The Newer Eve : Women, Feminists and the Labour Party
Palgrave MacMillan, 2009
isbn 978-0-230-22214-4
In this book, feminist theory is interwoven with women’s voices in the study of three consecutive twentieth century women’s organisations, separate from but affiliated to the British Labour Party, starting with the Women’s Labour League, 1906-1918 and concluding in 1993. It looks at how the women’s leaders tried to balance a socialist feminist programme with the Party’s national programs and the mostly middle class feminist movements. As these organisations represented women workers, consumers and politicians, so the totality of women’s involvement in the Labour movement is considered. Women’s labour market position and how this affects their Labour movement participation is discussed and the way that war affects political organisation. The subject matter gives a new insight into the Labour Party, engaging with its development from its first secretary and Labour’s first Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald to the Tony Blair New Labour, period. Insisting that Labour Party differences be recognised, both over time and in locality, the study concludes by using post-modernism to evaluate the future possibility of a Labour / feminist axis.
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