Definition
Bessie Rayner Parkes (later Belloc) lived an unorthodox life as a working feminist journalist, editor, and social activist whose abiding concern was the condition of women’s everyday lives. Parkes edited and contributed regularly to the first avowedly feminist magazine in England, the English Woman’s Journal, wrote books and pamphlets on women’s education and work, and helped spearhead a campaign for marriage law reform. She was a central organizer of the Langham Place Group, a mid-century feminist pressure group that waged a series of campaigns demanding women’s legal, educational, and economic rights. After her marriage she distanced herself from the feminist movement but remained sympathetic to its goals. She continued to write in a variety of genres, including biography, memoir, poetry, journalism, and travel.
Introduction
Bessie Rayner Parkes (later Belloc) lived an unorthodox life as a working feminist journalist, editor and social activist whose abiding concern was...
References
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———. 1989. Friendship and politics: Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (1827–91) and Bessie Rayner Parkes (1829–1925). In Sexuality and subordination, ed. S. Mendus and J. Rendall, 136–164. Routledge: London and New York.
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Schroeder, J. (2019). Parkes, Bessie Rayner. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women's Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_59-1
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