Overview

This is a study of the social history and cultural significance of the sisterhoods which sprang up in Victorian Britain. It looks at those women who abandoned the domestic sphere to become the prototype of the modern social worker, pushing back the boundaries of what women could do within the structure of the Anglican Church. Beginning with the establishment of the first Anglican convent in 1845, the study shows that by 1900 more than 10,000 women had joined the only Anglican organization which offered full-time work for women of all social classes. More impressive than the sisterhood's rapid growth was the degree of fascination ""Protestant nunneries"" had for the general public - the movement was the focus of a vigorous debate which lasted beyond the end of the 19th century. This text, based on research into the archives of 28 religious communities, offers a comprehensive picture of the movement, showing that the sisterhoods were not refuges for women who failed to find husbands; rather they attracted women who were moulding careers. The sisterhoods became so successful in recruiting women that, by the end of the 1860s, they threatened to undermine the hegemony of the ideal of domestic life as the proper sphere for women.

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9780718501518

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Susan Mumm teaches at the Faculty of Arts at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK.

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