Introduction: Changing Lives? Women, Educational Reform and Personal Identities, 1800–1980

Abstract

In 1873, 38-year-old Jane Agnes Chessar was elected to serve on the new single-purpose educational authority called the London School Board. She had already won for herself considerable standing in the metropolis, where she spent most of her adult life, and was returned with the support of some among the leadership of the nineteenthcentury women’s movement. Her successful election illustrates the tenacity of the social relationships that underlay feminist organizations due to her close connections with the Langham Place group, established in the 1850s and named after its cultural centre in London’s West End. Employment in teacher education meant she shared professional concerns with the headmistress, Frances Buss, and with Emily Davies, the founder of Girton College, Cambridge, who were both equally dedicated to the foundation of new educational opportunities for women. Emily Davies was a very close friend of the pioneer doctor, Elizabeth Garrett, another prominent member of the Langham Place Circle. This forum served as a conduit for political patronage in the school board division of Marylebone, where Jane Chessar took over the Garrett seat.