The threat posed by a woman inventor: law, labour and the subjugation of Louisa Lawson

2024/06/10 by Kathy Bowrey · 1 voice
Computer Science · #Bioethics and Human Rights Issues

paper · doi:10.1080/14490854.2024.2331591

openalex publication_date 2024/06/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15

Abstract

In 1896–1897, Louisa Lawson (1848–1920) filed a number of patent applications. This article explains how her inventions were an expression of modern feminist practice and aligned with the progressive suffragette campaign for equal economic rights for women. It plots the unrelenting opposition to Lawson’s entrepreneurship and explains why her successful litigation to enforce her legal rights was a hollow victory. This history raises significant questions of contemporary relevance about law, culture, power and political strategy demonstrating the historical resistance of all major institutions of the modern democratic state – unions, bureaucracy, parliament and the courts – to gender inclusion.

Discussions

• This article plots the unrelenting opposition to Lawson’s entrepreneurship and explains why her successful litigation to enforce her legal rights was a hollow victory. It raises significant questions [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]

Related

• Inventing the Woman Voter: Suffrage, Ability, and Patents
• Lady Welby: Her Support for and Erasure from the Eugenics Movement
• Feminism, reproductive labour, and the gendered welfare state in Britain’s National Insurance Act of 1911
• CLASS, GENDER, AND LIBERALISM IN PARLIAMENT, 1868–1882: THE CASE OF THE MARRIED WOMEN'S PROPERTY ACTS
• Women inventors in Italy, 1861–1939