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In the first book-length study of Punch’s female contributors, Katy Birch explores the strategies adopted by female humourists to carve out a space for themselves in a male-dominated comic periodical. Women's writing for Punch magazine complicates the image of Punch as a misogynistic, male-authored publication by showing Punch’s female contributors as women with agency who were able to wield humour to their own ends. As well as recovering forgotten female writers and their experiences as Punch authors, the book explores their responses to themes such as anonymity, the New Woman, the campaign for women’s suffrage, and the First World War. Drawing on archival research as well as readings of Punch itself, this book offers a new perspective on a well-known periodical and challenges the common perception of comedy as a historically masculine field.
Introduction
1 Navigating networks and insecurity, 1868–1918
2 Seeking acceptance through comic series, 1868–96
3 Taking advantage of anonymity, 1885–1901
4 Negotiating New Woman stereotypes, 1893–98
5 Creating a virtual community, 1902–14
6 Feminising the suffragette, 1906–14
7 Seeking purpose in the First World War, 1914–18
Afterword: Women in a man’s world
Select bibliography