Feminism and Utopia: Irigaray Reading Kant

The student revolution of the late 1960s and the early 1970s was a major impetus for the development of new academic disciplines. Topics that had not been considered'proper academic material' only a few years earlier, such as women's studies and Holocaust studies, received recognition and began to be taught in American universities. Soon, universities throughout the world followed suit. Sometime during the early 1990s initial attempts were made in the United States and Israel to prepare courses that incorporated themes from women's studies or gender studies into the study of the Holocaust. The result was a number of courses dealing with women and the Holocaust located in the fields of history, sociology or literature. Taught initially in only a few institutions, the topic was slowly taken up by scholars throughout the world. After a decade of research and teaching the subject in academic institutions throughout the world, scholars of the Holocaust and gender suddenly found themselves facing opposition from historians and public figures. Baumel deals with the more common attitudes towards the subject, experienced by those dealing with the topic. She provides a short survey of the arguments used against scholars of the Holocaust and gender, an overview of the state of research on the topic and guidelines for future research.     

The Women's Charter: American Communists and the Equal Rights Amendment debate

The American Communist Party (CPUSA) opposed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), arguing that it failed to ameliorate class and racial inequality. In 1936 the CPUSA participated in the Women's Charter campaign, an alternative to the ERA crafted to protect labor legislation. This article argues that the Charter campaign and the CPUSA's opposition to the ERA demonstrate class-based visions of equality that amalgamated race and gender into the class struggle and highlights disagreements among women's rights activists about how to define women's equality. These disagreements prevented a unified single-issue women's movement after 1920.     

Bridging cross-cultural feminisms: annie besant and women's rights in England and India, 1874-1933

Abstract

Annie Besant was a Victorian radical whose outspoken views included advocacy of women's rights and opposition to British imperial policies. In her mid-forties she went to live in India. Contesting British attempts to Westernize Indian society, Besant found herself in the seemingly anomalous position of defending traditional Indian patriarchy and resisting efforts to reform the status of Indian women. Such conservatism brought on Besant criticism not only from Western liberals and Christian missionaries, but also from many Indian social reformers. When she gradually shifted her views and voiced her support for Indian women's rights, Indian nationalists condemned her as a British imperialist. The conflict between loyalty to national heritage and opposition to traditional patriarchy is one that colonized women have commonly experienced. By examining how an anti-imperialist British feminist responded to the question of women's reform in India, this paper offers another perspective on the complexities of this dilemma.     

Women and radio: sounding out new paths in women's history

ABSTRACT

Since its early introduction in the domestic sphere in the 1920s, radio has been used as a medium for the expression of women's voices, needs and concerns. In this introduction we would like to mobilise an understanding of radio as a vital source for doing women's history. Women's radio programming, women broadcasters, and women listeners provide a lens through which a number of histories can be analysed. This introduction provides an overview of the historical relationship between women and radio. It is further dedicated to research that explores the overlapping spaces of radio and women's history, and in particular, points to how radio-related source material can provide new points of departure for women's history.     

In pursuit of true Anglican Womanhood in Victoria, 1880-1914

As colonial women sought to extend their sphere of moral influence they encountered opposition from the Churches, which saw themselves as the proper guardians of public morality. This paper examines the attitudes of the Anglican Church at the turn of the century in regard to the ‘woman question‘, and argues that the Church acted to contain the threat posed by women's expanding sphere while continuing to benefit from, and indeed depend upon, women's fund-raising and administrative activities.     

Women educators and the confucian tradition in Meiji Japan (1868–1912): Miwada Masako and Atomi Kakei [1]

Historians of the women's movement in Japan tend to equate the women's movement with opposition to the state and with Western liberal thought. Consequently, women who played a public role and contributed significantly to the modernisation of Japan, but who supported the imperial state, have received little attention. This article will examine the life, thought and activities of Miwada Masako (1843–1927) and Atomi Kakei (1840–1926). Both were educated in the Confucian tradition and were among the first to promote education for girls, establishing private schools for girls in Tokyo which still exist today. Although they did not fight for Women's rights in opposition to the state and were not led by Western ideas, they helped redefine the role of women, linking it to the well-being of the nation. Thus, they contributed to creating a society with increasing opportunities for women     

British women's anti-suffragism and the forward policy, 1908-14

This article reinstates prominent female leaders within the organised opposition to women's suffrage in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain. More specifically, it focuses upon the evolution of a positive, constructive anti-suffragism, labelled the Forward Policy by Mary Ward and other women campaigners who were active in the period leading up to the First World War. These women participated in contemporary citizenship debates through their writings, through their commitment to social action, and through their sometimes problematic relationship with male antisuffragism. The article concludes that women's anti-suffragism deserves closer study in its own right, and through its supporters’ own records, as well in relation to suffragism and the wider women's movement.     

