Ellice Hopkins
Encyclopedia
Ellice Hopkins was a Victorian
social campaigner and author, who vigorously advocated moral purity while criticizing contemporary sexual double standards. In 1874 she established the Soldier's Institute at Portsmouth
, and in 1876 toured several British towns, recruiting thousands of women to the Ladies' Association for the Care of Friendless Girls. Her biographer describes her as 'instrumental' in the passing of the Industrial Schools Amendment Act of 1880. Her works, such as A plea for the wider action of the Church of England in the prevention of the degradation of women, criticized the contemporary double standard by which women were disproportionately blamed for sexual immorality. In 1883 she co-founded the White Cross Society, and continued her political campaigning. The historian Frank Mort has described her as a "central figure in the feminist agitation for criminal law regulation in the 1880s".
In Ian Hislop portrays her as a pioneering sex educator who took her efforts to save fallen women one step further, by devoting her life to the thankless task of promoting male chastity.
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
social campaigner and author, who vigorously advocated moral purity while criticizing contemporary sexual double standards. In 1874 she established the Soldier's Institute at Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, and in 1876 toured several British towns, recruiting thousands of women to the Ladies' Association for the Care of Friendless Girls. Her biographer describes her as 'instrumental' in the passing of the Industrial Schools Amendment Act of 1880. Her works, such as A plea for the wider action of the Church of England in the prevention of the degradation of women, criticized the contemporary double standard by which women were disproportionately blamed for sexual immorality. In 1883 she co-founded the White Cross Society, and continued her political campaigning. The historian Frank Mort has described her as a "central figure in the feminist agitation for criminal law regulation in the 1880s".
In Ian Hislop portrays her as a pioneering sex educator who took her efforts to save fallen women one step further, by devoting her life to the thankless task of promoting male chastity.
Further reading
- Barrett, Rosa Mary. Ellice Hopkins, a memoir (Wells Gardner, Darton, 1907).
- Morgan, Sue. A passion for purity : Ellice Hopkins and the politics of gender in the late-Victorian church (Bristol, 1999).
- Morgan, Sue. "Faith, sex and purity: the religio-feminist theory of Ellice Hopkins", Women's History Review, 9 (2000), p. 13.
- Morgan, Susan. "'Knights of God' : Ellice Hopkins and the White Cross Army, 1883-95", Studies in Church History, 34 (1998), pp. 431-445.
- Mumm, Susan. "'I love my sex' : two late Victorian pulpit women", in Perry, Gill; Laurence, Anne; Bellamy, Joan (eds) Women, scholarship and criticism : gender and knowledge, c.1790-1900 (Manchester, 2000), pp. 204-21.
External links
- Archival Sources indexed by The National Archives