Thursday 18 June 2009

Frances Power Cobbe

Frances Power Cobbe was one of the most accomplished and influential Irish women of the 19th century. She was an early feminist, campaigning for female suffrage and for the acceptance of women into the ministry, and she devoted much of her later life to the cause of animal welfare, founding in 1875 the Society for the Protection of Animals Liable to Vivisection.
~ Bill Darlison, The Secret Life of Bees
Frances Power Cobbe Frances Power Cobbe definitely qualifies as a bluestocking.
Active in several social reform movements, Cobbe placed women and the unfortunate at the center of her analysis. Today she is best known for her anti-vivisection work, campaigning energetically against the use of live animals in scientific research. Yet she had devoted much of her energy to the nineteenth century British women's movement. An early British suffragist, she also supported higher education for women and the reform of poor laws. Her strongest efforts were directed to alleviating violence against women, especially violence by men against their wives.
~ Sunshine for Women
She also met a hero of mine, Rammohun Roy, who campaigned against widow-burning in India.

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