By Zoë Dales
Edited by Austin Steele and Mark Potter
Nineteenth century Britain was governed by the doctrine of separate spheres – an ideology that was founded on gendered architectures of enmity. Separate spheres defined the quotidian roles of women and men, confining women to the domestic sphere and permitting men to participate in the public. The life of the woman was expected to orientate around the family, maternal duties, and childbearing. Men, on the other hand, were expected to have an active role in society, running business, politics, and the law.[1] Conduct literature, which reinforced this ideology, gained popularity in Victorian Britain, examples of which include Henry Venn’s The Complete Duty of Man (1763) and Sarah Stickney Ellis’ The Daughters of England (1842). [2] Hence, for the purpose of this essay, ‘femininity’ will be defined as the social expectations of women: how they were expected to behave, speak, and labour.
It was the Fox sisters that kickstarted the emergence of spiritualism in the nineteenth century; in 1848 they made evident the possibility of communication with the spirit world and revealed to Victorian society that the boundaries between the material and spirit worlds could be transgressed.[3] In the book titled The Darkened Room, Alex Owen argues that spiritualists did not intend on challenging the pre-existing notions of womanhood and when they gained spiritual authority that subverted ideals, it was only effective within the walls of the séance room as it was “a distinct realm governed by different rules of conduct”.[4] Marlene Tromp, on the contrary, extends this, arguing that “spiritualism had a profound impact on private, individual lives” and that “the disintegration of social codes in Spiritualist circles was a public act”.[5]
Thus, the following essay will agree with Alex Owen to a certain extent; however, it will
advance this argument further by arguing that spiritualism allowed women to subvert ideas of femininity in society as it increased the power of women in the public sphere. This will be done through executing two case studies on prominent women in the Spiritualist movement. The first will be on Cora Tappan, assessing how she was able to subvert the feminine by assuming positions of authority in society, both within the séance room and in the public sphere, defying gendered expectations. Secondly, the essay will assess the case of Emma Hardinge Britten and the way she similarly used spiritualism, and her influential position within the practice, to voice her political views and participate in a realm she was legally and socially restricted from.
Spiritualism empowered women – it allowed them to subvert what was considered ‘feminine’
as it enabled them to assume positions of authority within the practice, and consequently within society, too. Alex Owen argues that despite female women being regarded as “uniquely spiritually gifted” and empowered within the séance room, in their quotidian lives, women adhered to “conventional gendered attitudes”.[6] Nonetheless, American spiritualist Cora L. V. Tappan serves as a clear example of a woman who extended her position of authority and influence in spiritualism to her individual life. Cora had acquired fame in her childhood, and as her abilities developed, and she took on the identity of numerous spirits, her name spread across the globe. Like the Fox sisters, Cora once again blurred the lines between the spiritual and material worlds; as someone with the ability to assume different identities, the notions of femininity no longer applied to the unpredictable medium. It was because of this that Cora was able to defy gendered expectations and take on positions of authority in the public sphere. Assuming the identity of a deceased German physician, many travelled from all corners of the globe to be healed by the famous girl and to witness her infamous inspirational discourses.[7] In 1873, Cora extended her influence on Britain where she led numerous performances. Her biographer, Harrison D. Barrett states that “public and private the utterances were listened to with most profound attention by many of the ablest minds of Great Britain”, and a gentleman named Mr. Owen even recommended her to the British public.[8] The participation of Cora in the public sphere through assuming the identity of a German physician and practicing medicine and leading spiritual discourses in itself subverted femininity. Not only was she participating in the public sphere, but she assumed an elevated position of power, authority, and influence in society.
