Gendered Power: The Uncertain Marital Path to Political Rights

• In Event: Institutional Paths to Equality: The Military, Courts, Marriage, and the Family

Abstract

This paper analyzes gendered power, privilege, and virtue in political and household governance in nineteenth-century British author Anthony Trollope’s famous “political” novels, the six books in the Paliser series. Through examining particular pairings of men and women in these novels, such as the marriage relation of husband and wife and the pairing of political patron/mentor as female with the aspiring member of Parliament as male, this paper identifies how legal and social rules about gender roles shape the characters’ connection to political power. In particular, how consequential for a woman was her choice in marriage, which could serve as a point of access or as an obstacle to women’s inclusion in informal and formal politics.

Author

• Linda C. McClain, Boston University