‘Hand in hand with the women,forward we will go’: welsh nationalism and feminism in the 1890s

This article explores the history of women's liberalism in Wales in the 1880s and 1890s, during the period of the Liberal nationalist movement known as Cymru Fydd or Young Wales. The Welsh Union of Women's Liberal Associations (WUWLA) was founded in 1892 to provide an important bloc of votes for the Progressive (Suffragist) faction in the Women's Liberal Federation, but its aims combined Liberal, Nationalist and feminist objectives. This article argues that briefly, and uniquely, in the 1890s, the WUWLA was able to bring together feminism and nationalism in British party politics, despite some opposition from its own nationalist members. The active intervention of women ensured that the masculinist language of nationalism shifted to an emphasis on equality of the sexes. In 1895, Cymru Fydd, embodied in the Welsh National Federation, espoused women's suffrage among its objects, and gave women's organisations special representation in its structures. This change is explored both through the writings and the events – a series of meetings and conferences – which led to the formation of both the WUWLA and the Welsh National Federation. But the weakness of liberalism at the end of the 1890s, together with divisions within Wales, meant that the new politics was short lived. The decline of women's national organisation after this period, though not fully explored here, can be linked to those problems, but also to the rifts created between Liberals, women and men, over the issue of women's suffrage in the Edwardian period.     

Women's political participation in inter-war Poland: opportunities and limitations

Abstract

This article analyses women's participation in public lifewithin the framework of the democratic-parliamentarian Polish state (Poland's Second Republic), rebuilt in the wake of the First World War. It examines the activity of women in parliamentary elections in connection with obtaining political rights equal to those enjoyed by men, as well as the role of women's representation in the two male-dominated chambers of Parliament (the Sejm and the Senate). The minimal presence of women in the state apparatus and in political parties and professional organisations is explained in relation to male hostility towards women's active participation in political life, religious opposition (especially from the Catholic Church) and the unwillingness of women themselves to become engaged in ‘pure politics’. Finally, it examines the rapid growth of women's associations (cultural, educational, cooperative, and professional) which, whilst weakly linked to feminism, bonded with competing political parties and blocks. The associations were divided along the lines of national allegiances within the multiethnic state and, during the 1930s in particular (the era of the authoritarian rule of Pi?sudski and the socalled sanacja camp), succumbed to nationalistic tendencies. Nevertheless, it is possible to see women's growing involvement in education and professional careers as a form of participation in public life.     

‘Political conditions in wales are quite different …’ party politics and votes for women in Wales, 1912–151

Abstract

In 1912, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies adopted a policy of electoral support for the Labour Party, known as the Election Fighting Fund (EFF). The most determined opposition to this policy came from the South Wales Federation of Women's Suffrage Societies. The article re-examines the story of that opposition, as well as the attempt by the EFF Committee to work in the North Monmouthshire constituency of the Home Secretary, Reginald McKenna, against the wishes of local suffragists. The article suggests that accounts of this period in British suffrage history have presented a too simplistic account, which masks the diversity of women's politics in Wales; and that the nature of coalfield communities combined with the parliamentary focus of the EFF to marginalise the working-class and Labour movement women of the area.     

Women's Refuges and the State in Victoria,Australia: a campaign for secrecy of address

The development of women's refuges in Victoria, Australia emerged within the context of emergency accommodation for women being the province of charity-based organisations, whose interventions into women's lives were often disempowering and autocratic. Feminist refuges argued against this charity-based approach to women and drove a process of conceptualising and responding to domestic violence in new ways. Following a formal request for the addresses of Victorian refuges by the Minister for Community Services in October 1979, the refuge movement united to keep their addresses secret, and launched a much publicised and protracted campaign in opposition to the state's demands. This resulted in a commitment from the then Department of Community Welfare Services (DCWS) to support the refuge program to operate in unique and radical ways, and in doing so gave recognition to the importance of gender in the provision of welfare.     

Heartland and periphery: local,national and global perspectives on women's history

The articles in this special collection were first presented as papers at the Women's History Network Annual Conference, held at the University of Bath in September 2000. In selecting a theme for the conference, it seemed particularly important, at the start of a new millennium, to be as inclusive as possible and to reflect the most recent developments in the field of women's history. Conference participants were encouraged to question definitions of what is heartland and what is periphery in women's history and to explore the complex interrelationship between them at a local, national and international level.     

The Personal is Work is Political is Theoretical: Continuities and Discontinuities in Women's Studies, (Pro)feminism, “Men” and My Selves

This essay reflects on some specific questions posed by the organizers of the Past, Present, Future conference held at Umeå University, Sweden, in June 2007 to the keynote speakers on their personal experiences of the influences, inspirations, challenges, and problems in and around Women's/Gender Studies over the last 30 years. It extends the notion of “the personal is political” to: the personal is work is political is theoretical. It also critically reflects on continuities and discontinuities in women's studies, (pro)feminism, “men” and my selves. Four kinds of (spheres of) activity and experience (the personal, work, the political, the theoretical) are considered in relation to four social spaces, social sites, or social institutional formations (in this context, primarily: selves, “men”, feminism/profeminism, women's/gender studies).     

