Born in 1817 a Red House at Gomersal, the West Riding of Yorkshire, Mary soon rebelled from her traditional, wool-merchant roots. Leaving the confines of the West-Riding she taught boys in Germany, and one her own went to New Zealand, where she mountain-climbed, set up a successful shop in Wellington and wrote out-spoken feminist books.
One her return to her “old country”—West Yorkshire—in 1860 Mary continued to write- contributing to The Victoria, a magazine which was the cornerstone of 19th century feminist thinking. Charlotte Brontë was drawn to Mary’s inspirational and powerful voice and warm-hearted friendship.
Mary called for women to earn money in order to seek financial, physical and spiritual emancipation from men.
When she returned to West Yorkshire in 1860, Mary contributed to the history of the women's movement by writing articles for a magazine called The Victoria.
In her articles Mary outlined her feminist views, for instance calling on women to earn money to look after themselves so they were not dependent on men.
Mary was truly ahead of time and her renegade call for freedom and action was celebrated in 2007 when there was an exhibition at Red House commemorating the life, words, and actions of this feminist who refused to settle for anything other than herself.
0 comments:
Post a Comment