Mr. and Mrs. Godwin and the roots of Anarcho-feminism [by Simon Strickland-Scott]

On International Women’s Day, 2021 thousands of women (and some men) rioted in Mexico City in the latest of several actions against femicide (literally woman killing) and sexual violence which is endemic across Latin America and Mexico in particular (over 900 women were murdered in Mexico in 2020). Carrying blow- torches, hammers and spray cans; graffiti was painted, windows were smashed, flares were thrown and the police responded with tear gas and arrests.  Women were and are understandably angry and among the feminists, seen through their tactics, symbols and attire were so called anarcho- (or anarcha-) feminists; women who combine the ideologies of feminism and anarchism, holding the state and its institutions responsible for women’s oppression.  Ironically given the premise of this article, those institutions include marriage, though that anomaly will be explained in due course.

Anyone reading this by now might be thinking ‘what on earth has a feminist riot in Mexico City got to do with Newington Green Meeting House?’  Although the present writer is neither an anarchist nor a feminist; the answer I would have to give is ‘quite a lot actually’.

Anarcho-feminism is a worldwide movement.  Typically given its anarchist component, there is no organization, it is rather an ideology and concept under which women, including trans women and non-binary people, self-identify and organise.  The origins of the hybridization of anarchism and feminism are usually traced back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when anarchist women such as Emma Goldman and Lucy Parsons came to the fore of the movement demanding women’s rights be added to the general liberatory and anti-statist demands of the anarchists.  It may be argued though that the origins of anarcho-feminism go back a century further and moreover to one remarkable married couple.

Anyone remotely familiar with the Unitarian Chapel on Newington Green will be aware of its claim to be the ‘birthplace of western feminism’ owing to the presence of Mary Wollstonecraft and her seminal book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

When Mary had moved on from Newington Green she married William Godwin. Godwin had been born in 1856 and brought up as a Sandemanian (a strict form of Calvinism) which he later reputed.  He attended the Hoxton Academy but later became influenced by the French Encyclopedists a group of Enlightenment writers whose work prefigured the French Revolution.  Perhaps the most well-known members of this school were Rousseau and Voltaire.

Godwin was a writer, journalist and publisher; having mixed success at all three, but perhaps became most famous for three works, two of which he wrote before marrying Mary which together gave him the reputation as the ‘father of philosophical anarchism’.

Godwin’s Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness was published in 1793 and was heavily influenced by the work of the conservative Edmund Burke.  Burke’s influence on a seminal work in the anarchist canon may sound surprising given that the latter has been credited as the founder of philosophical conservatism, but both Godwin and Burke extolled the cause of individual liberty above the state.  On this issue, Godwin declared:  

‘Government was intended to suppress injustice, but its effect has been to embody and perpetuate it’.

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/william-godwin-quotes

…and again, in Political Justice:

‘Above all we should not forget that government is an evil, a usurpation upon the private judgement and individual conscience of mankind’.  

Though this meeting of minds between conservatives and anarchists may sound surprising, even in more recent times we should remember that whereas anarchists want to ‘smash the state’, somewhat more prosaically Margaret Thatcher famously called for ‘the rolling back of the frontiers of the state’.

Godwin was seen as a moderate compared with Thomas Paine and his work was seen as a middle way between Paine’s proto-socialist position and Burke’s conservatism.  Thus, despite the rock throwing stereotype of today’s anarchists, Godwin was very much opposed to using violence to advance his aims.  He supported British supporters of Jacobinism (i.e. the radical wing of the French revolution) but was opposed to revolution itself as a method of changing the political order:

‘I am an enemy to revolutions. I abhor, both from temper and from the clearest judgment I am able to form, all violent convulsions in the affairs of men’.

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/william-godwin-quotes/

Godwin followed Political Justice with a novel: Things as They Are; or The Adventures of Caleb Williams (often abbreviated simply to Caleb Williams).

Published in 1794, this three volume work encapsulates many of the same arguments found in Political Justice in which the eponymous working class hero comes up against a powerful, wealthy antagonist.  The convoluted story which incorporates corruption and murder focuses particularly on the inequity of the legal system.

Both Political Justice and Caleb Williams were very popular, going through many editions and selling thousands of copies each and remain Godwin’s most enduring legacy.

Godwin had first met Mary Wollstonecraft at the home of the Unitarian publisher Joseph Johnson.  Later, in 1796, they met again, became friends and fell in love.  Mary soon became pregnant and, despite Godwin advocating the abolition of marriage they married to off-set social disapproval.  However valuing their independence and having the resources to do so, they chose to live separately in neighbouring houses in Somers Town, London.  Mary gave birth to a daughter, also called Mary in August 1797, but tragically died the following month after only a few months of marriage.  Godwin was thus left to look after Mary and Fanny (Mary Wollstoncraft’s daughter by an earlier relationship).

Godwin remarried in 1801.  His second wife, Mary Claremont brought two more children into the family from her first marriage; Claire and Charles who became step siblings to Mary and Fanny. 

In 1798 Godwin had written a candid biography of his late wife Mary: Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.  This caused a major scandal at the time as Godwin detailed Mary’s two suicide attempts and her relationship with Gilbert Imlay and subsequent birth of their illegitimate daughter, Fanny.  These were things that people simply did not talk about at the time and Godwin’s honesty had the unintended consequence of destroying Mary’s reputation.  This only began to revive with the birth of the Suffrage Movement in the 1860’s and the rediscovery of the Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

Godwin Died in 1836 and was buried beside Mary at St. Pancras Old Church.  The philosophy he expounded remains as significant as ever, in both its feminist and non-feminist variants, though given how anarchist thought has evolved, especially in its tactical aspects, we can imagine that Godwin may not have approved of this aspect of his legacy.

This blog is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. It was made by New Unity and Simon Strickland-Scott. Find out more: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.