Women’s Activism in Twentieth-Century Britain: Making Difference across the Political Spectrum. By Paula Bartley

Abstract

Women’s Activism in Twentieth-Century Britain introduces a wonderfully diverse range of campaigns, protests, and political engagement women undertook as they sought to bring about change at a local, national, and international level during the twentieth century. Activism occurred through formal and informal organizations or even individually, like Mrs Roberts, a mother of two who in the 1960s chained herself to a noticeboard at the council offices because she needed a council house. The many areas discussed in the book are a real indication not only of Bartley’s research but also of the seismic growth of women’s history and resources available to historians of women in the last 40 years. Taken as a whole, this book thus broadens the reader’s understanding of the scope of women’s activism and makes an argument for its importance to twentieth-century British political history. The introduction opens with a discussion of the Anglo-Indian social reformer Olive Malvery, whose writing exposed the: ‘lives of women and the sharp end of exploitation: factory and ship workers, waitresses, barmaids, costermongers and seamstresses’. [P1] She is one of the many women who lifted the lid on the unseen exploitation women experienced in the workplace. Indeed, this volume has a strong focus on Labour and working-class histories, including women’s industrial action during the First and Second World Wars. This is to be expected from a historian whose recent publications have included books on Ellen Wilkinson and Labour Cabinet Ministers. However, as Bartley explains there were multiple different reasons why women took action such as redressing injustice, creating a better world, or even a response to loss. Thus, this book’s scope is not limited to campaigns around women’s issues; for example, Women against Pit Closures and Lilian Bilocca, who led a huge protest again poor safety standards on Hull trawlers in which her sons and husband worked. Overall, these women’s campaigns for the lives and livelihoods of their men also find a place in the text.