The Social Profile of Chartism’s Female Following

Abstract

Despite the ambiguities that riddled Chartism’s policies for women, the movement did have a sizeable female following. Their exact number, like that of Chartist adherents in general, is impossible to ascertain. As a loosely organised political movement, Chartism was subject to considerable fluctuation in the numbers of its followers. Apart from a hard core of deeply committed supporters, who stayed with the movement more or less for the entire duration of its existence, there were also always large numbers of people floating in and out with the ebb and flow of political excitement. Regardless of the permanence of their commitments, a number of them, including even local adherents, achieved some degree of prominence, usually through the columns of the Chartist press. Yet they only represented a tiny fraction of the people actually involved and of the even larger number who would turn out for public meetings or be prepared to sign a Chartist petition.