providing support for their feminist wives as they campaigned for reform of the marriage laws, for repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts or for the vote.2 Some of these men, including Jacob Bright and James Stansfeld, carried feminist campaigns into parliament where they worked to gain significant reforms in women’s legal and political status. But the number of men wholeheartedly committed to the emancipation of women was very small and the passage of legislation required the support of many other male MPs whose views on women’s status were often equivocal. Nonetheless, if one is to understand how married British women gained some legal and political rights in the nineteenth century, including limited rights to divorce, to the ownership of property and the custody of children, one needs to address not only the women’s movement that campaigned for these reforms, but also the willingness of sufficient numbers of men to enact the relevant legislation.