Join our three literary houses in an evening to celebrate women writers who broke boundaries as we mark International Women’s Day.

Step into the worlds of novelists Anne Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell, and their feminist predecessors Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Robinson. Celebrate how these four writers shook the world and broke the contemporary social constraints on women.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

Long remembered only for her relationship with the Prince of Wales, Mary Robinson has been reclaimed as one of the most important late 18th century writers. In 1799, Robinson published her boundary-breaking feminist pamphlet, A Letter to the Women of England. In it, she argues passionately for better educational opportunities for women, and honours her recently-deceased friend, the feminist trailblazer Mary Wollstonecraft, calling for a ‘legion of Wollstonecrafts’. She also intervenes in literary history, powerfully asserting the genius of Britain’s women writers – her predecessors and contemporaries.

Anne Brontë

Bronte Parsonage Museum
The famous Brontë sisters’ novels were noted for their directness and emotional power – 19th century critics called them ‘coarse’ and ‘brutal’. Gripping plots, enduring characters, and passionate prose ensured the Brontës’ work would stand the test of time but what of Anne Brontë, the lesser-known of the three? In The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë broke boundaries as she bravely addressed a dark underside to the privileged society of the time and explored women’s agency within it.

Elizabeth Gaskell

As the respectable wife of a Unitarian minister in Manchester, Elizabeth Gaskell may be an unlikely place to look for a woman breaking boundaries. Yet novels like North and South and Mary Barton show her willingness to take on supposedly masculine issues such as industrial relations and working-class politics. Her controversial novel Ruth about an unmarried mother saw her heavily criticised for writing about sex. Previously dismissed as the author of ‘domestic’ novels, was Elizabeth really a pioneer taking on the big issues of the day?

Join us online for revealing, intriguing and intimate portraits of four female icons, who continue to inspire and enthuse women around the world today.

Speakers:

Dr Kim Simpson, Deputy Director at Chawton House

Angela Clare, Programme Officer at the Brontë Parsonage Museum

Dr Diane Duffy, Chair of the Gaskell Society and Trustee of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House

A partnership event with Bronte Parsonage Museum, Chawton House and Elizabeth Gaskell’s House

Wednesday 5 March, 7.30-9pm