politics/governance: men-only parliaments, 3; in Norman England, 5, 7, 8–9, 22–3; in Anglo-Saxon era, 6, 8–9; London becomes capital city, 19–20; Justices of the Peace, 25, 166, 345; community leadership by women, 50, 52, 120–1, 163, 190–1, 195–7, 226, 579; Plantagenet courts, 103–4, 159; views on women in power, 128–30, 131–2, 220–1, 403–4, 528; crisis of three queens in a row, 128–31; Tudor court, 157, 158–60; women in Tudor roles of authority, 162; leadership roles for ‘middling class’ women, 163; Restoration power grab, 213; overthrow of James II, 219–20; Bill of Rights (1688), 219, 220; emergence of Whigs and Tories, 221; exclusion of women, 227–8, 248, 340, 342, 405, 445; women voters in pre-1918 centuries, 228, 405; voting by property-owning free slaves, 306; Whig agenda, 340; political rights of elite women in 1800s, 341–2, 404–5; corrupt voting system, 342, 404–5; Great Reform Act (1832), 342; Queen Victoria opposes votes for women, 404, 445; franchise expanded (1884), 405; Local Government Act (1894), 405; Women’s Suffrage Bill (1885), 405; Representation of the People Act (1918), 407–8, 566; first women MPs, 408–9; Sinn Féin boycott of imperial parliament, 408–9; propertied women of over thirty given vote (1918), 408, 566; Representation of the People Act (July 1928), 409; battle for the female vote, 477–8, 566; universal suffrage introduced (1928), 477–8; women admitted to House of Lords (1968), 528–9; women in authority post-war, 528

  poll taxes (1379–81), 72–3, 76

  Pollard, Marjorie, 434, 448

  Pontefract, 142

  Popplewell, Catherine, 193

  pornography, 237, 261, 335–6, 425, 433, 539, 549, 575

  post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 574

  Pouchere, Julia, 73

  Poulter, Amy, 263–4

  poverty: food riots, 2, 187–93, 210–11, 212, 345–8, 349, 352, 579; impact of enclosure, 2, 187–90, 207–9, 572; and sanitation, 14, 397; and spinning, 32–3, 148, 233, 352; and education/literacy, 36, 122, 168; and witchcraft, 40–1, 173–4; and prostitution, 42, 154, 362, 363–4; decline of Lordly giving, 72, 147; and growing importance of trade, 80–1; single women in fifteenth-century, 82, 83–4; and disruption of war, 103; poor laws, 147–9, 171, 282, 301–2, 311, 358, 372; anxiety over itinerant poor (’gypsies’), 147, 232; workhouses, 147, 148, 227, 282, 399; Statute of Artificers (1563), 148; and freed slaves, 156, 238, 292; overseers of the poor, 163, 227; and healthcare, 171, 173; ‘crimes of hunger,’ 191–2, 211–12; Poor Man’s Counsel (or, The Marryed Man’s Guide), 207; London Corporation of the Poor, 282; Protestant view of, 310; ‘mudlarks’ on riverbanks, 320; and General Strike (1926), 417–20; and Victorian middle classes, 443; and Great Depression, 478–80; Means Test (1931), 479; and ‘problem families’ rhetoric, 530–1

  Powell, Hope, 544

  Primitive Methodists, 327

  prisons/jails, 78–9, 226–7, 255, 522–3, 570–1; ‘bridewells,’ 154, 156, 264, 282; secret marriages in, 255, 371

  prize fights, 164, 225, 245, 246–7, 314, 360–1, 384, 460

  Proctor, Sir Stephen, 188

  professional classes: women in nunneries, 15, 111; opportunities after Black Death, 82; exclusion of women by guilds, 83, 173, 230, 232, 253; rise of ‘middling’ people, 162–3; exclusion of women, 172–3, 229–32, 235, 253, 286–7, 313–14, 326, 328, 457, 460, 475–6, 571–2; professionalisation of medical work, 173, 230, 286–7, 326; campaign for women’s medical training, 458–9; marriage bar, 459–60, 474, 478, 495; women’s voluntary work in Great War, 462–4; women after Great War, 474–5; women after Second World War, 524–5

