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 mentalités which might have inhibited or promoted such change.