Barbara Caine's fascinating analysis of feminism in England examines the relationship between feminist thought and actions, and wider social and cultural change over tow centuries. Professor Caine investigates the complex question surrounding the concept of a feminist 'tradition', and shows how much the feminism of any particular period related to the years preceding or following it. Though feminism may have lacked the kind of legitimating tradition evident in other forms of political thought, the ghost of Mary Wollstonecraft was something which all nineteenth- and twentieth-century feminists had to come to terms with. Her story was a constant reminder of the connection between the demand for political and legal rights, and its conflation with the issues of personal and sexual rebellion. Like Wollstonecraft, every woman pioneer into the public arena faced assaults on her honour as well as on her intellectual position. The author also addresses the language of feminism: the introduction and changing meanings of the term 'feminist';the importance of literary representations of women; and the question of how one defines feminism, and establishes boundaries between feminism and the 'woman question'. She ends with a discussion of the new emphasis, post-1980s, on the need to think about 'feminisms' in the plural, rather than any single kind of feminism. analysis of feminist organizations, debates, and campaigns shows a keen sense of the relationship between feminist thought and actions, and wider social and cultural change. The result is a fascinating study with a new perspective on feminists and feminist traditions, which can be used both as an introductory text and as an interpretative work. Professor Caine examines the complex questions surrounding the concept of a feminist 'tradition', and shows how much the feminism of any particular period related to the years preceding or following it. Though feminism may have lacked the kind of legitimating tradition evident in other forms of political thought, the ghost of Mary Wollstonecraft is seen here as something which all nineteenth- and twentieth-century feminists had to come to terms with. Her story was a constant reminder of the connection between the demand for political and legal rights, and its conflation with the issues of personal and sexual rebellion. Like Mary Wollstonecraft, every woman pioneer into the public arena was faced with assaults on her honour as well as on her intellectual position. Professor Caine also addresses the language of feminism: the introduction and changing meanings of the term `feminist'; the importance of literary representations of women; and the question of how one defines feminism, and establishes boundaries between feminism and the `woman question'. She ends with a discussion of the new emphasis, post-1980s, on the need to think about `feminisms' in the plural, rather than any single kind of feminism.

When feminists argued for political rights in the context of liberal democracy, they insisted that the differences between men and women were irrelevant for citizenship. Yet by acting on behalf of women, they introduced the very idea of difference they sought to eliminate. Scott reads feminist history in terms of this paradox.

This edited collection examines the campaign for women's suffrage from an international perspective. Leading international scholars explore the relationship between suffragism and other areas of social and political struggle, and examine the ideological and cultural implications of gendered constructions of 'race', nation and empire. The book includes comprehensive case-studies of Britain, India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Palestine.

In Religion and Women in India, Tanika Sarkar provides an account of gender prescriptions and proscriptions and their operation among various Indian religious communities, beginning with early British rule and concluding in the late twentieth century. Tracking various shifts and displacements in doctrinal thought and practice, she argues that Indian modernity was initiated largely through debates on gender, scripture, custom, and caste, which shaped ideal forms of masculine and feminine conduct. She demonstrates the organization of a modern public sphere around the controversies, cultural imaginaries, and political agitations over such issues as the age of consent, child marriage, widow remarriage, rape laws, and intercaste and interfaith relations. Gender norms are shown leaching into social attitudes, labor processes, and legal rights—leading eventually to modern Indian feminism. Closely analyzing the interpenetration and co-constitution of religion, politics, and gender in India, while also comparing parallel developments in Pakistan and Bangladesh, this pioneering work offers a brilliant and synthesizing account of the battles between orthodoxy and its opponents over two hundred years. No historian, no feminist, no student of politics can afford to miss it.