  property ownership: and guild widows, 20, 35, 79, 104–5, 158; ‘femme couvert’ status, 21, 26, 77, 202–3, 545; by medieval women, 26, 29, 33–4, 69–70, 77–9; and upper-class marriages, 58, 84, 105–6, 250; becomes male-dominated in fifteenth-century, 104; by elite women in Tudor age, 159–61; Caunce and Boland rulings, 544–5; Married Women’s Property Act (1964), 545 see also land ownership

  prostitution: sex trade in London, 41–2, 107–8, 236, 292, 361, 362–4; regulation/management of, 41, 42, 88–9, 107–8, 154, 236–7; and military campaigns, 48; and women born as men, 91–3; elite mistresses at Plantagenet courts, 107; and dressing as the wrong class, 134; women dressing as men, 134, 135–6; and sexually transmitted diseases, 153–4, 398–400, 564, 565; return under Charles II, 154–5; under the Commonwealth (1649–60), 154; Tudor clampdown on, 154; clients as never prosecuted, 236–7; in post-Restoration century, 236–7; guides to prostitutes in London, 236, 292, 362–3; and mantua-makers, 236; Puritan action against, 236; and ex-slaves, 292, 294; philanthropic reform aimed at, 344, 364–5; in eighteenth century, 361–5, 564; ‘Magdalen Hospitals,’ 364; elite women in defence of prostitutes, 398–401, 565; Contagious Diseases Act (1865/1868), 399, 400–1, 402, 565; harsh medical treatment of, 399; child sex abuse, 401; elite prostitutes, 449, 450; and ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ murders, 516–17; post-war legislation on, 539

  protest: defence of community/traditional rights, 2, 11–12, 75–6, 188, 190, 193, 195–6, 210–11, 344, 579; and food prices/supply, 2, 187–93, 210–11, 212, 344, 345–8, 349, 352, 579; resistance to enclosure, 2, 187–90, 210–11; supporting female suffrage, 3, 342, 353–6, 402, 405–7; civil resistance in Norman era, 11–12; rebellions, 12, 43, 73–6; and women’s lack of presence in law, 21, 49, 190, 191–2, 195, 196, 211, 212; the Peasants’ Revolt (1381), 73–5, 76; Cade’s rebellion (1450), 75–6; riot against Duke Humphrey of Gloucester (1428), 75, 76; against the Reformation, 113, 116; the women of Kirkby Malzeard, 188; ritual/choreography of the riot, 190–2, 344–5, 351–2; ‘Lady Skimmington’ alias, 190; against Charles I’s illegal taxes, 193; weavers’ riots (1675), 193; defence of local churches, 194–5; direct action as last resort, 194; 1600s as ‘century of riotous Englishwomen,’ 196–7; petitions to Parliament, 197–9; women Leveller petitions, 198–9; against mechanisation, 210, 212, 348–9, 352–3; against foreign competition, 212, 337; rebellions/protests against restored monarchy, 217–19; radical underground press after Restoration, 217; Restoration laws against, 217; ‘Maids of Taunton,’ 218; female organised strikes, 315; Chartism, 337, 341, 357; elite view of working-class protest, 344–5; and ‘Gordon Riots’ (1780), 349–52; ‘Luddite’ riots, 352–3; radicalism in post-1815 period, 353–7; against Poor Law (1834), 358; sisterhood across the classes as rare, 358, 391, 396–7; elite women in defence of prostitutes, 398–402, 565; women led strikes, 410–13; women and General Strike (1926), 417–20; during Second World War, 500–1, 532; greater radicalism from late-1960s, 533–4; in post-war decades, 533–7; British Housewives’ League, 533; ‘mass uprising’ by Leeds clothing workers (1970), 534; Reclaim the Night marches, 534, 580; Anwar Ditta’s campaign, 535–6; rise of right-wing women from 1960s, 537–9

