Module: Irish Women in the Long Nineteenth Century

Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title	Irish Women in the Long Nineteenth Century
Module Code	HIS1023 (ITS: HY230)
Faculty	History & Geography	School	Humanities & Social Sciences
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	10

Description

This module considers constructions of gender in nineteenth-century Ireland with a focus on the manner which women’s lives were shaped by the prevailing ideology of separate spheres. This determined a largely private and domestic role for women with due attention to issues of class. The module will consider the treatment of so-called ‘deviant’ women who existed outside the domestic paradigm. The module will then focus on the campaigns for greater equality for women in society, with a focus on the suffrage campaign. The module will conclude with an examination of women in nationalist campaigns with an emphasis on the revolutionary period 1913-1921.

Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the key themes in the historiography of nineteenth-century Irish women
2. Evaluate the manner in which gender is a social and cultural construct
3. Develop an understanding of the manner in which constructions of male and female societal roles were disseminated and underpinned in nineteenth-century Ireland
4. Develop an understanding of the manner which gender analysis must be linked to an understanding of class in nineteenth-century Ireland.
5. Engage with a variety of primary and secondary texts.

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full time hours per semester
Lecture	48	No Description
Independent Study	202	Independent Study, preparation and completion of assignments
Total Workload: 250

Section Breakdown
CRN	10799	Part of Term	Semester 1
Coursework	0%	Examination Weight	0%
Grade Scale	40PASS	Pass Both Elements	Y
Resit Category	RC1	Best Mark	N
Module Co-ordinator		Module Teacher

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Assessment Breakdown
Assignment	Assignments as required	100%	As required

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; RC1: A resit is available for both^* components of the module. RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module. RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element. ^* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

The ideology of separate spheres
This section of the module will examine the ideology of separate spheres, the manner in which it was disseminated through prescriptive literature and underpinned by the churches, the legal profession and the medical profession. The manner in which the ideology both can be said to have restricted and empowered women in the nineteenth-century will be discussed, the latter with a focus on the cult of motherhood. The manner in which the ideology was imposed on the lower classes will be examined.

‘Deviant women
The manner in which women that existed outside the dominant domestic paradigm will be examined with a focus on prostitutes, women and crime and women who committed infanticide.

The campaigns for equality
This section of the module will focus on the campaigns for custody and rights within marriage, greater educational opportunities and the campaigns, both constitutional and militant, for the parliamentary vote.

Irish nationalist women
This section will focus on the tensions between women in the nationalist campaign and suffrage campaign in the early twentieth century before examining the role of women in the revolutionary period 1913-1921.

Indicative Reading List

Books:

Armstrong, Nancy: 1987, Desire and Domestic Fiction. A Political History of the Novel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987)., Oxford University Press, Oxford,
Cullen Owens, Rosemary: 2005, A Social History of Women in Ireland, Gill and MacMillian, Dublin,
Davidoff, Leonore and Catherine Hall: 2002, Family Fortunes. Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780-1850, Routledge, London,
Farrell, Elaine: 2013, ‘A most Diabolical Deed’: Infanticide and Irish Society 1850-1900, Manchester University Press, Manchester,
Farrell, Elaine (ed.): 2012, Infanticide in the Irish Crown Files at Assizes, Irish Manuscripts Commission,
Harford, Judith: 2008, The Opening of University Education to Women in Ireland, Irish Academic Press, Dublin,
Hughes, Kathryn: 2006, The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton, Harper Perennial, London,
Leeann Lane: 2010, Rosamond Jacob: Third Person Singular, UCD Press, 2010,
Luddy, Maria: 2007, Prostitution and Irish Society 1800-1940, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
Luddy, Maria: 1995, Women in Ireland 1800-1918: A Documentary History, Cork University Press, Cork,
Luddy, Maria: 1995, Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth Century Ireland, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
McCarthy, Cal: 2014, Cumann na mBan, Collins Press, Cork,
Paseta, Senia: 2014, Irish Nationalist Women 1900-1918, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
Prior, Pauline: 2009, Murder and Madness: Gender, Crime and Mental Disorder in Nineteenth-Century Ireland, Irish Academic Press, Dublin,
Quinlan, Carmel: 2002, Genteel revolutionaries: Anna and Thomas Haslam and the Irish women’s movement (Cork: Cork University Press, 2002), Cork University Press, Cork,
Scott, Joan W: 0, ‘Feminism’s History, Journal of Women’s History 16, 2 (2004),
Smith, James M: 2007, Ireland’s Magdalen Laundries and the Nation’s Architecture of Containment (Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press),
Tosh, John, A: 0, Man’s Place. Masculinity and the Middle-Class Home in Victorian England (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014),
Ward, Margaret: 0, Unmanageable revolutionaries: women and Irish nationalism (London: Pluto Press, 1995).,

Articles:
None

Other Resources

None