Kensington society
Encyclopedia
The Kensington Society formed in London, England in March 1865. It developed as a forum where rising suffragists discussed women's rights organized their campaign for female suffrage, education and property holding.
The Society met at the Kensington home of Charlotte Manning, Society President, and enjoyed a close relationship with English institutions of higher education amenable to women. Most members were young, unmarried, educated, middle class women. Nine of the original eleven members were not married, suggesting a broader commitment to female empowerment. The Society included: Barbara Bodichon
, Emily Davies
, Frances Buss
, Dorothea Beale
, Jessie Boucherett, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
, Helen Taylor
, Charlotte Manning, Anna Swanwick
, Anne Clough, and Rosamond Davenport Hill. Another early member, Emilia Russell Gurney was the wife of Russell Gurney
who introduced legislation in parliament on women's rights to property and to practise medicine. Membership expanded to thirty-three members by the official founding, a total of fifty-eight members in the following year and sixty-seven by its end in 1868.
In the interest of maximum efficiency and discussion quality, each member submitted a discussion question before meetings. Charlotte Manning, Isa Craig, and Emily Davies
selected the three questions of “greatest interest” to the group and present them. The members exchanged response papers and discussed them at the following meeting. By giving all of its members the opportunity to participate in constructive debate and discussion, the Society allowed competent and educated women to articulate their thoughts further expansion of the suffrage and more egalitarian political movements.
On April 28, 1866, Society members Barbara Bodichon
, Emily Davies
and Jessie Boucherett drafted a petition for the enfranchisement of, “all householders, without distinction of sex, who possess such property or rental qualifications as your Honorable House may determine.” This petition was the first of its kind, but cleverly and specifically excluded married women, whose enfranchised husbands held their property and held the power to stifle the document. The Kensington Society relied on social networks to obtain 1,499 signatures. The Society petitioned Henry Fawcett
and John Stuart Mill
, Parliament members who favored universal suffrage. Mill added an amendment giving women equal political rights to the Reform Bill in 1866 and, with Fawcett, presented it to Parliament. The legislature defeated the amendment with a 196 to 73 vote, but the Kensington Society persisted.
Following this defeat, the Society decided to try new tactics. On July 5, 1867 the Kensington Society became the London National Society for Women’s Suffrage and formed a loose federation with a similar group based in Manchester and Edinburgh called the National Society for Women’s Suffrage (NSWS). Eventually, seventeen similar organizations allied and became the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies
(NUWSS) and were key to the ultimate success of the women's suffrage movement.
The Kensington Society facilitated discussion between progressive and driven women of 19th Century London. Their discussion and political actions served as the foundation for women's suffrage movements and catalyzed political action. Several of its members continued advocating change to and beyond the point where English women exercised the right to vote. Though only officially active from 1865 to 1868, the Kensington Society served a crucial role in the establishment of women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom.
The Society met at the Kensington home of Charlotte Manning, Society President, and enjoyed a close relationship with English institutions of higher education amenable to women. Most members were young, unmarried, educated, middle class women. Nine of the original eleven members were not married, suggesting a broader commitment to female empowerment. The Society included: Barbara Bodichon
Barbara Bodichon
Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon was an English educationalist, artist, and a leading early nineteenth century feminist and activist for women's rights.-Early life:...
, Emily Davies
Emily Davies
Sarah Emily Davies was an English feminist, suffragist and a pioneering campaigners fore women's rights to university access. She was born in Southampton, England to an evangelical clergyman and a teacher in 1830, although she spent most of her youth in Gateshead...
, Frances Buss
Frances Buss
Frances Mary Buss was a headmistress and an English pioneer of women's education.The daughter of Robert William Buss, a painter and etcher, and his wife, Frances Fleetwood, Buss was one of six of their ten children to survive into adulthood...
, Dorothea Beale
Dorothea Beale
Dorothea Beale LLD was a suffragist, educational reformer, author and Principal of the Cheltenham Ladies' College.Born in Bishopsgate, England, she was the founder of St Hilda's College, Oxford....
, Jessie Boucherett, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, LSA, MD , was an English physician and feminist, the first woman to gain a medical qualification in Britain and the first female mayor in England.-Early life:...
, Helen Taylor
Helen Taylor (feminist)
Helen Taylor was an English feminist, writer and actress. She was the daughter of Harriet Taylor Mill and stepdaughter of John Stuart Mill. Raised at home by a mother, she went to the stage in 1856-1858. After the death of her mother, she lived and worked with John Stuart Mill. Together they...
