Virginia Stephen and The People's Suffrage Federation
Join us for a talk about Virginia Stephen, later Woolf's, link to suffrage campaigning!
This event is part of the series celebrating the 100th anniversary of The Women’s Library.
Clara Jones' talk will focus on Virginia Stephen, later Woolf's, association with the People’s Suffrage Federation (PSF) - an adult suffrage organisation campaigning for universal suffrage with no property qualifications. With reference to contemporary suffrage newspapers and the PSF papers at The Women's Library, this talk will explore the PSF’s dual feminist/socialist agenda and reveal the contentious position it occupied within the suffrage movement.
The talk will consider the ways in which Virginia Stephen’s early alliance with this group may have influenced the politics and aesthetics of her second novel Night and Day (1919). It will conclude with a focus on a later moment of feminist involvement for Virginia Woolf: her involvement throughout the 1930s with The Women's Service Library, forerunner to The Women's Library.
Speaker
Clara Jones is a Reader in Modern Literature at King’s College London. Her publications include Virginia Woolf: Ambivalent Activist (EUP, 2016), the edited collection Virginia Woolf and Capitalism (EUP, 2024) and British Interwar Women Writers: Class, Gender, Genre (EUP, 2026). Her next major research project, 'Committee Woman', is a literary and cultural history of British women’s administrative labour in cultural organisations and social movements from the first half of the twentieth century.
Chair
Deidre Troy is an LSE Fellow in Political Theory in the Department of Government. Deirdre’s research examines political theories of citizenship, immigration and banishment, with a specific focus on Britain and empire. She is interested in developing political theories through historical and archival analysis, and her research considers how imperial politics continue to shape practices related to the institution of citizenship.
Further information
The British Library of Political and Economic Science, known as LSELibrary, was founded in 1896, a year after the London School of Economics and Political Science. It has been based in the Lionel Robbins Building since 1978 and houses many world class collections, including The Women's Library and the Hall-Carpenter Archives.
If you are planning to attend this event and would like details on how to get here and what time to arrive, as well as on accessibility and special requirements, please refer to LSE Events FAQ.
LSE aims to ensure that people have equal access to these public events, but please contact the events organiser as far as possible in advance if you have any access requirements so that arrangements, where possible, can be made.
Follow LSE public events on X for the latest updates on events and ticket releases.
Videos of past LSE Library events and more are on our YouTube channel.
Event updates and other information about what’s happening at LSE can be found on the LSE Facebook page. For photos from events around campus, follow LSE on Instagram.
Attending our events in-person or online? Join the conversation using #LSEEvents.
LSE has now introduced wireless for guests and visitors in association with 'The Cloud', also in use at many other locations across the UK. If you are on campus visiting for the day or attending a conference or event, you can connect your device to wireless. See more information and create an account at Join the Cloud.
Visitors from other participating institutions are encouraged to use eduroam. If you are having trouble connecting to eduroam, please contact your home institution for assistance.
The Cloud is only intended for guest and visitor access to wifi. Existing LSE staff and students are encouraged to use eduroam instead.
From time to time there are changes to event details so we strongly recommend that if you plan to attend this event you check back on this listing on the day of the event.
Whilst we are hosting this listing, LSE Events does not take responsibility for the running and administration of this event. While we take responsible measures to ensure that accurate information is given here this event is ultimately the responsibility of the organisation presenting the event.
LSE holds a wide range of events, covering many of the most controversial issues of the day, and speakers at our events may express views that cause offence. The views expressed by speakers at LSE events do not reflect the position or views of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
The Women's Library at 100
