Emily Davies

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Standard Name: Davies, Emily
Birth Name: Sarah Emily Davies
ED 's literary work arose from her deep-seated belief in equal treatment for women. Most of her articles and essays were pragmatic contributions to the late nineteenth-century campaign, of which she was a leader, to improve female education. She positioned herself not as a radical seeking to overthrow the structures of society, but as a member of the establishment seeking reasonable reform.
Photograph of a painting of Emily Davies by Rudolph Lehmann, 1880, seated with her hands clasped in her lap. She is wearing a dark green dress, with white ruffles at the sleeves and neckline, and a white cap on her head.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Friends, Associates Matthew Arnold
MA was acquainted with Charlotte Brontë and wrote a poem dedicated to her following her death. He also knew Rhoda Broughton , Emily Davies , and Harriet Martineau .
Friends, Associates Jessie Boucherett
Partly through her membership of the Kensington Society (a social and political discussion group of about fifty women inaugurated in 1865), JB broadened her acquaintance with significant members of the feminist movement, including Frances Power Cobbe
Friends, Associates Bessie Rayner Parkes
In later years she became friendly with hymn-writer Elizabeth Rundle Charles .
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. I, Too, Have Lived in Arcadia. Macmillan, 1941.
338
One of her closest non-literary friends was Mary Merryweather , a Quaker nurse who shared BRP 's interest in promoting standards of...
Friends, Associates George Eliot
Some of her closest friends were prominent feminists, and they were among those soonest willing to flout convention and visit her after her union to Lewes.
Despite the social and spiritual gulf between them, GE
Friends, Associates Helen Taylor
HT moved in political and social circles that included Elizabeth Garrett Anderson , Millicent Garrett Fawcett , Louisa Garrett Anderson , Emily Davies , Elizabeth Wolstenholme , Frances Mary Buss , Dorothea Beale , and Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon .
Kent, Susan Kingsley. Sex and Suffrage in Britain, 1860-1914. Princeton University Press, 1987.
186
Robson, Ann P., John M. Robson, John Stuart Mill, Harriet Taylor, and Helen Taylor. “Introduction and Editorial Materials”. Sexual Equality, University of Toronto Press, 1994, p. vii - xxxv; various pages.
xxvii
Friends, Associates Emily Faithfull
EF suffered in various ways as a result of the trial. The sense that she had prevaricated, at the very least, alienated many of her associates on The English Woman's Journal, including Emily Davies
Friends, Associates Maria Grey
Her work for women's education brought MG into contact with Dorothea Beale , Emily Davies , Mary Carpenter , and Mary Gurney . Her time in Italy brought her other friends, among them the operatic...
Friends, Associates Matilda Hays
Working on the English Woman's Journal strengthened MH 's connection to members of the Langham Place Group . The tie that she formed with with Theodosia, Lady Monson , lasted into her obscure later years...
Instructor Henrietta Müller
This was the first year that Girton was located at the village of the same name, just outside Cambridge, instead of further away at Hitchin. While enrolled there, Henrietta Müller was inspired—in part by Emily Davies
Occupation John Stuart Mill
JSM served as independent MP for Westminster from 1865 to 1868.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press, 1985.
Mill, John Stuart, and John Jacob Coss. Autobiography. Columbia University Press, 1924.
vii
The Concise Dictionary of National Biography: From Earliest Times to 1985. Oxford University Press, 1992.
His campaign for election was supported by Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon , Bessie Rayner Parkes , Emily Davies , and Isa Craig .
Occupation John Stuart Mill
In 1866 JSM presented to the House of Commons with parliament's first major suffrage petition. The petition, drafted by Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon , Jessie Boucherett , and Emily Davies , and signed by...
Occupation Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon
BLSB helped Emily Davies to found Girton College , which was of but not in Cambridge, the first step towards a women's college at one of the ancient English universities.
Herstein, Sheila R. A Mid-Victorian Feminist: Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon. Yale University Press, 1985.
173
Betham-Edwards, Matilda. Reminiscences. G. Redway, 1898, p. vi, 354 pp.
273
Occupation Josephine Butler
In 1868 JB (as president of the organization from 1867 until around 1871) presented its petition for the examination of women candidates for entrance to Cambridge University . The petition was granted in 1869, and...
Occupation Emily Shirreff
ES began her term as headmistress of Emily Davies 's Girton College (at that time known as Hitchin College); she held the position for less than a year.
Ellsworth, Edward W. Liberators of the Female Mind: The Shirreff Sisters, Educational Reform, and the Women’s Movement. Greenwood, 1979.
140
politics Lydia Becker
Other women who served in this position were Elizabeth Garrett and Emily Davies in London, and Flora Stevenson in Edinburgh. LB was re-elected seven consecutive times. The passage of the 1870 Education Act had created...

Timeline

March 1858
The English Woman's Journal, a monthly magazine on the theory and practice of organised feminism, began publication in London, with financial support from Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon and others, under the editorship of...
Late 1859
The offices of The English Woman's Journal moved from Cavendish Square to 19 Langham Place, where a ladies' club was also planned.
1862
The London meeting of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science accepted a paper from Emily Davies on Medicine as a Profession for Women.
April 1862
The Senate of the University of London voted against allowing women into their medical degree programme.
August 1864
The English Woman's Journal, a practical and theoretical source of organized feminism from London, merged into The Alexandra Magazine and English Woman's Journal.
August 1864
The English Woman's Journal, a practical and theoretical source of organized feminism from London, merged into The Alexandra Magazine and English Woman's Journal.
1865
Cambridge University formally admitted female students to Local Examinations, which were the culminating assessment of secondary schooling.
23 May 1865
The Kensington Society , a quarterly women's discussion group devoted to social and political issues, held its inaugural meeting in London.
1866
Anne Jemima Clough and Josephine Butler founded the Liverpool Ladies' Educational Society to provide a serious course of lectures for women.
7 June 1866
John Stuart Mill presented to the House of Commons a suffrage petition signed by 1,499 women, drafted by Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon , Jessie Boucherett , and Emily Davies .
1868
London University established a special examination for women over eighteen.
1868
The report of the Schools Inquiry or Taunton Commission supported the view of Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon , Emily Davies , and others that girls' education required reform.
1869
The Cambridge Higher Local Examinations for Women were instituted as a result of campaigning by Emily Davies and the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women .
2 August 1869
The Endowed Schools Act effected educational reform and improved funding for girls' schooling.
16 October 1869
Educational reformer Emily Davies welcomed the first five students to Girton College .