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Hand in hand with the women, forward we will go

Welsh Nationalism and Feminism in the 1890s

Bibliographic Data

ID4347478
AuthorsUrsula Masson (University of South Wales, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume12
Issue3
Pages357-386
Publication date2003-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWomen s History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0961-2025 • E-ISSN: 1747-583X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09612020300200364
OpenAlexW2051511319
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited8

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

Feminism · Liberal Party · Liberalism · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Suffrage · Welsh · Gender Studies · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Irish and British Studies · Law · Scottish History and National Identity

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    Jiaqi Xu•Journal of Gender Studies•2025

  • Women's Suffrage and Party Politics in Britain, 1866–1914

    Constance Rover•Women's Suffrage and Party…•1967

  • The Women's Suffrage Movement

    Elizabeth Crawford•Women's Suffrage Movement•2003

  • Gender, nation and party

    Laura Mcallister, L L Mcallister•Women s History Review•2001

  • Explorations and Explanations

    P R Roberts, Pepe Roberts et al.•The Economic History Review•1982

Unique citing works2
Citations per year0,6
Citation span2021 - 2025 (5)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 3

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