Unbridling the Tongues of Women - The University of Adelaide
Unbridling the Tongues of Women - The University of Adelaide
Unbridling the Tongues of Women - The University of Adelaide
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4<br />
Edging out <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> domestic sphere<br />
If <strong>the</strong> Unitarians <strong>of</strong> South Australia were not generally active in promoting social<br />
change, those in England were. 1 Ca<strong>the</strong>rine Spence met a number <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m during<br />
her year in Britain in 1865-66. Furnished with introductions from Emily Clark, and<br />
preceded by her reputation as <strong>the</strong> author <strong>of</strong> Clara Morison and a political pamphlet,<br />
she was welcomed into <strong>the</strong> circles <strong>of</strong> Emily Clark’s cousins, Florence and Rosamund<br />
Davenport Hill, and those <strong>of</strong> her uncles Rowland Hill and Mat<strong>the</strong>w Davenport Hill.<br />
Mat<strong>the</strong>w Davenport Hill joined Mary Carpenter in <strong>the</strong> campaign for changes<br />
in <strong>the</strong> punishment <strong>of</strong> juvenile delinquents and <strong>the</strong> establishment <strong>of</strong> reformatories in<br />
<strong>the</strong> 1850s. 2 <strong>The</strong> Davenport Hill sisters were at work on a book about ways <strong>of</strong> caring<br />
for destitute children: Florence was to read a paper about boarding out children from<br />
workhouses at a meeting <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> National Association for <strong>the</strong> Promotion <strong>of</strong> Social Science<br />
in 1869, and Rosamund was to become a member <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> London School Board<br />
ten years later. 3 <strong>The</strong>y introduced Spence to <strong>the</strong> gentlemanly Frances Power Cobbe<br />
who, having subjected her generous Anglo-Irish warmth to a chilling stint as a teacher<br />
in Mary Carpenter’s reformatory for girls in <strong>the</strong> 1850s, had moved on to philanthropic<br />
action over <strong>the</strong> care and education <strong>of</strong> pauper children, and to struggle in <strong>the</strong><br />
campaign for female suffrage. Her Essays on <strong>the</strong> Pursuits <strong>of</strong> <strong>Women</strong> had appeared in<br />
1864. 4 At Rowland Hill’s house, Spence met <strong>the</strong> golden-haired philanthropist, feminist<br />
and artist Barbara Leigh Smith, on whom George Eliot modelled <strong>the</strong> character<br />
77