Article

Hysterical Women: The Fight for an Expanded British Franchise at the Turn of the 20th Century

Author: Leighton Barnes (University of Iowa)

  • Hysterical Women: The Fight for an Expanded British Franchise at the Turn of the 20th Century

    Article

    Hysterical Women: The Fight for an Expanded British Franchise at the Turn of the 20th Century

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Abstract

This project argues that in the United Kingdom at the turn of the 20th century, social and medical claims of female hysteria worked as a way of confining women to the domestic sphere. To explore the social implications of feminine hysteria in this region, the medical legitimacy of these claims is analyzed through looking at the texts of various surgeon generals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries while placing them in conjunction with the rapidly changing world. This world was filled with suppressors who worked toward maintaining established social norms. The group analyzed in this project, women, were most prominently suppressed through the negative rhetorical use of medical terms such as female hysteria in pursuit of maintaining the status quo of the early 1800s. This umbrella term was historically used to describe any and all afflictions of women but morphed into ammunition for medical professionals and the general public alike to contain unruly women. This project contextualizes women’s health issues encapsulated by this umbrella term (hysteria) and others with the prevailing thoughts on women’s suffrage of the time to argue the above claim.

Keywords: women, hysteria, suffrage, britain, United Kingdom

How to Cite:

Barnes, L., (2024) “Hysterical Women: The Fight for an Expanded British Franchise at the Turn of the 20th Century”, Iowa Historical Review 11(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.17077/2373-1842.33771

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Published on
04 Nov 2024
Peer Reviewed