Darwin’s contribution to debates about gender had an enormous influence on contemporary and future attitudes to women, both theoretically and on such practical issues as how – or even whether – they should be educated. His correspondence reveals that the number of women who were involved in contemporary scientific study is substantially larger than was acknowledged at the time or even subsequently.
Gender in a scientific context
In his published works, Darwin explored the development of sexual differences across all living organisms, including the nature and foundations of differences between men and women, and the role of beauty and female choice in shaping human evolution. His views were hotly debated and have influenced attitudes to women – from implications for relative intelligence, to the structure of women’s education. The letters reveal the development of his own thinking, and contain discussions with scientific colleagues that did not make it into print.
Gender and society
The letters are a rich resource for the wider lives of women in this period. During the Beagle voyage his chief correspondents were his sisters, whose letters go into considerable detail about their daily life and preoccupations. Other letters contain a great deal of incidental information about the role of women in shaping the concerns and careers of the men around them.
Darwin’s female correspondents
Darwin is known to have corresponded with around 150 women varying from members of his own family to women engaged in independent scientific research. Among these are women such as Mary Boole, wife of George Boole (who gave his name to Boolean logic), herself a mathematician and a girls’ school teacher; Lydia Becker, best known as a campaigner for female suffrage but also a botanist and astronomer; Mary Elizabeth Barber, a colonial settler in southern Africa and a natural historian; George Eliot, whose books Darwin admired and whose partner, George Henry Lewes published reviews of Darwin’s work.
Darwin’s domestic life
Darwin’s working life is remarkable for its domestic context. For forty years, he worked from his study in the family home, surrounded by his wife, Emma, and their children. He undertook experiments in the kitchen garden and greenhouse, and involved his family and servants in his field studies in the local woods and fields. The letters, many of them written on his behalf by Darwin’s wife, Emma, and daughters, reveal the role of the women of his own family in this work. His daughter Henrietta commented on drafts of his publications, his nieces made observations of plants and animals on his behalf, and his children’s German governesses, Camilla and Louisa Ludwig, acted as translators for him.