I have never met the normal woman: Stella Browne and the politics of womanhood

Women's History Review

Volumn 6, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 157-182

  Hall, Lesley A ^a  

^a Wellcome Instititute for the History of Medicine   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0346539276     PISSN: 09612025     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09612029700200143     Document Type: Review

References (55)

1. See, for example, Richard A Soloway (1982) Birth Control and the Population Question in England, 1870-1930 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press)
2. Barbara Brookes (1988) Abortion in England, 1900-1967 (London: Croorn Helm).
3. Mostly recently discussed in Margaret Jackson (1994) The Real Facts of Life: feminism and the politics of sexuality c. 1850-1940 (London: Taylor & Francis)
4. Lucy Bland (1995) Banishing the Beast: English feminism and sexual morality, 1885-1914 (London: Penguin).
5. Lesley A Hall (1997) Sex, science, and suffrage, in Maroula Joannou & June Purvis (Eds) The Women's Suffrage Movement. New Feminist Perspectives (Manchester: Mnchester University Press).
6. Sheila Jeffreys (1985) The Spinster and her Enemies: feminism and sexuality 1880-1930, p. 115 (London: Pandora Press).
7. F. W. Stella Browne (1917) The Sexual Variety and Variability among Women, and their Bearing upon Social Reconstruction (London: British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology).
8. F. W. Stella Browne (1922) The feminine aspect of birth control, in R. Pierpoint (Ed.) Report of the Fifth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference . London . 1922, pp. 40-43 (London: William Heinemann [Medical Books] Ltd.).
9. Interdepartmental Committee on Abortion AC. Paper no. 16: Memorandum for Presentation . from Miss F. W. Stella Browne, 30 October 1937: PRO: MH71/ 21.
10. F. W. Stella Browne (1912) Afew straight questions to the Eugenics Society, The Freewoman, 1 August, pp. 217-218.
11. Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin; her "strained heart" was mentioned by W. J. Robinson (1927) The most radical British feminist and birth control advocate of today, Medical Critic and Guide (New York), 25/ E, May, pp. 192-194.
12. Information about her early posts in the Somerville archives; Stella Browne to Havelock Ellis, 28 December 1914, Havelock Ellis papers in the Department of Manuscripts at the British Library, Additional Manuscripts 70539, On the harsh conditions generally for teachers at girls' schools, see Gillian Avery (1991) The Best Type of Girl: a history of girls' independent schools, pp. 212, 217, 231-233 (London: Andre Deutsch).
13. Virginia Stephen to Violet Dickinson, 16 December 1906, letter no. 323 in Nigel Nicolson (Ed.) (1993 reprint edition) The Flight of the Mind: the letters of Virginia Woolf Volume 11888-1912, p. 364 (London: Hogarth Press; first published 1975).
14. F. W. Stella Browne (1923) Studies in feminine inversion, Journal of Sexology and Psychanalysis, 1, pp. 51-58; first given as a paper to the BSSSP, 11 April 1918.
15. F. W. Stella Browne (1916) Some problems of sex, International Journal of Ethics, 27, pp. 464-471.
16. F. W. Stella Browne (1917) Women and the race, The Socialist Review, 14, pp. 151-157.
17. F. W. Stella Browne (1917) Review: The Sexual Crisis: a critique of our sex life, by Grete Meisel-Hess, The Malthusian, May, p. 39.
18. Dan Weinbren (1994) Against All Cruelty: the Humanitarian League, 1891-1919, History Workshop, 38, Autumn, pp. 86-105.
19. 'A New Subscriber' (1912) The chastity of continence? The Freewoman, 22 February, p. 270.
20. Kathlyn Oliver, Asceticism and passion, The Freewoman, 15 February 1912, p. 252.
21. 'A New Subscriber' (1913) Who are the 'Normal'? The Freewoman, 7 March, pp. 312-313.
