a biography of trhe day-barbara bodichon (artist, educator, feminist, activist)
Barbara Bodichon
Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (8 April 1827 – 11 June 1891) was an English educationalist, artist, and a leading early nineteenth-century feminist and activist for women's rights.
She was the extramarital child of Anne Longden, a milliner from Alfreton, and Benjamin (Ben) Leigh Smith (1783–1860), an MP's only son, who was himself a Radical MP for Norwich. Benjamin had four sisters. One, Frances (Fanny) Smith, married into the Nightingale family and produced a daughter, Florence Nightingale, the nurse and statistician; another married into the Bonham Carter family. Ben's father wanted him to marry Mary Shore, the sister of William Nightingale, now a relative by marriage.
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Early on, she showed a force of character and catholicity of sympathy that later won her a prominent place among philanthropists and social workers. She and a group of friends began to meet regularly during the 1850s in Langham Place in London to discuss women's rights, and became known as "The Ladies of Langham Place". This became one of the first organised women’s movements in Britain. They pursued many causes vigorously, including their Married Women’s Property Committee. In 1854 she published her Brief Summary of the Laws of England concerning Women, which had a useful effect in helping forward the passage of the Married Women's Property Act 1882. During this period she became close friends with the artist Anna Mary Howitt, for whom she sat on several occasions.[2]
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In 1858, she set up the English Women's Journal as an organ for discussing employment and equality issues directly concerning women, in particular manual or intellectual industrial employment, expansion of employment opportunities, and the reform of laws pertaining to the
sexes. In 1866, co-operating with Emily Davies, she matured a scheme for the extension of university education to women, and the first small experiment at Hitchin developed into Girton College, Cambridge, to which Madame Bodichon gave liberally of her time and money.
With all her public interests she found time for society and her favorite art of painting. She studied under William Holman Hunt, and her water-colors, exhibited at the Salon, the Royal Academy and elsewhere, showed great originality and talent, and were admired by Corot and Daubigny. Her London salon included many of the literary and artistic celebrities of her day; she was George Eliot's most intimate friend, and, according to her, the first to recognize the authorship of Adam Bede. Her personal appearance is said to be described in that of Romola. Madame Bodichon died at Robertsbridge, Sussex, on 11 June 1891.
She was a Unitarian who wrote of Theodore Parker: He prayed to the Creator, the infinite Mother of us all (always using Mother instead of Father in this prayer). It was the prayer of all I ever heard in my life which was the truest to my individual soul. (Lingwood, 2008)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Bodichon
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In the 1850s Barbara concentrated on the campaign to remove women's legal disabilities. This included writing articles and organizing petitions. The writer, Caroline Norton, also played an important role in this campaign. Barbara gave evidence to a House of Commons committee looking into the legal position of married women. The committee deliberations resulted in the Matrimonial Causes Act that allowed divorce through the law courts instead of the slow and expensive business of a Private Act of Parliament. Barbara was particularly pleased that this new act also protected the property rights of divorced women.
Barbara was very critical of a legal system that failed to protect the property and earnings of married women. In 1857 Barbara wrote Women and Work where she argued that a married women's dependence on her husband was degrading. As a young woman Barbara had fallen in love with John Chapman, the editor of the Westminster Review. Her views on the legal position of married women meant that she was unwilling to marry Chapman. However, after meeting Eugene Bodichon, Barbara decided to compromise her principals by marrying this former French army officer. Bodichon held radical political views and loyally supported Barbara in her many campaigns for women's rights.
In 1858 Barbara Bodichon and her friend, Bessie Rayner Parkes, founded the journal, The Englishwoman's Review. For the next few years the two women made their journal available to women campaigning for women doctors and the extension of opportunities for women in higher
education. Bodichon now decided the time was right to campaign for the franchise. 1866 Bodichon formed the first ever Women's Suffrage Committee. This group organised the women's suffrage petition, which John Stuart Mill presented to the House of Commons on their behalf.
Bodichon now toured the country where she held meetings on the subject of women's suffrage. Her speeches converted many women to the cause, including Lydia Becker, the future leader of the movement. Bodichon also wrote and published a series of pamphlets on the subject of women's rights. Although her main efforts went into the women's suffrage campaign, Bodichon continued her work to improve women's education.
Bodichon joined with Emily Davies to raise funds for the first women's college in Cambridge. Girton College was opened in 1873 but women students at Girton were not admitted to full membership of the University of Cambridge until April 1948.
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http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wbodichon.htm
