The emergence of vegetarianism alongside the British suffrage movement from the mid nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries

Abstract

This study examines the emergence of vegetarianism in Britain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and compares this with the developing women’s suffrage movement during the same period. Through this comparison, the research examines how vegetarianism became associated with feminist theory, in contrast to the early days of male dominated vegetarian societies. This research also discusses the shift of religious devotion in vegetarianism to a more secular motivation at the turn of the twentieth century as more women began to practice a vegetarian lifestyle. Finally, this paper argues that the feminist adoption of vegetarianism arrived through the development of active political citizenship, influenced through such measures as hunger strikes and forcible feedings.