Ideas, structures and practices of feminism, 1939-64

A dominant theme in histories of twentieth century women's\npolitics is the argument that there have been two 'waves' of high\nprofile activity and unity: the pre 1914 suffrage Movement and\nthe post 1960s Women's Liberation Movement. As a result of this\nhistorical temporality, the years 1918-68 have generally been\npresented as a period of longterm decline in women's politics.\nSince the late 1980s, research on women's politics in the interwar\nyears has begun to challenge this consensus. However, there\nhas been limited re-evaluation of women's political organisation\nin the 1940s and 1950s. Existing research presents this period\nprimarily in terms of decline, and offers an interpretation of\n1940s and l950s feminism through the unsympathetic lens of a\n'second wave' definition of feminism based on opposition to\nwomen's traditional domestic roles.\nUsing recently released archival material which has yet to be\nincorporated into analysis of women's politics in this period,\nand drawing on shifts in feminist thinking since the 1980s, the\nthesis offers a re-evaluation of self identified feminism in the\nperiod 1939-64.\nTaking as its primary focus, the Married Women's Association, a\nfeminist organisation concerned with the legal economic rights\nof married women, the thesis argues that a new strand of feminism\nemerged in the late 1930s. Although the key themes of this 'new'\nfeminism - economic equality and independence of the full-time\nhousewife - were distinctive to the l940s and 1950s, they also\nrevealed intimations of ideas and issues taken up by the Women's\nLiberation Movement from the late l960s.\nBy arguing for equality in difference, 'new' feminists applied\nthe language of equal rights to women's position in the private\nsphere. In the process they argued that full-time housewives,\nas workers and marital partners, were entitled to economic\nindependence in the form of a legal right to half the male wage.\nFrom the late 1950s however, growing feminist recognition of\nmarried women's dual role led to the beginnings of a discussion\nabout the effects of women's domesticity on their status in the\nworkplace; this was to develop into a critique of the role of\nfull-time housewife for women.