Trailblazer: Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, The First Feminist to Change Our World
by Jane Robinson
Doubleday £11.58

OH MY goodness, here’s another game changer from the past who didn’t fit the bill regarding gender, establishment ideology, power elites, patriarchy, who has been erased by most historians writing his-story!

Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon was born in 1827 and during her lifespan of 64 years, pioneered and developed far reaching concepts regarding feminism, women’s rights, equal opportunities, diversity, inclusion and mental health awareness.

Author Jane Robinson, having decided to write Bodichon’s biography, was invited by Bodichon’s descendants to visit the family home and sort through boxes and boxes of documents, paintings, sketches, personal letters, all of which Robinson carefully catalogued and has used, together with wider research, to produce this brilliant, highly readable book.
 
Bodichon, born illegitimate, had an unconventional upbringing. This, together with her own private income, gave her a rare independence during Victorian times where a woman was normally defined by low expectations. But money could not buy her an education.

No university would permit women to become graduates. Ahead of her time, believing that words must lead to deeds, Boudichon became a leading campaigner of political and education rights for women.

In 1854 she published A Brief Summary of the Laws of England Concerning Women. Women had limited rights, married women in particular were considered the property of men and were not allowed to keep any assets or property of their own.

Bodichon’s publication was crucial in the passage of the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882 which allowed women to keep their own property and belongings. A real game changer.

In 1857, Bodichon went on to publish the radical pamphlet, Women and Work, calling for equality of education and work opportunities, arguing that all women should be able to work, including those already married, choosing bird life as an example of where “both cock and hen help one another to build their nest!” At the time, this suggestion was deemed both outrageous and subversive.

In 1886, in collaboration with Emily Davies, Bodichon presented the concept of university education for women, which led to her co-founding Girton College, Cambridge, the first establishment that enabled women to be educated to degree level, although it took many universities decades before they actually gave women degree-level qualifications.

This list goes on... for example, Bodichon’s visionary view on mental health, which was way ahead of its time. She challenged the status quo by suggesting that, rather than proof of degenerate behaviour, alcoholism could be a symptom of distress, and that the treatment of mental health problems required both compassion and understanding.
 
As well as these trailblazing activities, Bodichon was admired as an artist, had paintings exhibited at The Royal Academy, connections with the Pre-Raphaelites. Many of her drawings have been included in this book.  

Also, as part of a wide circle of friends, she was immensely popular, known for her robust sense of humour, cheerfulness, spontaneous acts of kindness. Bodichon’s cousin was Dr Elizabeth Blackwell, the world’s first qualified woman physician.

As young women, the two of them went on an un-chaperoned walking tour in Europe, which instigated a small act of personal liberation. Defying the convention of the day, they ditched their corsets, shortened their skirts, walked in heavy boots.  Aged 23, Bodichon wrote this little verse: “Oh. Isn’t it jolly/ to cast away folly/ and cut all one’s clothes a peg shorter/ (a good many pegs) And rejoice in one’s legs/ like a free-minded Albion’s daughter!”
 
What an amazing biography Jane Robinson has written of this incredible social trailblazer and feminist pioneer, an account that both elucidates and entertains. Historical facts, political struggles, a life full of both challenges and fun. Truly brilliant.