Women and citizenship : a study of non-feminist women's societies and the women's movement in England, 1928-1950

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Abstract

The decline of feminism in England during the 1930s and
1940s has been the subject of numerous historical
investigations. Jane Lewis (1980), Olive Banks (1986),
Johanna Alberti (1989) and Martin Pugh (1990), have all
considered the activities of women's societies which
demanded equal rights for women, including equal pay,
equal opportunities and an equal moral standard for men
and women. These studies suggest that the feminist
movement, understood to represent political feminist
groups, was unable to capitalise on the triumph of the
suffrage campaign. Although legislation enacted during
the 1920s did improve the position of women in society,
it was clear by the 1930s that the struggle for women's
equality was far from over. As a result, the 1930s and
1940s have often been characterised as a period which
witnessed one of feminism's deepest troughs, the era
as a whole assumed as having an "anti-progressive and
reactionary character".

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