Home, family and society: women of the Irish landed class, 1860-1914. A Munster case study

The thesis analyses the roles and experiences of female members of the Irish landed class (wives, sisters and daughters of gentry and aristocratic landlords with estates over 1,000 acres) using primary personal material generated by twelve sample families over an important period of decline for the class, and growing rights for women. Notably, it analyses the experiences of relatively unknown married and unmarried women, something previously untried in Irish historiography. It demonstrates that women’s roles were more significant than has been assumed in the existing literature, and leads to a more rounded understanding of the entire class. Four chapters focus on themes which emerge from the sources used and which deal with their roles both inside and outside the home. These chapters argue that: Married and unmarried women were more closely bound to the priorities of their class than their sex, and prioritised male-centred values of family and estate. Male and female duties on the property overlapped, as marriage relationships were more equal than the legislation of the time would suggest. London was the cultural centre for this class. Due to close familial links with Britain (60% of sample daughters married English men) their self-perception was British or English, as well as Irish. With the self-confidence of their class, these women enjoyed cultural and political activities and movements outside the home (sport, travel, fashion, art, writing, philanthropy, (anti-)suffrage, and politics). Far from being pawns in arranged marriages, women were deeply conscious of their marriage decisions and chose socially, financially and personally compatible husbands; they also looked for sexual satisfaction. Childbirth sometimes caused lasting health problems, but pregnancy did not confine wealthy women to an invalid state. In opposition to the stereotypical distant aristocratic mother, these women breastfed their children, and were involved mothers. However, motherhood was not permitted to impinge on the more pressing role of wife

Caring for the Celtic cubs: Discursive constructions of mothers and mothering in the Irish childcare debate

Drawing on an understanding of the public sphere as a multiplicity of communicative and discursive spaces this paper examines the constructions of mothers, mothering and motherhood which emerged in recent debates about childcare in Ireland. Preliminary analysis of these discursive constructions suggest that they are often based on rhetoric, informed by stereotypical assumptions and rooted in frames of reference which mitigate against the emergence of alternative ways of understanding the issues of mothering and childcare. It will be argued that the reductionist and divisive nature of the childcare debate which ensued prior to the 2005 budget, stymied childcare policy development at a time when its unprecedented prominence on the political agenda and the strength of public finances could have underpinned a shift in policy approach. The paper concludes with an exploration of the ways in which feminist scholarship can challenge the Irish model of childcare policy, which continues to be premised on an understanding of childcare and the reconciliation of work and family life as the privatised responsibility of individual women.

Caring for the Celtic cubs: Discursive constructions of mothers and mothering in the Irish childcare debate

Drawing on an understanding of the public sphere as a multiplicity of communicative and discursive spaces this paper examines the constructions of mothers, mothering and motherhood which emerged in recent debates about childcare in Ireland. Preliminary analysis of these discursive constructions suggest that they are often based on rhetoric, informed by stereotypical assumptions and rooted in frames of reference which mitigate against the emergence of alternative ways of understanding the issues of mothering and childcare. It will be argued that the reductionist and divisive nature of the childcare debate which ensued prior to the 2005 budget, stymied childcare policy development at a time when its unprecedented prominence on the political agenda and the strength of public finances could have underpinned a shift in policy approach. The paper concludes with an exploration of the ways in which feminist scholarship can challenge the Irish model of childcare policy, which continues to be premised on an understanding of childcare and the reconciliation of work and family life as the privatised responsibility of individual women.

The contribution of Victor Hugo to the liberation, emancipation, and changing perceptions of women in 19th century French society

The over-riding perceptions of Victor Hugo’s attitudes towards women are intensely coloured by his deep-seated Romanticism and his well-testified, stifling and over-bearing treatment of women in his personal life. As such, Hugo’s contribution to the feminist struggle of his time has been woefully overlooked in the larger scheme of his social and political activism. Through a close examination of his largely unstudied public discourse on women’s rights, this thesis situates Hugo’s feminist views firmly in the context of Enlightenment feminism and 19th century feminism, while also drawing heavily on the illuminating principles of Enlightenment feminism. In particular, this thesis examines Hugo’s support for several of the most determining issues of 19th century French feminism, including women’s right to education, equal citizenship, universal suffrage rights, and the issue of regulated prostitution. Further, by examining the way in which Hugo’s views on women’s maternal role extended far beyond the limited vision of domesticity bolstered by the ideology of ‘republican motherhood’, this thesis engages in a re-appraisal of Hugo’s literary representation of maternity which identifies the maternal as a universal quality of devotion and self-sacrifice to which all humankind must aspire for the creation of a just, egalitarian, and democratic society. Though at times inevitably constrained by his Romanticism, this thesis demonstrates the extent to which Hugo’s feminism is grounded in his wider vision of social emancipation and is underpinned by a profound empathy, compassion, and moral conscience – qualities which are just as fundamental today, as they were for Hugo when participating in the fitful, though decisive, feminist struggle in 19th century France.