Moreover, her audiences were not solely impressed by her mediumship, but records of her
performances from attendees often focused on the way she projected herself. Barrett notes that “her speech was delivered with great fluency and good elocution, her language at times
abounding with highly poetic thoughts, and at others with effective practical points”. Thus,
Cora served as a notable example to Victorian society that women were indeed capable of being intelligent, educated, captivating and well-spoken, and that Cora was an anomaly as she was given the opportunity of self-empowerment through spiritualism. The impact of Cora’s influence in Britain was not restricted to the capital and extended beyond the boundaries of rural London as she toured across England and Scotland addressing audiences of all genders and social classes.[9]
Cora’s empowerment within the practice extended to her personal life, too. In opposition to the doctrine of separate spheres, Cora took on the unconventional role of navigating her own life. Rather than being governed by the parameters of marriage and conforming to social and
religious norms, Cora claimed her own identity. In the nineteenth century, marriage was the
institution that defined women in society as well as their social standings.[10] Having been
married four times, evident by the numerous surnames she is known by, Cora defied the very
institution she was defined by.[11] First divorcing at the young age of sixteen after reports of
abuse, with the aid of the empowerment provided through spiritualism, Cora subverted ideals of femininity throughout her life. From assuming numerous identities and blurring the lines between the spiritual and material words, to assuming positions of authority in the public realm, and challenging socio-religious norms, Cora serves as a crucial example of the ways in which spiritualism empowered women.
The subversion of femininity was not limited to social empowerment and influence;
spiritualism gave women the stage to voice their political opinions, an arena that women were formerly excluded from. Owen recognises the crucial role of spiritualism in this, and when discussing Cora Tappan states that “it was the medium’s spiritual authority which gave her an unusual degree of access to public speech” and it was this that permitted spiritualists to discuss “anything from the structure of the spirit realms to politics”.[12] Notably, it must be considered that in accordance with the doctrine of separate spheres, women in Britain were disenfranchised.[13] Men dominated the realm of politics and the voices of women were hushed. Spiritualism allowed mediums to channel any body or character, therefore allowing them to assume any chosen identity. Consequently, spiritualists were able to escape the regulations their lives were governed by. As Tromp states, such blurred lines meant that women were able to assume such positions in society and participate in spheres formerly excluded from, contributing to political discussions, social issues, and religious dogma.[14]
Another key example of this is Emma Hardinge Britten. Spending a large part of her youth
challenging the inequalities existent in American society, Britten advanced the notion that
women were spiritually superior to men. Much like Tappan, as a trance lecturer, Britten filled
halls with thousands delivering speeches and spreading her influence nationwide. Not only did Britten use her spiritualist abilities to deliver speeches, but also to relay important political messages.[15] This is evident in her lecture on “The Place and Mission of Woman” in Boston, 1859. Here, Britten addressed the subject of marriage, and argued that the worth of women extended beyond the social union. Furthermore, Britten used her platform to discuss the importance of education for both the sexes on an individual level, and collectively within a marriage. Challenging social ideals of femininity, Britten argued that women’s identities
extended beyond solely being a man’s companion, that women were valuable and capable of
individuality. Moreover, Britten argued that if girls received the same education as their male
counterparts, they would ultimately have the same opportunity to contribute to the economy,
become economically independent, and participate beyond the private realm. She advanced
this through stating that “there are those who are better qualified to train, teach, and guide the young than the mother” and questioned whether “children [would] love their mother[s] less because they had been, for some portion of the day, committed to the healthful care of one who has learned, through the teachings of science, how to train and how to guide them? No”. This discredited the existing notions of femininity as it directly disputed the very characteristics used to suppress and restrict women; transforming the image of the mother by allowing her to transfer and use her skills in the public sphere to earn wages.
Additionally, Britten does this through equating the woman and the man, reversing the roles
and assessing the way in which society would have viewed them: “Let it be disgraceful for the
women, for the daughters and sisters of life, to have no occupations, as it would be disgraceful for men to fritter away the noble energies of manhood and spend their days in idleness and uselessness”.[16] This directly challenges the aforementioned conduct literature of the period, transforming the way ‘daughters’ were to be viewed in society from Ellis’ perception of the passive female to her reformed image of the valuable, active female. Thus, this lecture serves as a clear example of the way in which spiritualists used their platforms to participate, contribute, and influence political discussions. Like Tappan, Britten’s influence disseminated across the globe as she continued to hold trance lectures, advance the Spiritualist movement, and build her lasting legacy until her death in Manchester in 1899.
