Picture of Eliza Lynn Linton. Photo credit: wiki
Statement of Purpose
Eliza Lynn Linton (1822-1898) was an English novelist and journalist. Linton is most famous for her reputation as an impassioned opponent of women's rights, publishing in her novels and periodical articles criticisms of the "Wild Women" who sought emancipation from patriarchal rule in Victorian England.
​
"The Wild Women as Politicians" (July 1891) was the first of Linton's "Wild Women" essays. Linton used the term "Wild Women" as a pejorative for the "Modern Women" that began to emerge in the mid-to-late-nineteenth century in Victorian England. Modern Women sough participation in the political, educational, and professional life that had heretofore been reserved for men (Melani). In her essay, Linton remarked that the New Woman was "anti-social" and would "bring the nation into disrepute." Linton effectuated a female-voice to promote anti-feminist rhetoric, commodifying the debate over women's rights in the press as a consummate journalist (Anderson).
​
In this project, I analyze "The Wild Women as Politicians" with Hypothesis annotations. These annotations include parallels to primary sources, including contemporaries of Linton who add to, agree with, or challenge Linton's opinion of The Modern Woman, as well as secondary annotations that contain scholarly research that inform Linton, her work, and the Victorian view of The Modern Woman. The purpose of this project is to understand why Linton, a woman largely emancipated from the constraints placed upon her sex, would oppose the expansion of women's rights in the economic, social, and political spheres of Victorian England.