Editing Beatrice Webb (section)

==Early life==
Beatrice Webb (née Potter) was born in [[Standish House]] in the village of [[Standish, Gloucestershire]]. She was the youngest of nine daughters of businessman [[Richard Potter (businessman)|Richard Potter]] and Laurencina Heyworth, the daughter of a Liverpool merchant;<ref name = "BeatriceODNB">{{Cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/36799|first=John|last=Davis|title=Webb [née Potter], (Martha) Beatrice}}</ref> Laurencina was friends for a time with the prolific Victorian novelist [[Margaret Oliphant]] during the 1840s. Both women were campaigning in Liverpool at the time (see Margaret Oliphant, ''Autobiography'', edited by Elizabeth Jay, pages 25–26). Her paternal grandfather was [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] MP [[Richard Potter (British politician)|Richard Potter]], co-founder of the ''[[Little Circle]]'', which was key in creating the [[Reform Act 1832]].

Beatrice faced tragedy with her sisters: one, Blanche, died by suicide in 1905 in her own house; her oldest sister, Lallie, then died due to overdose the next year in 1906. It was believed at the time that both incidents were caused by their marital relationships.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3177970.pdf | jstor=3177970 | title=Family History as Women's History: The Sisters of Beatrice Webb | last1=Caine | first1=Barbara | journal=Feminist Studies | year=1986 | volume=12 | issue=2 | pages=295–319 | doi=10.2307/3177970 }}</ref> Yet, Beatrice struggled with this idea because of her beliefs of gender roles and equalities:

[[File:Sidney and Beatrice Webb with Margaret Hobhouse and Family, 1900 (7158707424).jpg|thumb|Sidney (left, seated) and Beatrice Webb (second right, seated) with Beatrice's sister Margaret Hobhouse, née Potter, (third left, seated) and Margaret's family; circa 1900]]

{{blockquote|Beatrice freely acknowledged male mental superiority and agreed with Spencer that women's education needed, above all, to include instruction in household duties. She believed that a woman needed definite home duties to fulfill and someone to be dependent on her love and care.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4288509 | jstor=4288509 | title=Re-Reading Beatrice Webb's Diary | last1=Lewis | first1=Jane | author-link=Jane Lewis (academic) | journal=History Workshop | year=1983 | issue=16 | pages=143–146 | access-date=29 June 2024 | archive-date=31 October 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231031151301/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4288509 | url-status=live }}</ref>}}

From an early age Webb was [[autodidact|self-taught]] and cited as important influences the cooperative movement and the philosopher [[Herbert Spencer]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=Sidney and Beatrice Webb {{!}} British economists|work=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sidney-and-Beatrice-Webb|access-date=25 August 2017|archive-date=1 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801180929/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sidney-and-Beatrice-Webb|url-status=live}}</ref> After her mother's death in 1882 she acted as a hostess and companion for her father. In 1882, she began a relationship with twice-widowed Radical politician [[Joseph Chamberlain]], by then a [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|Cabinet]] minister in [[William Ewart Gladstone|William Gladstone]]'s second government. He would not accept her need for independence as a woman and after four years of "storm and stress" their relationship failed.<ref name="Beatrice Webb 2000 p. 244">''Diaries of Beatrice Webb'' (2000), New Year's Day, 1901, p. 244.</ref>

Marriage in 1892 to [[Sidney Webb]] established a lifelong "partnership" of shared causes. At the beginning of 1901, Webb wrote that she and Sidney were "still on our honeymoon and every year makes our relationship more tender and complete."<ref name="Beatrice Webb 2000 p. 244" />

She and her husband were friends with the philosopher [[Bertrand Russell]].<ref name="LettersPg16">{{Cite book |last=Russell |first=Bertrand |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EayyTTpXL-QC&pg=PA16 |title=Yours Faithfully, Bertrand Russell: Letters to the Editor 1904–1969 |publisher=Open Court Publishing |year=2001 |isbn=0-8126-9449-X |editor-last=Perkins |editor-first=Ray |location=Chicago |page=16 |access-date=16 November 2007}}</ref>