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Women as paid organizers and propagandists for the British Labour Party between the wars

Hannam, June

Authors

June Hannam



Abstract

This article contributes to recent debates about the complicated ways in which women involved in the interwar British Labour Party negotiated their political identities through an examination of the activities and aims of a neglected group, the paid women organizers. It suggests that although they accepted the importance of women's work within the home, the organizers did not see women's lives as confined by domesticity. Instead, they argued that women in the home had the potential for collective political action. The article looks at the campaign for pit head baths to highlight the attempt by the organizers to develop a politics around issues such as dirt that concerned women in their daily lives. It was difficult to persuade the Labour Party to take these questions seriously, and the organizers experienced constraints as well as opportunities that came from their paid role, but it is argued here that they did carve a career that was woman-focused and sought to give women in the home a voice. © 2010 International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc.

Presentation Conference Type Conference Paper (published)
Publication Date May 3, 2010
Journal International Labor and Working-Class History
Print ISSN 0147-5479
Electronic ISSN 1471-6445
Publisher Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 77
Issue 1
Pages 69-88
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/S0147547909990251
Keywords women, propagandists, British Labour Party
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/985394
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0147547909990251