22. Jeffreys, The Spinster and her Enemies, pp. 51-52;
23. Jackson, The Real Facts of Life, pp. 91-95.
24. Browne, Sexual Variety and Variability.
25. F. W. Stella Browne (1917) Women and birth-control, in Eden & Cedar Paul (Eds) Population and Birth-control: a symposium, pp. 247-257 (New York: The Critic and Guide Company).
26. Browne, 'Some problems of sex'.
27. F. W. Stella Browne (1915) Letter to the Editor, with a copy of a letter (unpublished) to The New Statesman, The Malthusian, November, p. 92.
28. The New Generation, 1, May 1922, p. 7.
29. Lesley A Hall (1995) 'Disinterested enthusiasm for sexual misconduct': the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology, 1913-1947, Journal of Contemporary History, 30, pp. 665-686.
30. F. W. Stella Browne (1928) Current notes, The New Generation, VII, May, p. 53.
31. Browne, 'Women and birth-control'.
32. Browne, 'Women and the race'. [72] Browne, 'Some problems of sex'.
33. Some years later Stella seems to have been working quite amicably with Halford on the Executive Committee of the BSSSP, as evidenced not only by the Minutes but by the correspondence between them, 1921-23, in BSS 'Misc'.
34. Browne, 'Studies in feminine inversion'.
35. Bland, Banishing the Beast, p. 290
36. Correspondence with Havelock Ellis, BL Add Mss 70539, comments in The Malthusian/ New Generation, etc. Lesley A Hall (1995) Stella and her friends, unpublished paper given at 'Celebrating Women's Friendship' conference, University of York, 8 April 1995.
37. F. W. Stella Browne (1930) Women bear witness, The New Generation, IX, November, pp. 127-128.
38. F. W. Stella Browne (1935) The right to abortion, in F. W. Stella Browne et al Abortion (3 essays), pp. 13-50, (London; G. Allen & Unwin).
39. F. W. Stella Browne (1924) Review of Miriam Van Waters, Where Girls Go Right, The New Generation, III, July, p. 82.
40. Browne, 'A few straight questions to the Eugenics Society'.
41. F. W. Stella Browne (1912) More questions, The Freewoman, 15 August, p. 258.
42. F. W. Stella Browne (1915) Eugenists versus facts, The Clarion, 3 September, p. 5.
43. Jane Lewis (1984) Women in England 1870-1950, p. 105 (Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books): no source given for statement, or for the claim that Stella was "an active eugenicist".
44. Similar claims for Stella's eugenicist position are advanced by Greta Jones (1995) Women and eugenics in Britain: the case of Mary Scharlieb, Elizabeth Sloan Chesser, and Stella Browne, Annals of Science, 52/ 5, pp. 481-502.
45. Browne, Review of Where Girls Go Right.
46. Plan for World Order and Progress, vol. 2 no. 10, October 1935, p. 23.
47. F. W. Stella Browne (1923) Review of Free Thought on Sex (Personal Aspects) . by . George Whitehead, The New Generation, II, December, p. 146.
48. F. W. Stella Browne (1925) Reviews: concerning women and children, The New Generation, IV, March, p. 33, 57.
49. F. W. Stella Browne (1924) A Book on Freud (Review of Franz Wittels, Sigmund Freud), The New Generation, III, November, pp. 130-131.
50. 'F.W.S.B.' (1929) Clouds of glory (Review of Mary Chadwick, Difficulties in Child Development), The New Generation, VIII, January, p. 8.
51. F. W. Stella Browne (1927) Book review (William J. Robinson, A Doctor's Views on Life), Medical Critic and Guide (New York), 25/ e, July, pp. 297-300.
52. F. W. Stella Browne (1924) My tour in Monmouthshire, The New Generation, III, January, pp. 8-9.
53. 'F.W.S.B.' (1930) Review: a milestone (Leila Florence, Birth Control on Trial). The New Generation, IX. March, pp. 33-34.
54. British Sexological Society (report on Stella's paper, The present sexual situation: achievements and difficulties), The New Generation, XI, March 1932, p. 26.
55. F. W. Stella Browne (1922) Women workers who think, The New Generation, I, September, pp. 6-7.