Gender and the British Union of Fascists

Abstract

Whereas fascist movements on the continent achieved power in Germany and Italy and were a significant force in several other countries, British fascism never reached any such position. Proscribed shortly after the outbreak of the second world war, its leading activists interned, the most important organization, Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union, had only been a few thousand strong for much of the 1930s. Even at its highest point, in 1934, the British Union of Fascists (BUF), as it was originally called, numbered only some 40,000 and received little electoral support, gaining at best approximately a fifth of the poll in local elections in 1937 in its East London heartland. Nevertheless, as the main British representative of a major political tendency, the BUF has been the subject of extensive study. There has been much discussion of the role of anti-semitism in the movement, and other areas, ranging from its attitude towards nazi Germany to its economic policies, have also been examined.' Amid all this interest, however, existing accounts have paid almost no attention to British fascism and gender. Little consideration has been given to the role of women in the BUF. Nor, despite the movement's decision to adopt the term 'National Socialism' in 1936 and the infamous importance of 'the woman question' for its German cothinkers, has much attention been paid to British fascism's policy towards women. A comprehensive exploration of these areas would not be possible within the confines of a single article, and I have discussed elsewhere the activities of women BUF members.2 This essay will focus, first on how the movement envisaged the role of women in a future British fascism and, second, on how BUF propagandists, both men and women, treated issues of gender. The neglect of gender in discussions of the BUF especially needs correction, considering the circumstances in which the movement rose and fell. The election that brought Labour its ill-fated victory in