Access to the full content is only available to members of institutions that have purchased access. If you belong to such an institution, please log in or find out more about how to order.


Cover of Women's History Review

Women's History Review

Volume 3, Issue 2, Jun 1994
Pages 247-261

  • DOI: 10.1080/09612029400200049
  • Print ISSN: 0961-2025
  • Online ISSN: 1747-583X

Feminist biography and feminist history

Abstract

This article seeks to explore the relationship between biography and the many new developments evident in feminist history. Taking as its particular focus the history of nineteenth- and twentieth-century English feminism, it looks at the divergence between an approach to biography which assumes it to be concerned with the lives of exceptional individuals and an interest in the history of feminism which has ceased to regard it as being the story of heroic victories on the way to women's emancipation. The growing interest in the lives, experiences and activities of past feminists who were not the leaders of major national campaigns suggests a new approach in general to the biographies of feminists – exploring how they lived and understood the broader situation of women