, Charlotte Manning, Anna Swanwick
Anna Swanwick
Anna Swanwick was an English author and feminist, born in Liverpool. In Berlin she studied German, Greek, and Hebrew, and after settling in London took up mathematics also...
, Anne Clough, and Rosamond Davenport Hill. Another early member, Emilia Russell Gurney was the wife of Russell Gurney
Russell Gurney
Russell Gurney was an English Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1865 to 1878.-Life:...
who introduced legislation in parliament on women's rights to property and to practise medicine. Membership expanded to thirty-three members by the official founding, a total of fifty-eight members in the following year and sixty-seven by its end in 1868.
In the interest of maximum efficiency and discussion quality, each member submitted a discussion question before meetings. Charlotte Manning, Isa Craig, and Emily Davies
Emily Davies
Sarah Emily Davies was an English feminist, suffragist and a pioneering campaigners fore women's rights to university access. She was born in Southampton, England to an evangelical clergyman and a teacher in 1830, although she spent most of her youth in Gateshead...
selected the three questions of “greatest interest” to the group and present them. The members exchanged response papers and discussed them at the following meeting. By giving all of its members the opportunity to participate in constructive debate and discussion, the Society allowed competent and educated women to articulate their thoughts further expansion of the suffrage and more egalitarian political movements.
On April 28, 1866, Society members Barbara Bodichon
Barbara Bodichon
Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon was an English educationalist, artist, and a leading early nineteenth century feminist and activist for women's rights.-Early life:...
, Emily Davies
Emily Davies
Sarah Emily Davies was an English feminist, suffragist and a pioneering campaigners fore women's rights to university access. She was born in Southampton, England to an evangelical clergyman and a teacher in 1830, although she spent most of her youth in Gateshead...
and Jessie Boucherett drafted a petition for the enfranchisement of, “all householders, without distinction of sex, who possess such property or rental qualifications as your Honorable House may determine.” This petition was the first of its kind, but cleverly and specifically excluded married women, whose enfranchised husbands held their property and held the power to stifle the document. The Kensington Society relied on social networks to obtain 1,499 signatures. The Society petitioned Henry Fawcett
Henry Fawcett
Henry Fawcett PC was a blind British academic, statesman and economist.-Background and education:Fawcett was born in Salisbury, and educated at King's College School and the University of Cambridge: entering Peterhouse in 1852, he migrated to Trinity Hall the following year, and became a fellow...
and John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...
, Parliament members who favored universal suffrage. Mill added an amendment giving women equal political rights to the Reform Bill in 1866 and, with Fawcett, presented it to Parliament. The legislature defeated the amendment with a 196 to 73 vote, but the Kensington Society persisted.
Following this defeat, the Society decided to try new tactics. On July 5, 1867 the Kensington Society became the London National Society for Women’s Suffrage and formed a loose federation with a similar group based in Manchester and Edinburgh called the National Society for Women’s Suffrage (NSWS). Eventually, seventeen similar organizations allied and became the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies
Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom
Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom as a national movement began in 1872. Women were not prohibited from voting in the United Kingdom until the 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act...
(NUWSS) and were key to the ultimate success of the women's suffrage movement.
The Kensington Society facilitated discussion between progressive and driven women of 19th Century London. Their discussion and political actions served as the foundation for women's suffrage movements and catalyzed political action. Several of its members continued advocating change to and beyond the point where English women exercised the right to vote. Though only officially active from 1865 to 1868, the Kensington Society served a crucial role in the establishment of women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom.
Further reading
- Fawcett, Millicent Garrett. Women’s Suffrage: A Short History of a Great Movement. New York: Source Books Press, 1970.
- Rosen, Andrew. Rise Up, Women! London: Routlegde & Kegan Paul, 1974.
- Dingsdale, Ann. “Kensington Society (act. 1865–1868)”. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, online edn, Oct 2008 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/theme/92488
- Rosen, Andrew. “Emily Davies and the Women’s Movement, 1862-1867”. The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Autumn, 1979), University of Chicago Press, p. 101-121. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/175684?seq=7&Search=yes&term=%22kensington+society%22&list=show&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3D%2522kensington%2Bsociety%2522%26x%3D0%26y%3D0%26wc%3Don&item=1&ttl=12&returnArticleService=showArticle&resultsServiceName=doBasicResultsFromArticle
External links
- http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wkensington.htm
- http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0271%2FGCPP%20Davies%2010.
- http://www.lsg.sch.ae/departments/history/cws/The%20NUWSS.html
- http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/wojtczak/nuwss.html