  Protestant church: aristocratic women’s support for old faith, 113, 115–16; Book of Common Prayer, 114, 166; and Elizabeth I, 115–16; Act of Supremacy (1558), 115; female martyrs, 115, 117–19, 129; and Mary Tudor’s burnings, 115, 117–19; Catholic wives of loyalist Protestant husbands, 116; Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, 117; female emigrants escaping Mary Tudor, 120–1; reformist faith and female equality, 121, 122–3, 124; English translations of the Bible, 122–3, 124–5; women preachers, 122, 123, 326–7, 457–8; Tyndale’s ‘weaker vessel’ metaphor, 124–6, 575; King James Bible, 125; theology on the devil, 174; view of poverty, 310

  Prynne, William, 133

  publishing/book-making/collecting: fiction by women in eighteenth century, 3; nunneries/convents as centres of, 15–16; and women at Plantagenet courts, 103–4; and Kateryn Parr, 114, 115, 166; new presses of Tudor era, 165; Tudor ladies publishing under their own names, 167; cookery books, 169; first childcare manuals, 169; impact of the Restoration, 217, 232; radical underground press after Restoration, 217; explosion of book-production in 1600s, 240–3; periodicals for women in 1600s, 243; printers’ strike against new technology (1986), 535

  Purcell, Henry, 228

  Puritans, 122, 132, 133–4, 154, 185, 194, 200, 236, 310

  Pym, John, 197–8

  Pythagoras, 562

  Quakers (Society of Friends), 180, 227, 240, 262, 306, 328, 371, 480

  Queens’ College, Cambridge, 103, 104

  Queen’s College, Oxford, 36, 80

  Rabelais, 214

  race: women of colour in medieval London, 78; women of colour in London of 1600s, 154; ‘negro’ slaves in Tudor/Stuart England, 155–6; ancient Greek beliefs, 157; theories of, 157, 298; use of language in Tudor era, 157; ‘Baleys Shaws Falls’ in Northumberland, 232; women of colour in England of 1700s/1800s, 232, 296–301, 302–3, 350; African-born slaves in England, 238, 291–4, 295–8; black communities in post-Restoration century, 239–40; attitudes to runaway slaves, 239; intermarriages for love, 240; theories justifying slavery, 298–9, 339; treatment of Mary Seacole, 299–301; free people of African descent in 1700s England, 306; elite English women’s attitudes, 337–40, 401; ex-slaves excluded from abolitionist committees, 337; and Victorian middle classes, 443; first graduates of Asian/African descent, 457; race riots against demobbed men of colour (1919), 473–4; and Women’s Land Army, 494; children fathered by African-American servicemen, 496–7; segregationist USA, 497; Empire Windrush arrives in England (1948), 502, 539–40; and rape, 518; and UK prison population, 523; and economic crisis of 1970s/80s, 525–6; Asian woman forced out of Uganda, 525; and women’s protests in 1970s, 534; British Nationality Act (1981), 536; and police violence, 536; and post-war immigration, 539–41; and ‘nature of women’ labels, 565

  Radcliffe, Mary, 158

  radical thinking: revolutionary theology during Reformation, 114–16, 117, 120–1, 122, 123; Quaker women, 180, 306–7; during seventeenth-century, 193, 196–200, 207, 215, 228–9; origins in 1700s England, 212; of Elizabeth Calvert, 217; women radicals in nineteenth-century, 337, 338–9, 391, 392–3, 396; in post-1815 period, 353–7; male opposition to female equality, 431

  Ralph, Earl of East Anglia, 12, 48

  Rand, Mary, 543

  Ranelagh, Katherine Jones, Viscountess, 169

  rape/sexual violence: in Norman era, 5–6, 8, 52–6; as crime against property, 21, 52, 53, 86, 98, 103; codes of Alfred on, 52; by a husband as not a crime, 52, 77, 286, 441–2; under Norman/medieval law, 52, 53–6, 86–7, 97–100, 103; courtly rape, 97–100, 153, 563; and male sexual desire, 98–100, 152–3; under Tudor law, 152–3; child/under-age victims, 153, 279, 286, 365, 366, 401, 416; prosecution/conviction levels, 285–6, 365–6, 520–1; rape legally defined as a personal assault, 285–6; police interviews and court procedures, 366, 518–19; late-Victorian/Edwardian views on, 441–2; comments by post-WW2 judges, 517–18; increase in after mid-1960s, 517–18; so-called ‘date rapes,’ 517; media emphasis on stranger rape, 519–20; low prosecution rates in UK, 520–1; regularity and frequency of in UK, 520; marital rape made a criminal act (1994), 521–2; women rapists, 522 see also domestic violence; violence, male

