Socialist Women
Subtitle: Britain, 1880s to 1920s
Publisher: Routledge
Published: November 30, 2001
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9780415142205
First sentence: These statements were written by two leading female socialist propagandists in support of women's claim to exercise the parliamentary franchise.
Description: "This new study examines the experiences of women involved in the socialist movement during its formative years in Britain. By giving full attention to this much-neglected group, Socialist Women examines and challenges the orthodox views of labour and suffrage history.".

"The opening chapters examine the ideas and political journeys of individual socialist women. Torn between competing loyalties of gender, class and party, socialist women did not have a fixed identity but a number of contested identities. Believing above all that being a woman was vital to their politics, these individuals sought to develop a woman-focused theory of socialism and to put this new politics into practice.

June Hannam and Karen Hunt go on to probe the issues that created divisions between these women, as well as those which gave them the opportunity to act together, in three fascinating case studies: women's suffrage; women and internationalism; the politics of consumption.".

"Socialist Women explores what it meant to be a socialist woman against the backdrop of the pioneering days of the socialist movement, the growth of the Edwardian women's suffrage campaign and the enormous political and social upheaval caused by the First World War. The viewpoint of these women brings a new perspective to both socialist and feminist politics, which will make this book absorbing reading for anyone interested in gender history or the politics of this period"--BOOK JACKET.