WOMEN IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE Despite the doctrine of separate
spheres, nineteenth-century women engaged in many pursuits that
had previously been the exclusive domain of men. Women became
lecturers, writers, scholars, and activists, and participated in
social movements such as socialism, anarchism, and labor reform.
The Woman Question and Early Feminism As the public role of
women grew, feminism began to take root in mid- to late-
Victorian Britain, at a time when women’s natural and social
roles were the subject of intense debate. It was the debate
surrounding this “Woman Question” that sparked the earliest
feminist movements in the nineteenth century, especially in the
realms of suffrage, sexual freedom, marriage, reproductive
rights, property rights, and legal rights. Women writers played
a vital role on both sides of the debate. Some argued that a
woman’s natural place was in the home; others vehemently
protested the rigid social codes that enforced a woman’s
domestic servitude. While many of the writers fea