Incipient Toryism'? The Women's Social and Political Union and the Independent Labour Party, 1903-14

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4494491
AutoresKrista Cowman (0000-0002-1318-9450, autor de correspondencia)
Año2002
Volumen53
Número1
Páginas128-148
Fecha de publicación2002-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHistory Workshop Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/hwj/53.1.128
OpenAlexW2055083647
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4

" Although the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was founded by women who were also activists in the Independent Labour Party (ILP), early versions of its history, by participants, largely concurred that the two organizations drifted apart rapidly. They argued that the suffragette WSPU was then dominated by an increasingly middle-class leadership who eschewed socialism in favour of a rigidly-enforced political independence and were ultimately found favouring the right after the First World War. Recent local studies of the WSPU suggest a different picture at grass-roots level, where significant branch activists retained their loyalty to suffrage and socialism throughout the militant campaign. This article challenges the prevailing idea of a middle-class and potentially right-wing WSPU leadership. It draws on the author's Merseyside research and other recent local studies of the WSPU to offer a reassessment of its links with the ILP and concludes that at branch level the WSPU remained a much broader political church than has hitherto been claimed. "

Communism · Economics · Independence (probability theory) · Labour economics · Loyalty · Militant · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Socialism · Sociology · Suffrage · Trade union · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Social Policy and Reform Studies