Charlotte Carmichael Stopes - Feminist Scholarship and Activism

Feminist Scholarship and Activism

C.C. Stopes' study of British women’s history proved to be the most popular and influential of her numerous publications. British Freewomen: Their Historical Privilege was published by Swann Soennenshein in 1894. It ran to several editions and was a key reference point for the British female suffrage movement. Interestingly, Helen Blackburn, who had supplied Stopes with notes from her own research to help the enterprise, purchased the whole first edition, many copies of which were sent copies to members of the House of Commons. As Laura E Nym Mayall observes that British Freewomen was ‘perhaps the single most influential text in casting women’s struggle for the vote within the radical narrative of loss, resistance and recovery’ since Stopes’ arguments, as outlined in successive editions of British Freewomen, were frequently cited by ‘suffragists of all stripes in making the case for women’s suffrage in print, before crowds, and in the courtroom’. Stopes was a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. She wrote pamphlets and spoke publicly in campaigns for women’s rights.