HS2O14: Rebel Girls: The Influence of Radical Women 1792-1919

Module code: HS2O14

Module provider: History; School of Humanities

Credits: 20

Level: 5

When you’ll be taught: Semester 1

Module convenor: Dr Jacqui Turner , email: e.j.turner@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: No placement specified

Academic year: 2025/6

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: No

Last updated: 3 April 2025

Overview

Module aims and purpose

Part 2 Options can be either chronological or thematic. Chronological Options will usually take the form of a survey of a particular geographical area or nation over a defined period of one or two centuries. These Options aim to acquaint students with the causes and consequences of continuity and change over the long term in the political, social, economic and cultural systems under study. Thematic Options take key concepts, ideas, or debates in history and study them in a number of different contexts, either geographically or across historical periods. The aim again is to acquaint students with the causes of continuity and change, but this time by a more comparative approach.

This topic will chart the changing perceptions of Victorian womanhood and the influence of those women who defied their social gender expectations and challenged the Victorian double standard. The course examines social attitudes to gender and the development of feminism and female politics throughout the period through the lives of women who fundamentally changed social and political attitudes. The progress of the course will be made using the women's own words beginning with the #mother of feminism’ Mary Wollstonecraft. It will examine female attitudes to Queen Victoria, the dominant female figure of the age, through the challenges of women’s property rights, suffrage and on to the election of Nancy Astor, the first woman to take her seat in parliament in 1919. We will interpret the cultural changes in women's lives, attitudes to femininity, public women and evaluate them historically. The topic will chart the female struggle for social, economic and political freedom, their ‘quest for truth’ and an escape from the ‘tyranny of domesticity’. The latter weeks of the course will be held at Reading University Special Collections utilising the Nancy Astor Archive, based at the Museum of English Rural Life, London Road.

The purpose of the module is to develop a deep understanding of gender, representation and citizenship in a key period of transformation in British history.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Identify and explain the main issues and events studied;
2. Appraise critically the primary sources and historiographical interpretations of the subject;
3. Think comparatively about aspects of British women’s and gender history over a substantial period;
4. Assess the nature of gender, social, political and cultural change and the particular methodologies associated with tracing it.
5. Develop oral communication skills and the student’s effectiveness in group situations and team-working. 
6. Develop their IT skills by use of relevant web resources and databases, where appropriate and also their archival research skills.

Module content

This topic will chart the changing perceptions of Victorian womanhood and the influence of those women who defied their social gender expectations and challenged the Victorian double standard. The course examines social attitudes to gender and the development of feminism and female politics throughout the period through the lives of women who fundamentally changed social and political attitudes. The progress of the course will be made using the women's own words beginning with the mother of feminism Mary Wollstonecraft. It will examine female attitudes to Queen Victoria, the dominant female figure of the age, through the challenges of women’s property rights, suffrage and on to the election of Nancy Astor, the first woman to take her seat in parliament in 1919. We will interpret the cultural changes in women's lives, attitudes to femininity, public women and evaluate them historically. The topic will chart the female struggle for social, economic and political freedom, their ‘quest for truth’ and an escape from the ‘tyranny of domesticity’. The latter weeks of the course will be held at Reading University Special Collections utilising the Nancy Astor Archive, based at the Museum of English Rural Life, London Road.

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching and learning will be by a variety of methods, which may include:

• Seminars, which rely on structured group discussion and may also include seminar papers by students, discussion of evidence, team-based exercises, and debates;
• Online research exercises;
• Discussion boards; and
• Independent study.

Study hours

At least 33 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

1,000 words or 2 pages of A4 maximum to include, at the module convenor's discretion, an essay plan, bibliography, book review or other creative work and preparatory work towards each of the summative essays.

Reassessment

Additional costs