Activists and Victorians: The Langham Place Group and the advocacy of women's labor

In the second half of the nineteenth century, a small group of middle class women organized itself with the aim of promoting some social changes that they considered important for their sex, with special emphasis to questions relating to women’s work. They founded a journal that was written and edited by women – the English Women’s Journal – and demanded improvements in women’s education and the opening of more professions for the women of their class. This paper analysis the use they made of Political Economy in support of their cause. It is argued that this science was used both in their diagnosis of the problems engendered by the restricted access women had to the labor market; and in their attempt to persuade society to change this situation. It is also argued that, despite aiming to give the possibility of independent existence to women by means of work, these activists embraced many of the Victorian values concerning women’s role in society. The conclusion is that this mixture of economic activism with Victorian values was important for it allowed these women to go against some ingrained prejudices and habits of the time without being ostracized from society.