Women and British Fascism Revisited: Gender, the Far-Right, and Resistance

Abstract

Women and British Fascism Revisited Gender, the Far-Right, and Resistance Julie V. Gottlieb (bio) It would be tempting to claim that the history of women and inter-war British fascism has been completely excavated and fully examined. Two monograph-length case studies have been published in recent years: Martin Durham's Women and Fascism and my own Feminine Fascism. Given the relatively small size of the movement (between 40,000 and 50,000 members at its height), the intellectual bankruptcy, and the ultimate political and electoral failure of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF)—by far the most significant British fascist movement to emerge in the 1930s in spite of the fact that not one of its members was elected to public office—it might seem that there is little left to say. Even before women's historians turned their attention to the question of female participation and to the movement's women's policies and sexual politics, the historiography of British fascism was already flourishing. Important debates about political marginality; party structure and British political culture; race, ethnicity and community; political violence and public order; and British relations with fascist movements across Europe had been framed, and grew increasingly more heated. All of these debates were fueled by the greater accessibility of public records, the willingness of former members to come forward to give testimony and set the record straight as they saw it, and the more systematic archiving of miscellaneous printed sources, branch records, and unpublished memoirs. To the cynic, it seemed quite possible that there were more historians working on British fascism than there had been prominent Blackshirts proclaiming their political faith on the streets of Britain during the 1930s. However, a number of empirical and theoretical developments, as well as contemporary political events, suggest that further research on the British far Right, and the more specific study of women and extremist politics, would be fruitful and by no means reach a dead end. What historiographical and historical factors render the study of women and British fascism salient? There are a number of issues to consider here, including the richness of the source material, the potential of applying different theoretical perspectives, and the topicality of the subject in light of current events. In terms of primary material, the source base continues to expand, with notable developments in the release of MI5 documents (accessible at the National Archive, formerly the Public Records Office), the deposit of Mosley family papers, the publication of new biographies [End Page 108] of leading figures such as Diana Mosley, and the continued attempt to gather oral histories, testimonies and private papers from the few former members of the BUF who are still living.1 During the 1990s, two excellent collections for the study of British fascism were deposited, and they continue to grow: the British Union collection at the University of Sheffield and the Mosley Papers at the University of Birmingham. For instance, when I was working on my book no copies of the cyclostyled Woman Fascist—a journal for women members that was printed between 1933 and 1934, and the only publication that was addressed to women members exclusively—were known to have survived. In the past few years, however, miscellaneous copies have surfaced and are held by the British Union collection at Sheffield, revealing the concerns and details of quotidian female activity. While the drive to gather more oral testimonies has no doubt been thwarted in recent years by the fact that most of the women involved are either no longer alive or, if still with us, in their eighties and nineties, the release of more Home Office files relating to the internment of Lady Diana Mosley raises some important issues. If the official position revealed in these files is to be taken at face value and as representative of government perceptions of British fascism, then it would now appear that the most dangerous British fascist of the 1930s was a woman. While the historical narrative has thus far positioned Sir Oswald Mosley as the leading protagonist, or rather the antagonist, among the "fellow travelers of the Right," as the man who might emulate Quisling and collaborate...