A Women’s History of Guernsey, 1850s-1950s

Based on extensive original research, this book examines the changing condition of women in the self-governing British Channel Island of Guernsey over the course of the century between the 1850s and 1950s. It is the first scholarly treatment of this subject in a Guernsey context, and it is aimed at academic audiences in the United Kingdom, Europe, North America and Australasia, as well as at a general Channel Island audience. The book covers a diverse range of topics, which include education, work, health, marriage, domestic abuse, sexual violence, prostitution, public office-holding, and the suffrage. These topics are explored from several different angles: firstly, from the viewpoint of individual women, by means of detailed case-histories; secondly, from the viewpoint of the wider insular community, through an analysis of legislative and other instruments by which the lot of local women was improved; and thirdly, from the viewpoint of Britain, Europe and the western world generally, by comparing the nature and pace of change in Guernsey with that in other jurisdictions, paying particular regard to the differences in cultures and mentalites which might have inhibited or promoted such change.