Harriet Law (1831–1897): Secularism, Feminism, and Socialist Internationalism

Abstract In 1867, Harriet Law (1831–1897) was the first woman to be elected to the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association. Until 1868, she was the General Council’s only woman. Law was already well known in Britain for her outspoken feminism and as a prominent activist within the organized Secularist or Freethought movement. She was also a socialist and supported Karl Marx against some of the more moderate members of the General Council. This article argues that, despite Marx’s impatience with organized Secularism, Harriet Law’s involvement in Freethought is crucial to understanding how she came to be an early feminist voice in the International. Secularism supported women leaders and speakers and fostered an unusually militant and unrespectable form of feminism at a time when the newly organized British women’s movement pursued a much more cautious public image. Law’s feminism combined support for women’s education and professional employment with advocating for the rights of women workers and a strong critique of the Christian institution of marriage. She saw feminism as going hand-in-hand with socialism and was an early campaigner for universal enfranchisement for both women and men. Her socialism was internationalist in its vision, and she also denounced British imperialism and antisemitism.