Priscilla Wakefield As A Pre-Feminist

The second issue Wakefield wanted to tackle as a “pre feminist” was the issue of justice in the female society. Women were not allowed to speak on trial, as a reliable witness, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Priscilla Wakefield demanded that if it was honorable for men to be engaged in trade why should the same not apply to women? “In a country like England where commerce forms one of the principal sinews of national strength, where the chart her of the merchant is honorable and no obstacle to a favorable reception in the highest circles, that degradation should not attend the female who engages in the concerns of commerce” (Wakefield, “Conduct (Un)Becoming” 229). Portraying Britain’s national identity formed through its trade