Examining the Social Status of British Women in the Early 20th Century through the Daily Sketch
Keywords:
Feminist movement, social status of women, descriptive umbrella theory, male-centered description, World War I, primary source, women's rightsAbstract
Daily Sketch is a private newspaper founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Holton, one of the British newspaper tycoons at the time。 The newspaper has opened up a special women's module, which has become an important first-hand source for understanding the development of the feminist movement at that time. We can see from this that ordinary urban women live a boring life in war, and basic personal rights are more difficult to guarantee than in peacetime; Women rarely dominate the family, and they can hardly establish themselves in society as equals to men; Moreover, there are huge differences in the social status of women in different social classes. These reports reflect to varying degrees the social status of women during the war. According to the feminist philosopher James Susan's theory of the "umbrella of description", these reports can be seen as a more appropriate "description" of women's social status, in stark contrast to the way voter turnout data, employment rate data, etc. are still described as male-centered. With the help of this theory, we were able to revisit the social status of British women during World War I from a new perspective.
