Gender and sexuality in Victorian Britain
Margaret Hamersley
8 points * 2 lectures and 1 tutorial per week * First semester * Clayton * Prerequisites: Any first-year history subject or WMN2110/WMN2120
The subject is concerned with the changing patterns of public and private life in nineteenth century England and Australia, with changing ideas about sexuality, and with the political expression of all this as women and men moved towards political and legal equality. Students will be encouraged to specialise in an area of particular interest, such as the struggle for manhood suffrage, attempts to change the law as it impinged on women, prostitution and the law, women's movement into education and the professions, working women and politics, the ideas of political theorists and their explanations of sexual difference, and the various strands of the movement for women's suffrage.
Assessment
Written (5000 words): 75% * Examination (1 hour): 25%
Prescribed texts
Horowitz M J (ed.) Strong-minded women and other lost voices from 19th century England Penguin
Weeks J Sex, politics and society: the regulation of sexuality since 1800 2nd edn, Longman, 1989
Third year