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To 19th-century writers the dynamic periodical press seemed both an influential medium and a means to pay the bills. A suprising number of women, despite limited education, parental opposition and the competitive nature of this developing profession sought to earn a living through journalism. Others saw the press as a valuable mechanism for educating the masses or a powerful channel for influencing public opinion. How did these women fare in Grub Street? Could they harness the power of the press? Who were the "lady journalists"? The women featured in this book range from Mary Russell Mitford to Flora Shaw to Margaret Gatty. Drawing on varied contemporary sources--memoirs, letters, magazines, journals, newspapers, and contemporary fiction about journalism--and her own database covering hundreds of women, Barbara Onslow assesses their contributions to journalism and how it affected the careers of writers as diverse as George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, Anna Maria Hall, and Mary Braddon and Charlotte Yonge.
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Acknowledgements (viii)
Preface (x)
1. Introduction (1)
2. Obstacles and Opportunities (17)
3. A Fifth Estate (17)
4. At Our Library Table: Reviewers and Critics (61)
5. Something to Say, a Living to Earn: Periodical Contributors (81)
6. In the Editor's Chair (103)
7. A Niche in the Market (129)
8. Handmaids and Decorators (149)
9. A Press for a Purpose (159)
10. Jill of all Trades: Journalism and the Professional Writer (183)
11. Journalism and the Novelist (200)
Afterword (211)
Select Biographical Index (214)
Notes (240)
Select Bibliography (266)
Index (282)
Review of Women of the Press in Nineteenth-Century Britain
Review Author: Carolyn Oulton
The given rationale behind this study of nineteenth century women in the press is to establish a model for studying the female presence in, and contribution to, the predominantly male world of contemporary journalism. Intended as an overview, its stance is described in the introductory chapter as “broadly historical and mildly feminist.”
In fact the study takes on a broader and more objective scope than even this statement of intent would suggest. It tackles practical issues such as how women gained access to the world of journalism in the first place and what their families thought of their careers, and this anecdotal element of the work is finely balanced with a focused study of individual writers, editors and publications. Though it claims to be interested primarily in factual sources, the book draws on fiction such as George Gissing’s New Grub Street to convey the urgency of contemporary concerns about this type of publication; nor does it focus exclusively on female writers where useful parallels or contrasts can be made with important male counterparts.
The second chapter, intriguingly titled “Obstacles and Opportunities,” kickstarts the book with a practical exploration of women’s motives for entering journalism and the problems they faced both at the start of their careers and as they became established.
“The Fifth Estate” treats the practical scope and influence of female journalism; it is similarly anecdotal but offers painstaking research and conscientious explanation of terms. As elsewhere, Onslow is unafraid to give space to the minutiae of her subject, suggesting the difficulties, for instance, of a female journalist on a limited income who might be expected to pay for appropriate dress in order to attend and report on social gatherings.
"Reviewers and Critics” comprises an incisive discussion of women’s experience in these roles, and provides an overview of the values attached to reviewing itself. It is at this point that the danger of writers writing about writers becomes apparent: “Book reviews were a motley crew; some mere summaries padded out with extracts,” while at the other extreme, some reviewers are shown to purvey their own ideas under guise of critiquing books. One of the strengths of this book is its ability to focus on individual figures within a wider picture, and this chapter goes on to note the increase in literacy, with its knock on effect on readership of novels and by extension, reviews. In discussing the experience of female reviewers, it offers a vivid insight into the nature of the work itself, outlining the underlying moral and aesthetic constraints imposed on reviewers and which they in turn perpetuated.
“Something to Say – Periodicals” details the impact of increasing professionalisation in making entry for women arguably more or less difficult. The social background of individual writers is taken into account and the chapter is particularly informative on the kinds of work they were able to do. One interesting angle is the popularisation of erudite subjects; Onslow points out the opportunity for women who were acquainted with current intellectual debates, to render them accessible for the benefit of a general reader.
“The Editor’s Chair” builds on the preceding chapters to ask questions about women’s aspirations to edit a journal in the first place, and how tenable their position was. One minor inaccuracy appears in the suggestion that Dickens was dismissed as editor of The Daily News (in fact he walked out), but again the willingness to discuss male editors in this context is helpful in establishing a background for the study. Similarly refreshing is Onslow’s readiness to give space to female editors who wrote against the emancipation of women, and so go beyond her professed feminist agenda.
“A Niche in the Market” focuses on the opportunities provided by the demand for specialist articles and also on the ways in which women might be excluded by lack of knowledge or education. Children’s periodicals are treated in depth and once again factual and fictional sources are invoked to great effect. The treatment of all sources is conscientious and of particular interest is this chapter’s engrossing analysis of editorial personae – Onslow notes the way in which male financiers might retain control over a venture nominally run by women, but also gives attention to the male practice of adopting a feminine pseudonym where this might be assumed to lend authority. Effortlessly taking in the wider picture, the chapter notes the economic effects of certain types of female writing; one particular passage discusses the loss of income suffered by seamstresses when women were given patterns to make up at home. It is indeed the strength of this chapter that it treats such traditional female interests as dressmaking and children’s education without trivialising the subject matter or seeking to justify its inclusion.
“Handmaids and Decorators” lies outside the author’s area of specialisation as she herself points out. This being the case, it is to her credit that she has included this section on illustrators and mechanical workers at all. The chapter is in fact detailed and informative, with a series of references to largely untapped sources for the benefit of future researchers.
“Press for a Purpose” draws together the ideas of the preceding chapters, positing journalism as a platform for a writer’s ideas. It continues the theme of feminist writing and is particularly strong on the tension between advanced views and Christian resignation, suggesting the conflict for many women trying to reconcile ambition or personal conviction with submission to their personal circumstances.
The two final chapters treat four significant female writers and detail their careers in the context of the foregoing discussion. In “Jill of All Trades: Journalism and the Professional Writer,” Margaret Oliphant and Eliza Lynn Linton emerge as engaging figures in their own right – this chapter is intriguing for any student of Victorian Literature, who will know of them largely through their reviews of other writers. The way in which they were themselves constrained by the contradictions of their position is made very clear: Women who aspired to journalism needed some level of education to have any chance at all against men who in addition to good schooling had often university education and access to the world of gentlemen’s clubs. But women with reasonable education came from the middle and upper classes and were therefore conditioned to be ‘ladylike.’ (199)
The final chapter assesses the impact of periodical journalism on the work of George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell, the best known of the women discussed in the book. In so doing it encapsulates the complex relationship between fiction and journalism, a theme that has been subtly present throughout.
The reach of this book is ambitious and yet it contrives to balance exhaustive research with the approachable tone of a magazine column. The insertion in the last pages of a potted biography of every figure discussed, however briefly, would make up a worthwhile book in itself. There could arguably have been a closer analysis of what precisely constituted New Journalism, given its importance to the study. Otherwise the terms are explained clearly throughout and the book is as accessible as it is erudite. It is particularly generous in pointing to possible sources for future research and this is a field which it has amply justified itself.
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