Women's Studies: Between a Rock and a Hard Place or Just Another Cell in the Beehive?

The article traces the history of Women's Studies from its beginnings as the ‘intellectual arm of the women's movement’. It argues that the complex story of Women's Studies has been marked by both ambiguity and uncertainty as well as sustained political commitment in the face of both institutional opposition and feminist ambivalence about Women's Studies as a field of scholarship. The development of Women's Studies occurs through crucial shifts in the theoretical paradigms of feminism and the political preoccupations of the women's movement. These shifts have both deconstructed the founding premises of feminist theory and generated a greater depth to feminist thinking and research. These challenges to Women's Studies have paralleled a different set of problems arising from the increasingly market-oriented direction pursued throughout the tertiary education sector. In spite of these difficulties Women's Studies continues to survive and constitutes an important and contested site of contemporary feminist thought.     

What are the key questions which could be addressed in women's studies?

As part of a panel session on the state and status of women's studies, this discussion paper addresses the aims of women's studies and feminist scholarship, stressing their links with, and accountability to, the women's liberation movement. It considers the politics of staffing in women's studies, issues of content, and the place of theory. It challenges us to remember the revolutionary intent of women's studies.     

Women in Television in the Multi-Channel Age

This article explores the impact of structural and technological change on women's employment in the UK television industry. It looks at the challenges faced by women in working in what has become since the mid-1980s a largely freelance industry where short-term contracts, informal recruitment procedures and long, unpredictable work schedules mean that women find it increasingly difficult to combine a career and family. Through case studies of individual careers, of a women's magazine programme for S4C Digital and a survey of women's credits on a selection of the newer channels (Sky One, UK Living and Channel 5), it argues that technological advances in digital transmission and production will not improve working conditions and opportunities for women's participation in all areas of the industry if they continue to replicate existing practice.     

The British federation of university women and the status of women in universities, 1907-1939

Abstract

The early 1990s have marked a turning point in the history of the British Federation of University Women (BFUW), which has recently renamed itself the British Federation of Women Graduates, and has had to leave its historic premises in Crosby Hall, Chelsea. This article looks at the origin of the BFUW in the context of feminist concern with women's position in the universities in the first decade of this century. It sketches some of the difficulties faced by the Federation in defining, promoting and defending ‘women's interests’ in the universities and highlights its role in providing a supportive network for women in academic posts.     

The establishing of women's studies in Bulgaria: or how far can you go?

This article examines the problem of establishing women's studies as a legitimate area of study in Bulgarian universities. With the change from a communist to a post-communist society, Bulgaria is finding itself open to outside cultural influences. However, reactions to feminism and to women's studies are largely hostile. This is partly a legacy of the now discredited communist times when words like ‘emancipation’ and ‘equality for women’ were common, words that now have negative connotations in a society where it is assumed that men and women are equal. In addition, the specific social difficulties that Bulgaria is now facing make any new divisions between men and women, which women's studies can imply, yet another dividing line. Various strategies that have been adopted for introducing women's studies into Bulgarian universities are described.     

Property and proper chastity: Women's land rights in South Asia today

Bina Agarwal's ambitious and wide‐ranging book, A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), is reviewed. Agarwal's argument is that women in South Asia should have the same land rights as men. She considers, in detail, the pervasiveness with which such land rights are absent (although they do exist in certain limited areas), why this is so, and the means by which such rights might be obtained. Among the issues raised are: the need for women's organisations at the village level, whether legislation on its own can confer genuine rights (the answer is ‘no'), how control of women's sexuality connects with male control of land, and regional differences within India (especially between North and South). The book is seen to be a magisterial study of high quality. The one criticism made of it is the implication of Agarwal's theoretical discussion that gender ideologies are determined by economic causes. This is contested.

A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia, Bina Agarwal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp.xxii + 572. £60 (hardback); £24.95 (paperback). ISBN 81 85618 63 1 and 64 X.     

Women and Lancashire Conservatism between the Wars

The activism of women Conservatives helped Tory democracy to adapt and survive in inter-war Lancashire at a time when it was under strain due to the arrival of Labour as a significant electoral force. This article utilises the surviving records of the party in Lancashire to examine the various ways that women entered, navigated, justified and expanded their membership and function in inter-war Conservatism. It acknowledges the limits on women's advancement and influence, but it also highlights how some women made significant progress in rising through the party structures, and how women's branches facilitated this political mobility. It challenges the assumption that women Conservatives were preoccupied with sociability and discussing domestic issues, and reveals their contribution to the electoral success of the party at local level, and interaction with Lancashire's distinct tradition of Conservatism.