This book serves as an introduction to the extraordinary diversity of women’s activism. Paula Bartley's original research is supported by a range of writing to provide a powerful impression of the actions taken by groups of women from across the social and political spectrum, making the book invaluable to both students and interested readers. These women set out to make a difference to their locality, their country and sometimes the world. The story of women’s activism embodies stimulating accounts of progress and reversals, of commitment and uncertainty, of competing rights and challenging wrongs. The story of women’s activism is not tidy or well-ordered. It is messy and unorthodox. And full of surprises.
Author(s): Paula Bartley
Series: Gender and History
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 286
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Introduction: Themes and Debates
Historiography
Chapter 2: A New Age: 1900–1914
Fighting for Workers’ Rights
Nothing to Lose But Their Chains18
On the Shop Floor26
Fighting for Families
Suffrage Campaigns
Opposition to Votes for Women
Protective Legislation
Last Orders
Pitbrow Women
Sexual Politics
The ‘Irish question’
Chapter 3: The Home Front: 1914–1918
Suffrage Activists and the War Effort
Fighting for Workers’ Rights
The Women’s Emergency Corps and Its Offshoots
Belgian Refugees
Women’s Volunteer Reserve
Other Women’s Organisations
Sexual Politics
The Rent Strikes
Peace Movements
Conclusion
Chapter 4: The Not-So-Roaring Twenties: 1918–1929
Trade Union Activism
Parliamentary Activism
Political Parties and Activism
Local Political Activism
Activism and Women’s Organisations
Progress and Setbacks
The Law and Sexual Politics
Differences Between Activists
Family Allowances
Protective Legislation
Birth Control
The Equal Franchise Campaign
Conclusion
Chapter 5: The Hungry Thirties: 1930–1939
The Wall Street Crash
Women’s Organisations and Their Campaigns
Reforming the Abortion Laws
Campaigning Against the Nationality Laws
Campaigning for Equal Pay
Fascism and the Fights Against It
The Fight Against Fascism
Italy
Germany
Spain
Appeasement and the Road to War
The Munich Agreement
Chapter 6: The Second World War: 1939–1945
Parliamentarians and Political Activists
Fighting for Equality at Work
Fighting for Equal Compensation
Fighting for Better Pay
Fighting for Sexual Justice
Women’s Organisations and the War Effort
Protecting the Country
Women’s Auxiliary Forces
Protecting Refugees
Opposition to the War
Conclusion
Chapter 7: The Post-War World: 1945–1960
British Housewives League
Campaigns for Equal Pay
Sexual Politics
Local Activism
Keeping the Peace
The Windrush Generation
Anti-Colonialism
Chapter 8: The Less-Than-Swinging Sixties: 1960–1970
Local Activism
Campaigns for Equal Pay
Black Activism
Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll
The New Moral Right
Anti-nuclear Protests
Organisational and Parliamentary Politics
Freedom from Hunger Campaign
Conclusion
Chapter 9: The Selfish Seventies?: 1970–1979
‘Black Women Together’
‘Strikers in Saris’: 20 August 1976–14 July 1978
Sexual Politics
Abortion: A Woman’s Right to Choose vs the Sanctity of Life
Domestic Violence
‘We Will Walk Without Fear’: Women Against Violence Against Women
Local Activism
Campaigning for Disability Rights97
Conclusion
Chapter 10: Margaret Thatcher’s Age and After: 1979–2000
Sexual Politics: Victoria Gillick, Mary Whitehouse and Feminists
Black Lives Matter
The Southall Black Sisters
Black vs White Feminism
Peace and War: Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp 1981–1990
Civil War in Ireland
Women Against Pit Closures: Reality and Myth88
The Road to Power
Chapter 11: Conclusion: Change and Continuities
Bibliography
Index
