Women who opposed votes for women: the case of Mrs Humphry Ward

Even today, we struggle to understand why it would be the case that women once opposed giving the vote to women. But, at the turn of the 20th century, when some were fighting for their rights, others were mounting a counter-movement against feminist reforms.

The emergence of anti-feminism was a response to the first wave of feminism, which took place roughly between 1848 and 1920. This resistance mainly involved questioning and challenging the ways in which feminism was being expressed...