"This book brings together feminist histories in education with an innovative approach to epistolary narrative analytics. In deploying the notion of the epistolary bildung the author rigorously and eloquently shows how the correspondence of Barbara Bodichon can shed fresh light in a range of personal problems and public issues in women’s lives, which remain relevant today" - Maria Tamboukou, Professor of Feminist Studies, University of East London, UK This book assesses Barbara Bodichon’s significance in the history of the women’s movement in Britain by elaborating a conceptualisation of letters as sources of feminist development. Bodichon was the leader of the first women’s suffrage committee in England, which collected 1,500 signatures in favour of the female vote – a petition presented in the House of Commons by sympathising MPs to support the amendment of the 1867 Reform Bill. This book explores the significance of letter-exchange in Barbara Bodichon’s feminist becoming as she managed to mobilize partisans and secure signatures by means of chains of friendship letters spreading across the country. For letters functioned as platforms where, concomitantly to her making sense of her experiential input, Bodichon adopted, redefined and challenged circulating discourses – transforming them in the process and hence contributing to the production of feminist knowledge, intersubjectively and collaboratively in dialogue with her addressees. At the crossroads of history of feminism, gender history and history of women’s education, this book explores the significance of letter-exchange in Bodichon’s development into one of the galvanizing figures of the women’s rights movement in Victorian England.

This Companion, first published in 2000, addresses the work of women playwrights in Britain throughout the twentieth century.

Feminism is a cultural as well as a political movement. It changes the way women think and feel and affects how women and men live their lives and interpret the world. For this reason it has provoked lively debate and fierce antagonisms that have continued to the present day. Contemporary feminism and its concerns are rooted in a history stretching over at least two centuries. Feminism explores this history in a range of countries spanning the world. It asks does ‘feminism’ exist? Or are the differences among feminist today so great that we should speak of ‘feminisms’? The book looks at the challenge made by feminists to prevailing ideas about a ‘woman’s place’, the complex relationship between equality and difference, women’s solidarity and the relationship between feminism and other social and political reform movements.

As the suffragette movement was becoming increasingly militant what was the Conservative reaction to successive parliamentary bills on women's suffrage and what was the level of support for votes for women within the Tory party? After the 1867 Reform Bill, Conservatives were hesitant about supporting further measures to widen the franchise. Although a few party members supported John Stuart Mill's proposal for women's suffrage, and some notable individual Conservative women were part of the early organised campaigns for female enfranchisement, the period before the 1880s saw little interest in this issue among the party faithful. It was only when the grassroots Primrose League was created in 1883 that the suffrage question was taken up by a number of its women members.One of the most significant gaps in our knowledge of the British women's suffrage movement is how the Conservative Party dealt with this controversial issue. In this important reassessment of Conservative women's suffrage, Mitzi Auchterlonie looks at the political activities of Conservative women between 1867 and 1914. As the campaigning by the women's suffrage societies intensified and became more militant, Conservative suffragists responded by founding the Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association (CUWFA) in 1908. This became the third largest women's suffrage party of the pre-World War One period.Auchterlonie looks at the activities of this organisation and its publication "The Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Review" in depth, enabling readers to understand the social, political, economic and imperial issues which most concerned Conservative suffragists. She charts their campaigning activities at local and national level using primary sources including memoirs of prominent Conservative supporters of women's suffrage. She discusses the relationship between the CUWFA and politicians of all parties as well as their links with other suffrage organisations. Auchterlonie concludes that Conservative women, dismissed by some as marginal to suffrage history, played a significant part in the suffrage campaigns, while the party itself contained an unexpectedly diverse range of views towards the idea of votes for women.

Women’s archives appear to have been largely disregarded until the last couple of decades. Most countries lack well-documented archives, and the question of methodology has become a common concern and ever more significant for researchers. Aiming to contribute to the growing efforts of developing women’s archives, the present book brings together the works of numerous researchers from various disciplines. The researchers contributed to this volume in order to share information and experiences about the problems of sources and archives in women’s studies. The articles in the book not only analyse the problems encountered by researchers in the field of women’s studies, but also examine perceptions of women in collective memories. The book comprises five parts: Women’s Archives and Women’s Libraries; Art, Literature and Journal; Letters and Petitions; Oral History; and Cinema. All the articles present fresh ideas on the collective memory, perceptions, experiences, and the collection of documents on women. The aim is to present discussions about the works of oral, written, and visual culture that constitute the collective memory and to form accessible archives on an international level, thereby opening up new areas of research on this subject.

Gender and Power in Britain is an original and exciting history of Britain from the early modern period to the present focusing on the interaction of gender and power in political, social, cultural and economic life. Using a chronological framework, the book examines: * the roles, responsibilities and identities of men and women * how power relationships were established within various gender systems * how women and men reacted to the institutions, laws, customs, beliefs and practices that constituted their various worlds * class, racial and ethnic considerations * the role of empire in the development of British institutions and identities * the civil war * twentieth century suffrage * the world wars * industrialisation * Victorian morality.