Mothers of the Matrix - Anna, Fredrika and Ray: Forging Bonds of Feminist Activism

The network of women's connections in the Atlantic community spawned a few conscious "Mothers of the Matrix," who were supremely able to link women activists of various domains around the transatlantic world, which enabled later international women's organizations to be formed. The presentation will focus on three of these women: Anna Doyle Wheeler (1785-1848, Anglo-Irish), Fredrika Bremer (1801-65, Swedish), and Ray Strachey (1887-1940, British). These three lives are spread across the transnational world and the period of the long nineteenth century, as they carried their international ideas across the Atlantic to America and around the European continent.

This keynote lecture is part of the conference "Forging Bonds Across Borders: Mobilizing for Women's Rights and Social Justice in the 19th-Century Transatlantic World" taking place at the GHI April 28 - 30. The lecture will be preceded by a reception with refreshments from 6:00 to 6:30 pm.