Fanny Hertz (1830 – 31 March 1908) was a British educationalist and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

who worked to establish and promote various institutions for

female education Female education is a catch-all term of a complex set of issues and debates surrounding education (primary education, secondary education, tertiary education, and health education in particular) for girls and women. It is frequently called girls ...

in Bradford.

Early life

Hertz was born in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

in Germany to diamond merchant Bram Hertz. She counted herself a descendant of

Heinrich Hertz Heinrich Rudolf Hertz ( ; ; 22 February 1857 – 1 January 1894) was a German physicist who first conclusively proved the existence of the electromagnetic waves predicted by James Clerk Maxwell's Maxwell's equations, equations of electrom ...

. She moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1837, and lived in both London and

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

during that decade. She married her cousin, mill owner and yarn merchant William David Hertz at St James's Church, Westminster in 1851, with whom she had three children. Their Bradford home served as a meeting place for artists, thinkers and radicals. She met and befriended

Frederic Harrison Frederic Harrison (18 October 1831 – 14 January 1923) was a British jurist and historian. Biography Born at 17 Euston Square, London, he was the son of Frederick Harrison (1799–1881), a stockbroker and his wife Jane, daughter of Alex ...

. Through Harrison and her circle of associates in Bradford, Hertz embraced the philosophy of

positivism Positivism is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning ''a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. G ...

Women's education

Hertz was a proponent of women's education, in particular for working-class women who were not eligible to study in Mechanics' Institutes. She was associated with the Huddersfield Female Educational Institute, founded in 1847. In 1857, she helped to establish a similar institute in Bradford, serving on its committee. She founded Bradford Ladies' Educational Association in 1868, which raised funds to found

Bradford Girls' Grammar School Bradford Girls' Grammar School is a free school for girls aged 5 – 16 and boys aged 5 – 11. Founded in 1875, the school is on the outskirts of Bradford city centre in West Yorkshire, England. Recent public examination results put the schoo ...

with the support of local

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

William Edward Forster William Edward Forster, PC, FRS (11 July 18185 April 1886) was an English industrialist, philanthropist and Liberal Party statesman. His supposed advocacy of the Irish Constabulary's use of lethal force against the National Land League earne ...

, husband of her Bradford Ladies Educational Association associate Jane Forster. When the

National Association for the Promotion of Social Science The National Association for the Promotion of Social Science (NAPSS), often known as the Social Science Association, was a British reformist group founded in 1857 by Lord Brougham. It pursued issues in public health, industrial relations, penal ref ...

held its 1859 congress in Bradford, Hertz presented a paper called ''Mechanics' Institutes for working women, with special reference to the manufacturing districts of Yorkshire'' in which she accepted reading, writing, arithmetic, and needlework as a core for female education, she rejected that education should be designed to prepare women "for the duties of wives and mothers, of mistresses and servants". She advocated for a broader curriculum influenced by Johann Heinrich Perstalozzi's theories of education. She served on the

North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women The North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women (NECPHEW), inspired by Anne Clough, was established in November 1867. At this time women could not be awarded university degrees even though they had passed the examinations. ...

and Maria Grey's National Union for Improving the Education of Women of All Classes.

Later life

Hertz moved to

Harley Street Harley Street is a street in Marylebone, Central London, which has, since the 19th century housed a large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery. It was named after Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.< ...

in London in the 1870s, where she received guests with interests in radical causes at her salon including

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings ...

and

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

. In 1876, she published a translation of a chapter from Auguste Comte's ''System of Positive Polity''. Her husband died in 1880, whilst Hertz herself died in 1908 in her Lansdowne Crescent home.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hertz, Fanny 1830 births 1908 deaths Women of the Victorian era English feminists English educational theorists German emigrants to the United Kingdom