Relationships
The woman who fought for – and won – rights for married women in England
Francine Ryan demonstrates how Caroline Norton, a Victorian-era woman who ‘never pretended to the wild and ridiculous doctrine of equality’ campaigned for married women’s rights to child custody and property.
Continue reading
What does it mean to be a truly dangerous woman, in this dangerous world?
‘A woman becomes dangerous when she threatens the status quo… when she points out what is hiding in plain sight.’ Writer and broadcaster Bidisha reflects on the central question of the Dangerous Women Project: What does it mean to be a dangerous woman?
Continue reading
Subtle subversions of Victorian gender conventions
Laura Witz illustrates how one of Scotland’s most prolific writers, Margaret Oliphant, challenged 19th century society’s expectations of women via an unexpected route–the romance novel.
Continue reading
One woman’s struggle to become legally divorced in India
Papia Sengupta spent five years seeking a divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act of India. Here, she shares the legal and social challenges she faced along her journey.
Continue reading
A Women’s Aid group contributes a poem of strength and support
The women who contributed today’s post have been victims of domestic abuse and have been supported by Women’s Aid East and Midlothian (Scotland, UK). The poem is their collective work, around the Dangerous Women Project’s question: ‘what does it mean to be a dangerous woman?’
Continue reading
‘Lucretia Borgia or only a boarding school miss’?
Madeleine Smith’s trial for the murder of her lover, Emile L’Angelier, in 1857, combined those twin Victorian obsessions, sex and death, in a way that not only led to questions about womanhood in general, but about the whole fabric of society.
Continue reading
The angry ones: how women speaking out about abuse and assault are changing the conversation
Writer and digital producer Whitney Milam considers the strength it takes for women to speak out online, and the inherent danger in doing so, particularly in close-knit digital communities like the YouTube world.
Continue reading
Is it a dangerous idea? Undermining tradition? Threatening romantic love?
Joni Meenagh researches young people’s negotiation of their romantic and sexual relationships in the context of new media environments. Here, she challenges the notion of marital status as society’s most privileged category of interpersonal relationships.
Continue reading