Demonstrating women.

Demonstrating women. © National Maritime Museum, London

Repro ID: H4463_20040130112848

Description: During the 19th century those women who stepped outside the conventional norms of feminine behaviour, by placing issues of sexual equality on the political agenda, were often branded as deviant. This sometimes occurred not only because they discussed controversial issues like sex, but simply because of their public activism. Victorian women were not supposed to enter the public sphere. Women’s lives were confined by essentialist definitions of what women were: mothers first, equal citizens second.

Creator: 'Illustrated London News'

Date: 7 September 1889

Credit line: National Maritime Museum, London