Spinster tags "spinster" (meaning "...unmarried woman, typically an older woman beyond the usual age for marriage") as "derogatory" and "a good example of the way in which a word acquires strong connotations to the extent that it can no longer be used in a neutral sense." The 1828 and 1913 editions of "Merriam Webster's Dictionary" defined spinster in two ways: "1. A woman who spins, or whose occupation is to spin. 2. Law: An unmarried or single woman." By the 1800s, the term had evolved to include women who chose not to marry. During that century middle-class spinsters, as well as
The Spinster and Her Enemies outspoken, noting that she was open about the involvement of Victorian feminism in "moralistic propaganda", admired people who were "admittedly reactionary", and rejected sexual liberation. Jeffreys commented in the second edition of "Anticlimax" (2011) that she wrote "The Spinster and Her Enemies" to "demonstrate that the 'sexual revolutions' of the 20th century liberated men by legitimising increased sexual access to women, rather than leading to women's empowerment." The Spinster and Her Enemies The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality 1880–1930 is a 1985 book by the political scientist Sheila Jeffreys, in which the author discusses the change in sexual