Jane Hume Clapperton

Jane Hume Clapperton wrote several works of social theory in the late nineteenth century that combined her feminist ethos with her concern for the social problems facing contemporary England. She advanced a philosophy of social reform that was based on the principles of evolutionary theory and drew substantially on the theory of evolutionary eugenics, yet maintained a radical critique of contemporary sexual relations and advanced the principles of communal living and municipal socialism. In addition to the two lengthy books of social theory for which she is best known, she wrote at least two pamphlets and published occasional articles in mainstream and feminist journals. She also penned a utopiannovel in which her theories of communal living are put into fictional practice.JHC was a spirited defender of the suffrage cause and regarded education—particularly sex education—as pivotal to the political, economic, and legal advancement of women.