'Bluestockings': a talk by Susannah Gibson

Author and historian Susannah Gibson will give a talk about her marvellous book Bluestockings: The First Women's Movement. 

In eighteenth-century Britain, women had no power and no rights. They were not seen as fully rational creatures. The Bluestockings were an influential group of women who set out to overturn this view and prove that women were every bit as capable as men. They overcame many hurdles and risked their reputations to become public intellectuals and, in doing so, they laid a foundation for future feminists to build upon.

Many Bluestockings had close links to Bath, including: Catharine Macaulay, Frances Burney, Elizabeth Montagu, Hannah More, Hester Thrale, Sarah Fielding, Sarah Scott – all of whom feature in Persephone’s Literary Map of Bath.