Frances Power Cobbe was born in 1822 to a wealthy Irish family, owning land and with social influence. She spent her first three decades caring for a sick mother and living with a distant and uncaring father, while her older brothers became independent and her cousins stayed at home only for a while. Almost nothing suggested how her later life would unfold, highly unconventional by Victorian standards.
Her strong character (and a lot of free time) allowed her to devote herself to study intensely which, together with her loss of faith in traditional Christianity, led her to publish, in 1855, Essays on the Theory of Intuitive Morals . She did it anonymously (although she didn't stay that way for long), both because of her gender and not to upset a deeply religious father. He was not too amused by his daughter's new spirituality, detached from institutionalized beliefs or the literalness of the Bible, nor his defense of Darwin's theories, which he stated that anyone with an intelligent religiosity would consider much more beautiful than a story of accelerated creation. However, Francis, not content with the social ideas of the scientist, tried to convince him to become aware of the injustices suffered by women and criticized some of the ideas of her moral or social evolution. Her sharpness and sensitivity led her to intuit the problems that social Darwinism would later bring.
Gaining independence from her
When his father died in 1857, the cast From the inheritance he left her a small pension, designed to cover only personal expenses and force her to remain in the family home, and he left the bulk of the inheritance to his brother. Proud, she refused to depend on her brother and accept the status quo and what she implied. So she moved on and worked at the Red Lodge Reformatory for Girls in Bristol, with Mary Carpenter. However, she ended up convincing herself that she did not like teenagers or the austerity of that institution. In addition, it seems that her desire for intimacy with Carpenter clashed strongly with the woman's rude and cold nature, so her relationship was quite problematic.
Cobbe has always been drawn to adventure, discovering new worlds and broadening her horizons. She traveled, at this time, as much as she could, alone, without male company or service personnel, a very rare thing for a woman at the time. She also wrote, at first thinking of keeping a travel journal, but also to publish these pieces. In Italy she met a group of artists who lived alone or in lesbian relationships, who shared intimacy and a social life, which dazzled her. She not only collectively, but there she also met the one who would be her partner for more than three decades and from whom only her death would separate her, the sculptor Mary Lloyd. Both managed to live from their work, together and independently.
she also traveled to Egypt and the East, areas that fascinated her, there, and not without some surprise, she was recognized for her work by travelers and locals. This definitely encouraged her to try to make a living from what, until then, had been almost a hobby, and work as a journalist and writer. She was hired as a correspondent in Italy for the Daily News , a fact also quite unusual when dealing with a woman and, later, she wrote regularly for the Echo or Fraser's Magazine her, in addition to continuing to publish essays.
Frances Power Cobbe and activism for women
During her lifetime, Cobbe had developed a strong sense of social justice, as well as a broad awareness of the issues facing women in her time. In fact, one of her earliest articles, What Shall We Do with Our Old Maids? , denounced the view expressed by W.R. Greg in Why are Women Redundant? , an article in which she described women as beings without desire and parasites, in addition to stating that single women were superfluous to society and should be deported. Cobbe affirms, on the contrary, the agency and value of women but, even more, her ability to be happy and independent without the need for a man by her side or her motherhood.
Many of her articles and essays were aimed at denouncing these prejudices, paying special attention to the issue of gender violence, which was seen as normal and even suitable at the time. Her work Wife Torture in England (1878) had a special impact, putting the debate on the table. Contrary to some politicians, she also knew that a mere physical punitiveness of abuse would not do any good, since men would limit themselves to exerting even more violence on their wives, to compensate for their frustration and the punishment itself. Instead, she advocated, in addition to raising awareness and along with the Married Women's Property Rights Group to which she belonged, making it easier for women to divorce, as well as manage her own property. In the end, Parliament passed the Matrimonial Causes Act (1878), due to pressure on the issue.
she also strongly advocated for women's access to university. In 1862 she spoke at the annual meeting of the Social Science Associations on the subject, although she was ridiculed for it (save for the Times , who considered it the best presentation of the day). Although colleges began to be created in the 1970s women to provide higher education to women, it would take half a century for universities like Oxford or Cambridge to admit women.
All these problems had a basis, for Cobbe, politics. Without a vote or participation in public institutions, it was difficult for women to solve the social injustices that affected them. Thus, in addition to encouraging women to actively participate in politics in the article The Duties of Women (1881), she participated in the founding of the Society for Women's Suffrage (1872), actively participating in the struggle for women's suffrage.
Empathy, love and death
she Not only was she concerned about the woman's situation (something that never ceased to affect her personally), but she also had a special sensitivity to the cruelty suffered by animals . Her article The Rights of Man and the Claims of Brutes (1863) already exposed the problem of animal abuse and vivisection. In 1875 she founded the Society for the Protection of Animals Liable to Vivisection (Victoria Street Society), and is editor of its seminal journal Zoophilist her (her today she perhaps she would have chosen another name). She got numerous personalities to join the cause, such as the bishops of Bristol or Manchester. Although she managed to get Parliament to pass the Cruelty to Animals Act in 1876, her request that experiments be done only on fully anesthetized animals was removed, so she had to continue fighting vivisection. He also argued that this was not only something that affected the welfare of animals, but also harmed medical students, who were used to ignoring or enjoying the pain caused by their practices.
he would continue to lead the association until 1884, the year in that he retired, with a pension of about 100 pounds a year from her. In addition, a bequest of £25,000 from a friend and fellow anti-vivisectionist enabled Frances and Mary Lloyd to move to Wales and live comfortably for the rest of their lives. The latter's death in 1896 affected Frances profoundly until her death in 1904. Although withdrawn from her, she continued to write and activism until her death. Among them, a charity book, The Confessions of a lost Dog , dedicated to the dog that the couple had adopted. In fact, in 1898, considering the drift of the previous organization too soft, he founded the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection.
Although in life she was recognized and admired, and her influence achieved political and social changes, a few decades after her death she had been practically forgotten. Her essayistic writing that led her away to the novel or poetry, as well as the rise of Pankhurst's WSPU, which overshadowed every previous suffrage movement, combined to end up placing her unfairly in a gray area. It is worth remembering this activist and prolific writer, who threw social norms to the test and fought to change the world she knew.
Bibliography
- Cobbe, Frances Power and Atkinson, Blanche (1904), Life of Frances Power Cobbe as told by herself , London:S. Sonnenschein &Company
- Hamilton, Susan (2001), “Making History with Frances Power Cobbe:Victorian Feminism, Domestic Violence, and the Language of Imperialism”, Victorian Studies , 43 (3), p. 437-460
- Hamilton, Susan (2006), Frances Power Cobbe and Victorian Feminism , New York:Palgrave MacMillan.
- Mitchell, Sally (2004), Frances Power Cobbe:Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer , Charlottesville and London:University of Virginia Press
- Phelps, Norm (2007), The Longest Struggle. Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA , New York:Lantern Books