Badrock, Gill

It’s time to recognise extraordinary feminists, past and present. Through the lens of gender studies I consider the creative body of work of the British writer and educator Jane Marcet (1769-1858). In terms of creative minds, the rehabilitation of this extraordinary pioneering historical woman is, perhaps surprisingly, of value in inspiring 21^st-century feminists. While Marcet showed no evidence of campaigning for women’s rights, she was progressive, and acted in the ‘spirit’ of feminism. Within the conventional format of her bestselling books on Chemistry and Political Economy, Marcet’s genius as an inventive change agent encouraged her female readers to spread their intellectual wings, while inspiring future champions of women’s suffrage. However, Marcet’s emancipatory influence remains largely unrecognised and is analogous to 21^st-century women who are similarly marginalised. These women, perhaps full-time mothers, working mothers prioritising life-work balance or those eschewing categorisations as ‘feminist’, embody what I term, ‘quiet feminism’. They advocate change through contained yet assertive behaviours that nurture and educate those around them. Nevertheless, feminist leadership publications that promote public dimensions of success in commerce, politics or community work, or through activism (as in Edmonds’ and Tutchell’s Stalled Revolution), fail to acknowledge the creativity these women employ in advancing the feminist cause. Marcet delivers a tantalising, compelling message of subversion where motherhood, domestic space and restraint are ingeniously reimagined into powerful influential platforms that redefine ‘private’ space. If feminism’s strategies are to reflect genuine commitment to pluralism, Marcet’s originality becomes especially relevant.

Gill Badrock started her part-time PhD research in February 2019, under Prof Emma Rees’s supervision. Just two months later she found herself presenting at the 4^th biennial Talking Bodies conference. Her paper’s hypothesis, that historical women can be role models for 21^st-century feminists, aims to validate women from the past as inspiration for modern feminists as leaders of change. Currently she is researching social theory in relation to 18^th- and 19^th- century women’s lives: She views this theoretical framework through the lens of gender studies. In rehabilitating my chosen ‘role model’, the British writer and educator, Jane Marcet, she employs contemporaneous sources while building on and challenging modern feminist scholarship. Her interdisciplinary project develops her undergraduate interests in Art History and Classics and is the culmination of her experience in navigating, as a quietly assertive feminist herself, her own career as a leadership and management practitioner, often working in male-dominated environments.

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