''Urania'' was a privately circulated feminist

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field n ...

journal, published between 1916 and 1940. Editors included

Eva Gore-Booth Eva Selina Laura Gore-Booth (22 May 1870 – 30 June 1926) was an Irish poet, theologian, and dramatist, and a committed suffragist, social worker and labour activist. She was born at Lissadell House, County Sligo, the younger sister of Co ...

Esther Roper Esther Roper (4 August 1868 – 28 April 1938) was a suffragist and social justice campaigner who fought for equal employment and voting rights for working-class women. Early life and education Esther Roper was born near Chorley, Lancashire, o ...

Irene Clyde Thomas Baty (8 February 1869 – 9 February 1954), who also used the name Irene Clyde, was an English gender non-conforming international lawyer, writer, and activist. A prominent legal scholar and authority on international law, Baty served fo ...

, Dorothy Cornish, and Jessey Wade. It was published bimonthly from 1916 to 1920, then triannually due to high costs.

Background

Many of the editors of the journal were connected through the

Aëthnic Union The Aëthnic Union was a radical feminist organisation established in London around 1911 by Thomas Baty, also known as Irene Clyde. Dedicated to dismantling traditional gender roles and societal norms, the Union promoted ideals of pacifism, egal ...

, a short-lived radical feminist group formed in 1911.

History

''Urania's'' intention was to challenge gender stereotypes and advance the abolishment of the

gender binary The gender binary (also known as gender binarism) is the classification of gender into two distinct forms of masculine and feminine, whether by social system, Culture, cultural belief, or both simultaneously. Most cultures use a gender binary, ...

. each issue was headed with the statement: "There are no 'men' or 'women' in Urania." "Sex is an accident" was a term frequently used in the journal. It was privately published by D. R. Mitra, Manoranjan Press, Bombay. The journal remained private for its 24-year history; a distributors' note at the end of each edition stated "''Urania'' is not published, nor offered to the public, but ..can be had by friends." ''Urania's'' editors deliberately fostered an informal network of supporters and sympathisers, encouraging readers to send in their names to a register. The journal claimed to have a circulation of around 250 and was distributed free of charge. University college libraries in Oxford, Cambridge, and America stocked ''Urania'', although some Oxford women’s colleges banned the publication.

Content

Amongst other content, the journal published articles about feminist movements around the world and compiled information about successful gender-reassignment surgeries.

Legacy

The Women's Library The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...

at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

digitised the run of ''Urania'' from 1919 to 1940 and published it online in 2023.

References

External links

''Urania'' No.13 (1919) to No.142 (1940)
at the LSE Digital Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Urania Bimonthly journals Defunct journals of the United Kingdom English-language journals Feminist journals Gender studies journals LGBTQ-related journals Academic journals established in 1916 Publications disestablished in 1940 Triannual journals Transgender literature