  Rathbone, Eleanor, 415–16, 471

  Rayner Parkes, Bessie, 432, 434

  Red Lion playhouse, Stepney, 164

  Redmond, Sarah Parker, 307, 337

  Reformation: closure of religious houses, 110–12, 147, 187, 205; women-only traditions lost in Henry VIIII’s dissolution, 110–12; women secularised and sexualised by, 111–12; women exiles from the religious houses, 111; uprisings/protests against, 113, 114, 116; women’s defence of local churches, 194

  Reid, Mary, 271–2, 273

  Renaissance thinking, 287

  retail trade: women retailers, 20, 184, 222, 224–5, 233; shops and shopping as ‘women’s work,’ 184–5; new exchanges in London, 184, 185, 224–5; shopping as leisure activity for wealthy women, 185; and food prices/supply, 211, 224, 232–3, 495–6; trade tokens issued by women, 225; selling from domestic homes, 233; shop work becomes ‘women’s work,’ 318; women in after Great War, 474; shopping during Second World War, 495–6

  Richard I, King, 23, 25, 27, 45, 46, 48

  Richard II, King, 74

  Richard III, King, 102, 106, 107

  Richardson, Mary, 407, 481

  Richardson, Samuel, 249–50, 252, 260

  Richenda de Longchamp, 45–6

  Ridley, Betty, 559

  Ridley, Nicholas, 115

  Rivers, Jacquetta, 101, 106

  roads, 13, 348, 349

  Robertson, Eliza Frances, 381

  Romans, Bieiris de, 62

  Romantic movement, 321, 332, 337, 367, 375, 397, 424–5; novels, 244, 248–50, 252, 288, 424–5, 563; sensibility, 247–8, 249, 252, 288, 336, 424–5, 563

  Romsey Abbey, 12, 14–15

  Roper, Margaret, 166

  Rosse, Susannah Penelope, 158

  ‘rough music,’ 50, 195

  Rougier, Mr Justice, 515

  Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 215, 249–50

  Rowbotham, Sheila, 527, 537

  Rowe, Elizabeth Singer, 257

  Royal Academy of Arts, 224

  Royal College of Nursing, 475

  Royal Exchange, London, 184, 224–5

  Royal Society, 214

  Royal Society of Physicians, 287

  Ruskin, John, 369

  Russell, Elizabeth, Lady, 166

  Russell, Lady Rachel, 256

  Rutter, Stella, 492

  Sadeler, Agnes, 75

  Salisbury, Anne Tufton, Countess of, 257

  Salisbury, Ela, Countess of, 24, 37

  Salisbury, Margaret Pole, Countess of, 113, 131

  Salisbury, William Montagu, 1st Earl of, 47

  Salvation Army, 457–8

  Sancho, Ignatius, 305, 306

  Sanderson, Tessa, 543

  Sandes, Flora, 465, 465

  Sansom, Odette, 492

  sapphism/lesbianism: early Christian/medieval view of, 61–2, 89–90; and nuns/enclosed women, 61, 206; and elite women, 206, 256–61, 378–81, 382, 385–6, 432–7; as not criminalised, 206, 380, 438–9; ‘sentimental friendship’ tradition, 256–7, 258–61, 378, 380–1, 433–4, 435–6, 488; in Restoration era, 256–62; increased scrutiny from early-1700s, 261–2, 267–8, 379–80; and lower-class women, 261–2; ‘tommies,’ 261, 379, 438; and Anne Lister, 333, 378–9; identified with foreign influences, 380; libel trials concerning, 382; agreed silence about, 433, 435, 438–9, 498, 546; and ‘Codrington divorce,’ 434–5; new ‘sexologists’ view of, 436–7, 487–8; in early-twentieth-century, 436–8; term ‘lesbian,’ 436; during Second World War, 498; in post-war decades, 545–8; Section 28 law, 546–8; archaeological findings, 576

