Edith Summerskill
Edith Summerskill

Author: Mary Honeyball

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2022-07-14

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1350252433

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An Independent Book of the Month Edith Summerskill was a remarkable politician, feminist, physician, campaigner and writer. At a time when there were few powerful women in public life, Dr Edith, as she was known, served in Clement Attlee's transformational post-war Labour government and oversaw the National Insurance scheme which solidified the welfare state in Britain. Here, Labour MEP Mary Honeyball, provides the first biography of this remarkable early pioneer for women in politics. Honeyball shows how Edith Summerskill's direct campaigning was instrumental in promoting women's causes throughout her life and lays out her remarkable achievements in securing the equal rights of housewives and divorced women over property. This is an uplifting and enlightening account of a forgotten Labour hero.

A Historical Dictionary of British Women
A Historical Dictionary of British Women

Author: Cathy Hartley

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-04-15

Total Pages: 522

ISBN-13: 1135355339

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This reference book, containing the biographies of more than 1,100 notable British women from Boudicca to Barbara Castle, is an absorbing record of female achievement spanning some 2,000 years of British life. Most of the lives included are those of women whose work took them in some way before the public and who therefore played a direct and important role in broadening the horizons of women. Also included are women who influenced events in a more indirect way: the wives of kings and politicians, mistresses, ladies in waiting and society hostesses. Originally published as The Europa Biographical Dictionary of British Women, this newly re-worked edition includes key figures who have died in the last 20 years, such as The Queen Mother, Baroness Ryder of Warsaw, Elizabeth Jennings and Christina Foyle.

Quiet Revolutionaries
Quiet Revolutionaries

Author: Sharon Thompson

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2022-09-08

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1509929428

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This book tells the untold story of the Married Women's Association. Unlike more conventional histories of family law, which focus on legal actors, it highlights the little-known yet indispensable work of a dedicated group of life-long activists. Formed in 1938, the Married Women's Association took reform of family property law as its chief focus. The name is deceptively innocuous, suggesting tea parties and charity fundraisers, but in fact the MWA was often involved in dramatic confrontations with politicians, civil servants, and Law Commissioners. The Association boasted powerful public figures, including MP Edith Summerskill, authors Vera Brittain and Dora Russell, and barrister Helena Normanton. They campaigned on matters that are still being debated in family law today. Quiet Revolutionaries sheds new light upon legal reform then and now by challenging longstanding assumptions, showing that piecemeal legislation can be an effective stepping stone to comprehensive reform and highlighting how unsuccessful bills, though often now forgotten, can still be important triggers for change. Drawing upon interviews with members' friends and family, and thousands of archival documents, the book is compulsory reading for lawyers, legal historians, and anyone who wishes to explore histories of law reform from the ground up. Winner of the SLSA Socio-Legal Theory and History Book Prize 2023. To listen to podcast episodes about the Married Women's Association, featuring interviews and archival research, visit quietrevolutionaries.podbean.com.

Women of Westminster
Women of Westminster

Author: Rachel Reeves

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-03-05

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1448217873

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Foreword by Dame Winifred Mary Beard. -------- This updated edition is a complete account of the first 100 years of women in Parliament. In 1919 Nancy Astor was elected as the Member of Parliament for Plymouth Sutton, becoming the first woman MP to take her seat in the House of Commons. Her achievement was all the more remarkable given that women (and even then only some women) had only been entitled to vote for just over a year. In the past 100 years, a total of 491 women have been elected to Parliament. Yet it was not until 2016 that the total number of women ever elected surpassed the number of male MPs in a single parliament. The achievements of these political pioneers have been remarkable – Britain has now had two female Prime Ministers and women MPs have made significant strides in fighting for gender equality - from the earliest suffrage campaigns, to Barbara Castle's fight for equal pay, to Harriet Harman's recent legislation on the gender pay gap. Yet the stories of so many women MPs have too often been overlooked in political histories. In this book, Rachel Reeves brings forgotten MPs out of the shadows and looks at the many battles fought by the Women of Westminster, from 1919 to 2019.

Fifty Years of the Divorce Reform Act 1969
Fifty Years of the Divorce Reform Act 1969

Author: Joanna Miles

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2022-02-24

Total Pages: 455

ISBN-13: 1509947892

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The enactment of the Divorce Reform Act 1969 was a landmark moment in family law. Coming into force in 1971, it had a significant impact on legal practice and was followed by a dramatic increase in divorce rates, reflecting changes in social attitudes. This new interdisciplinary collection explores the background to the 1969 Act and its influence on law and society. Bringing together scholars from law, sociology, history, demography, and film and literature, it reflects on the changes to divorce law and practice over the past 50 years, and the changing impact of divorce on different people in society, particularly women. As such, it offers a 'biography' of this important piece of legislation, moving from its conception and birth, through its reception and development, to its imminent demise. Looking to the future, and to the new law introduced by the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020, this collection suggests ways for evaluating what makes a 'good' divorce law. This brilliant collection gives insight not only into this crucial piece of legislation, but also into a key period of societal change.

Women’s Activism in Twentieth-Century Britain
Women’s Activism in Twentieth-Century Britain

Author: Paula Bartley

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-04-01

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 3030927210

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This book serves as an introduction to the extraordinary diversity of women’s activism. Paula Bartley's original research is supported by a range of writing to provide a powerful impression of the actions taken by groups of women from across the social and political spectrum, making the book invaluable to both students and interested readers. These women set out to make a difference to their locality, their country and sometimes the world. The story of women’s activism embodies stimulating accounts of progress and reversals, of commitment and uncertainty, of competing rights and challenging wrongs. The story of women’s activism is not tidy or well-ordered. It is messy and unorthodox. And full of surprises.

Women in World History
Women in World History

Author: Anne Commire

Publisher: Gale Research International, Limited

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 1196

ISBN-13:

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Presents biographical profiles of significant women from throughout the history of the world, each with birth and death dates when known, a time line, quotation, and references. Arranged alphabetically from Sul-Vica.

The Politics of British Feminism, 1918-1970
The Politics of British Feminism, 1918-1970

Author: Olive Banks

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13:

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The Politics of British Feminism traces the history of the womens movement from the achievement of suffrage in 1918 to the revival of feminism in the late 1960s. Offering new insights into a neglected period of womens history, Olive Banks seeks to place the womens movement in its wider context while exploring the nature of anti-feminism, as well as feminism, over half a century of turbulent history. Centring on the campaigns fought by different sections of the women's movement between 1918 and 1970, the book examines in turn autonomous feminist groups, women in the labour movement, and female MPs. The co-operation and conflict between these three groups is explored in detail. The second part examines the campaigns these groups fought, including attempts to secure equal pay, and analyses the reasons for their successes and failures. The unwillingness of the main political parties to sympathize with the goals of the women's movement is carefully assessed. Providing an authoritative overview of a previously neglected period, The Politics of British Feminism, 1918-1970 will be welcomed by students and teachers of women's history, as well as interested historians, sociologists and political scientists.