Women, Power, and Politics in Britain, 1945-1997

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

2 269 kr

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This volume explores the priorities and hopes, strategies and campaigns, and achievements and failures of women who sought to shape British politics in different ways across the half century between the Attlee and Blair governments. It examines two central questions: what impact did women have on British politics in the second half of the twentieth century? And what did politics mean to women themselves? The authors argue that women were able to create significant political change, often discreet, gradual, behind-the-scenes, and longer term. But it happened nonetheless, forming new crevices, shorelines, and promontories on the map of British politics, and shifting the terrain for men as well as women. This change should not be underestimated, even when its limitations are clear. They also note that there was no revolutionary or dramatic change in women's political involvement across this period. The impact of women's political activity was uneven, and its influence did not go as far as advocates hoped. But cumulatively, women's efforts have profound and far-reaching consequences for conventional politics as well as for women's lives. This exploration demonstrates that British political history can be enriched and enlivened by greater attention to women and gender, and political history must continue to be an important part of women's history.Chapter 9 is open access and available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-07-27
Mått156 x 234 x undefined mm
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor416
FörlagOUP OXFORD
ISBN9780198913306

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Ruth Davidson is an Institute of Historical Research Fellow 2024/5 at the Institute of Historical Research, London. She has published widely on gender, politics, voluntary action, and social policy. She is currently completing her first monograph, Women's Welfare Activism: Everyday Power and Politics in Twentieth-century Britain (Manchester University Press, forthcoming).Farah Hussain is a political science PhD researcher at Queen Mary, University of London. Farah's research focuses on the experience of Muslim women in local politics, especially the Labour Party. Alongside her research, she works in Parliament and was previously a local councillor in London 2014-2022.Lyndsey Jenkins is associate professor and tutorial fellow in history at Mansfield College Oxford. She is a historian of women, politics, and activism in Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with a particular interest in feminism and socialism. She has held teaching positions at Kings College, London and the University of Reading, as well as various Oxford colleges.Anna Muggeridge is a historian of women's activism in twentieth-century Britain. She held a variety of teaching posts at the University of Worcester before securing a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship in 2024. She is currently completing her first monograph, on women and local government in the interwar years, and undertaking her FLF, entitled 'Voices of Motherhood: A History of Maternal Activism from the Women's Co-Operative Guild to Pregnant then Screwed'.

Laura Beers: Foreword: Women Politicians or Women-oriented Politics? Ruth Davidson, Farah Hussain, Lyndsey Jenkins, and Anna Muggeridge: Introduction 1: Laura Beers: Women Politicians or Women-oriented Politics? Part I: Structures and Institutions 2: Anna Muggeridge and Maggie Andrews: Women and the Liberal Party in the 1940s and 50s 3: Daryl Leeworthy: Women, party politics, and Welsh local government, 1945-1997: a cause in common? 4: Lisa Berry-Waite: 'We are therefore asking you to provide us with more suitable facilities': women MPs and parliamentary space, 1945-1997 5: N. C. Fleming: Women and the Conservative Monday Club, c. 1961-1991 6: Krista Cowman: Municipal socialist feminisms: local authority women's committees in the 1980s 7: Emma Lundin: Building alliances and making enemies: the quest for gender quotas within the Labour Party Part II: Campaigns and Causes 8: Gillian Murphy: 'School for women MPs'? Non-party women's organisations and increasing female representation 9: Micaela Panes: End of an era? Labour women's activism in South Wales, c.1945-1960s 10: Anna Bocking-Welch, Richard Huzzey, Cristina Leston-Bandeira, and Henry Miller: Women MPs, Petitions, and Representation 11: Olivia Dee: 'I am one of the few people here...physically capable of appreciating...exactly what an unwanted pregnancy can mean.': abortion discourse from women MPs in Parliament 1966-1990 12: Tom Chidwick: 'Opportunities for new beginnings': women and the politics of Scottish devolution 13: Jessica White: After inertia: Doreen Lawrence, the press, and political power in Britain 1993-1999 14: Susie Deedigan and Deirdre Foley: 'Sit down all you silly women': forming the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, 1996-1998 Part III: Careers and Experiences 15: Jim Tomlinson: Florence Horsburgh MP: from 'women's town' to Cabinet Minister, 1931-1955 16: Mari Takayanagi: Women in Parliamentary delegations: Muriel Nichol and Elaine Burton 17: Lyndsey Jenkins: 'Questions of social justice rather than feminism': Lena Jeger and 'women's issues' on the Labour backbenches in the 1950s and 1960s 18: Gary Love: 'The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world': the role of women in the Conservative Party's international affairs, 1959-78 19: Mary Honeyball: Women in leadership positions in London local government in the 1980s: personal reflections 20: Daniel Frost: 'I am only a lucky mother': Gee Bernard and political ambivalence 21: Emma Peplow and Priscila Pivatto: 'It's got to be possible': women's political careers and family lives since the 1960s as told to the History of Parliament Trust's oral history project Sarah Childs: Afterword