  Sarum Manual wedding service, 59, 127

  Savoy Palace, 73, 74, 75

  Say, Jean Baptiste, 311

  scholarship and learning, 36–7, 63–4, 80, 114, 121, 122, 166–7; priests as first scholars, 1; nunneries/convents as centres of, 15–16, 36, 111, 121, 228; exclusion of women, 214, 328, 329, 332, 340, 457, 555; ‘bluestocking salons’ in 1700s, 245; new opportunities for women in late-Victorian era, 435; in twenty-first century, 555; blindness to female achievement, 576–7 see also university education

  science, 169, 170, 568–9; Age of Enlightenment, 213–16, 229; female writers/contributors, 241, 329; and justifications for racism and sexism, 298, 565–6; Victorian male scientists, 420, 423–4, 565–6; Rosalind Franklin’s work, 524 see also biology

  scold’s bridle, 151, 152

  Scots invasions of northern England (1136–8), 44

  Scott, Lady Margaret, 449

  Scott, Sarah, 277

  Seacole, Mary, 299, 299–301

  Sealed Knot (Royalist conspiracy group), 145

  Second World War: lead-up to, 482; women conscripted into National Service, 489; women in factories/agriculture during, 489, 494–5; female spies/agents during, 492–4; WAS(B) in Burma, 494; women air raid wardens, 495; children fathered by African-American servicemen, 496–7; evacuations during, 496, 566; demobilisation, 501–2; ‘Women’s Parliaments’ during, 501

  separate spheres, doctrine of: derived from Aristotle, 253, 564; emergence after Restoration, 253; and ‘breadwinner wage,’ 313, 343, 357, 365, 482–3, 484, 529, 567, 572; spiritual arguments for, 313, 328, 458, 559; and idea of only two sexes, 332, 334; division of women from women, 336–7, 462; reproduced in colonies, 339; and protest by women, 340–1, 343, 354, 357–8, 400–1, 565, 566; and elite adultery/divorce, 341, 376; and Queen Victoria, 369–71, 442, 443–5; and sexual diseases, 398–402; and single women, 431–2; and women loving women, 432–9, 546–8; housework named as craft/science, 460–1, 483; and world of wartime work, 462–70, 471–2, 489–97, 566; evolution of in inter-war period, 472–3, 482–3, 484; and foundations of the welfare state, 529; and demand for women workers in 1970s, 533; Victorians revive, 564, 572

  serial killers, 516–17, 534

  Seward, Anna, 258

  sex: adultery/promiscuity, 2, 58, 60, 61, 105, 203, 254, 375; mistresses of noble or royal men, 41; sexually transmitted diseases, 41, 153–4, 286, 344, 364, 377, 398–400, 564, 565; female orgasm and conception, 54, 59, 60, 288, 334; church ordered ‘no sex days,’ 58; masturbation, 59, 60, 63, 237, 262, 333, 334, 362, 425, 426, 451, 564; definitions of sodomy, 60, 62, 254; myth of the tyrannical male sexual drive, 99, 334, 425, 563, 564; and court of Charles II, 154–5, 203, 256–7; and Romantic movement, 248, 249–50, 252, 288, 336, 563; elite definitions of sexual intercourse, 334–6, 380, 382; male takeover of elite sex, 334, 335–6; age of consent, 401–2; constant discussion on in Victorian era, 425; sex education for women, 429–30, 485, 538–9; use of language on, 553–4 see also prostitution; sexuality, female

  Sex Discrimination Act (1976), 559

  Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act (1919), 474

  ‘sexologists,’ 423–4, 431, 433–4, 436, 441, 487–8, 545, 566