From the above analysis, it is clear that women in nineteenth-century Britain subverted
femininity both within the practice of spiritualism and in their quotidian lives. Evidently,
through the cases of Cora Tappan and Emma Britten, women used spiritualism as a means of
self-empowerment and self-governance, which in turn suppressed the gendered expectations in society. In both cases, it is clear that women extended the newfound power they had acquired into their daily lives to pursue their personal agendas. Spiritualism permitted this as it blurred the lines between the material and spirit worlds by allowing mediums to assume any desired identity, consequently disrupting all pre-existing notions of the ordinary. Both Tappan and Britten assumed positions of authority within the séance room and defied the notion of separate spheres by extending this authority into the public sphere through lectures and inspirational speeches across the globe. Cora Tappan further used this self-empowerment by directly challenging the very institution by which women were defined by, marriage, and divorcing multiple times. Similarly, Britten used this newfound authority to challenge social inequalities in American and British society. Hence, Alex Owen is only correct to a certain extent. Owen is correct in considering spiritualism as a strategy for the subversion of femininity in the séance room, nevertheless, Owen did not consider the full impact the challenges of spiritualism posed to the codes that governed Victorian society on a larger scale.
Notes
[1] Ashlyn K. Kuersten. Women and the Law: Leaders, Cases, and Documents (California: ABC-CLIO, 2003), p. 16.
[2] Cathy Ross. “Separate Spheres or Shared Dominions?”, Transformation, 23/4 (2006), p. 228.
[3] Barbara Weisberg. Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2004), pp. 1-5.
[4] Alex Owen. The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian
England, (London: Virago, 1989), p. 202.
[5] Marlene Tromp. “Spirited Sexuality: Sex, Marriage and Victorian Spiritualism”, Victorian
Literature and Culture, 31/1 (2003), p. 67.
[6] Owen, The Darkened Room, p. 202
[7] Harrison D. Barrett. Life Work of Cora L. V. Richmond (Chicago: Hack & Anderson Printers, 1895), p. 13.
[8] Barrett, Life Work of Cora L. V. Richmond, pp. 254-255.
[9] Barrett, Life Work of Cora L. V. Richmond, pp. 256-258.
[10] Danielle Jean Drew. “Fragile Spectres: How Women of Victorian Britain Used the Occult and Spiritualist Movement to Create Autonomy”, Master’s Thesis, Florida Gulf Coast University (2017), p. 26.
[11] John McClymer. “Who Is Mrs. Ada T.P. Foat? And Why Should Historians Care? An Historical Reading of Henry James”, The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 2/2 (2003), pp. 191-211; Cora is known by the surnames of Scott, Hatch, Daniels, Tappan, and Richmond.
[12] Owen, The Darkened Room, p. 211.
[13] Brian Harrison. Separate Spheres: The Opposition to Women’s Suffrage in Britain (Oxford:Routledge, 1978), p. 70.
[14] Tromp, “Spirited Sexuality”, p. 70.
[15] Owen, The Darkened Room, pp 31-32.
[16] Emma Hardinge Britten. The Place and Mission of Woman: An Inspirational Discourse (Boston: Hubbard W. Swett, 1859) pp. 6-12.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Barrett, Harrison D. Life Work of Cora L. V. Richmond. Chicago: Hack & Anderson Printers,
1895
Britten, Emma Hardinge. The Place and Mission of Woman: An Inspirational Discourse.
Boston: Hubbard W. Swett, 1859
Secondary Sources
Drew, Danielle Jean. “Fragile Spectres: How Women of Victorian Britain Used the Occult
and Spiritualist Movement to Create Autonomy”. Master’s Thesis, Florida Gulf Coast
University, 2017
Harrison, Brian. Separate Spheres: The Opposition to Women’s Suffrage in Britain. Oxford:
Routledge, 1978
Kuersten, Ashlyn K. Women and the Law: Leaders, Cases, and Documents. California: ABC-
CLIO, 2003
McClymer, John. “Who Is Mrs. Ada T.P. Foat? And Why Should Historians Care?: An
Historical Reading of Henry James”. The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.
2/2, 2003
Owen, Alex. The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian
England. London: Virago, 1989
Ross, Cathy. “Separate Spheres or Shared Dominions?”. Transformation. 23/4, 2006
Tromp, Marlene. “Spirited Sexuality: Sex, Marriage and Victorian Spiritualism”. Victorian
Literature and Culture. 31/1, 2003
Weisberg, Barbara. Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism.
New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2004
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