WOMEN ADVISING WOMEN
Advice Books, Manuals and Journals for Women, 1450-1837

Part 2: Advice Books, Manuals, Almanacs and Journals, c.1625-1837 from the Bodleian Library, Oxford

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

Women Advising Women fills an important gap in the provision of source materials for Women’s Studies.  For whilst much has been done to give scholars access to printed sources for women in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there has hitherto been very little available concerning the eighteenth century or the early modern period.

This lacunae is significant because between the emergence of the first women’s periodicals in the 1960’s and 1700’s and the appearance of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792 it has been said that there was a fundamental shift in perceptions and attitudes towards women.  Was there?

Part 1 of this project covered over 40 women’s journals for the period 1577-1834, largely based on the Hope Collection of Early Newspapers and Essayists at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

This second part focuses on prescriptive literature and conduct books, including household manuals; letter-writing manuals; guidance books on marriage and bringing up children; advice books on diet; health and law; guides to the education of young women; and descriptions of correct moral behaviour.

There are also examples of women’s literature, song-books written for women, fashion guides, and a near complete run of The Ladies Diary: or, women’s almanack … from 1706 to 1840 – one of the longest running publications aimed at women.

This second part has also been based on the rich resources of the Bodleian Library, Oxford and includes over 300 items for the period 1599-1842.  The earliest of these, A Womans Worth, defended against all the men in the world (1599), is a useful starting point for an examination of women’s status and attitudes over 240 years.

“ … I have turned over and over the leaves of Histories, as well as of my native, as of most languages beside, and I have observed them with the greatest care I could: yet finde I not in them any examples of more weightie and illustrate virtues, than those which by Ladyes have been taught at all times.  How many of them (to maintaine theyr intire faith & fervent love) have opposed theselves against a thousand dangers of war; and never were their friends or esteemed thrust into exile, but (with infinit greefes) they have gladly changed both name and habit, onely through pure affection borne to their husbands, beloved by the[m] more dearly than life, & more honoured than ought els could be by them.

As for humanity and curtesie, yee shall not find any man equal to them.  Ye are not able to comprehend the number of noble Dames, who for releefe of hospitals, ayde of poore beggers, building of Churches, founding of Chappels, and redemption of prisoners, have employed and consumed their temporal goods …”

The publications contained within Part 2 are fairly evenly divided across the 240 year period covered.  There are 50 items for the seventeenth century; 68 for the period 1700-1749; 93 for the period 1750-1799; and 64 (plus 45 song-sheets/books) for the period 1800-1842.

To help readers we have divided the material into thematic groupings.  This enables the consultation on a single reel of, for instance, The Ladies Dispensatory: or, Every Woman her own physician (1739) and Every woman’s book: or, Female’s physician, by a surgeon (1839).  Comparison of such works – a century apart – is an ideal subject for project work.  The full list of themes covered is:

• Women’s Rights & Status
• Women’s Health
• Marriage
• Women & the Law
• Mothers & Daughters
• Education
• Religion & Morality
• Cookery & Domestic Life
• Letter Writing
• Language & Literature
• Fashion & Society
• Miscellanea
• Almanacs for Women

The first section, on Women’s Rights & Status, shows that Mary Wollstonecraft’s clarion call of 1792 had many antecedents.  Female Rights Vindicated; or, the equality of the sexes morally and physically  proved … (1758) is a particularly noteworthy example.  It is also interesting to note that all of the rule-books for fledgling female societies in this collection date from the early 1800’s.

The section on Marriage shows that there has never been any shortage of advice concerning the methods and precepts required to attain conjugal bliss. The first volume of the Miscellanea section should also be consulted for relevant material.

Only one item, The lady’s cabinet lawyer (1837) could be found relating to the legal status of women, which is in itself significant.  Any discussion of whether women’s lives have been transformed since 1837, the year of Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne, would do well to take account of this volume.

The section on Mothers & Daughters includes many volumes written by women to their children prior to, or immediately after childbirth – an ordeal from which many mothers did not recover.  We have also taken the opportunity to include in this section a number of publications aimed at children including A mother’s gift (1769, 1775) and The Girl’s and Boy’s Penny Magazine (1832 – the term “Girl” only gained currency in periodical and book titles at about this date).

The section on Language and Literature includes a copy of The Ladies Dictionary (1694) – “ … a compleat Dictionary to the Female Sex in all Relations, Companies, Conditions and States of Life; even from CHILDHOOD down to Old-Age, and from the Lady at the Court, to the Cook-maid in the Country … “  The volume is an encyclopaedic dictionary with many remarkable entries on subjects such as: Abigal; Agrippina (and countless other female role-models of the past); Anger, in ladies (with numerous examples); Adultery and Uncleanness (9pp); Amazons; Beauty in General (9pp); Big-belly’d women (in need of self-governance); Books, Directions to Ladies about Reading them (6pp); Conception (10pp); Faces; Fashion; Gate or Gesture to be Observed by Ladies; Jealousie; Love (43pp); Naked Breasts (“the sight of a fair Neck and pretty swelling Breasts, are no less dangerous for is than that of a Basilisk”); Nuns, their Institutions; Parents; Single Life; Spicery; Visiting Friends; etc.

Also included in the Language and Literature section are some valuable eighteenth century collections of women’s writing such as The Lady’s poetical magazine (1780-1783)

The Ladies Diary: or, woman’s almanack … (1706-1840) also featured poetry contributed by readers, as well as a long-running series of mathematical exercises aimed at women.  This was one of the earliest, longest-lived and most successful of all publications aimed at women, offering “information concerning essences, perfumes and unguents”, “excellent directions in cooking, pastry and confectionary”, “instructions on the advancement of families”, “directions for love and marriage”, and many other features calculated to appeal to the broadest possible spectrum of potential users.  This publication merged in 1841 with The Gentleman’s Diary to form The Lady’s and gentleman’s diary and we have included the first two volumes of the combined diary so that readers may see how the content changed.

The award for the most appealing title in this collection must surely go to Dirty Dogs for Dirty Puddings: or, Memoirs of the Luscious Amours of the Several Persons of both sexes of Quality and Distinction (1732) which appears in the second collection of miscellanea, and provides a useful counterpoint to the normative approach of many of the volumes in the Religion & Morality section which encourage women to be modest, compliant and faithful.

This Collection will enable scholars to see how women were expected to behave in 1680, in 1730, in 1780 and in 1830, to see how language evolved and practices changed.  It will provide the basis for a challenge to the conventional periodization of women’s history.

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