Housewives and Citizens

Caitríona Beaumont is Principal Lecturer in Social History at London South Bank University

• Introduction1. Origins and aspirations: voluntary women’s organisations and the representation of housewives, mothers and citizens2. Housewives and citizens: the rights and duties of women citizens3. Moral dilemmas: divorce, birth control and abortion4. Welfare rights for women: maternity care, social welfare benefits and family allowances 5. Active citizenship for women: war and protest 6. Housewives and citizens: post-war planning and the post-war years7. Domesticity, modernity and women’s rights: voluntary women’s organisations and the women’s movement 1950–64ConclusionBibliographyIndex

Housewives and Citizens offers a refreshing perspective on women's activism in 20th century England, enlarging - and challenging - our study of the past. It is a timely reminder that women who did not identify with feminism were nonetheless active in campaigning for improvements in women's lot.Beaumont has provided a scrupulous, scholarly and convincing history of the extensive role of women and the women’s movement in mid twentieth century public life.Catriona Beaumont makes an important contribution to a growing historiography which seeks to suggest that the period from universal female suffrage in 1928 to the emergence of ‘Second Wave’ feminism in the 1960s was a time of greater achievements for the women’s movement than is often assumed.