Abstract

This book offers the first detailed regional study of women's politics in the United Kingdom in the period before the First World War. Its purpose is to investigate how women's politics functioned at the grass roots, away from the schisms and personality clashes of the national political scene. The book investigates the membership, activities and campaigning methodologies of a variety of formal political organizations ranging from branches of national auxiliary bodies such as the Women's Liberal Federation through women's involvement in local branches of the Independent Labor Party and on to the autonomous suffrage organizations. The impact of the all-female suffrage campaigns on older political groups in which women still competed with men for positions and policies is also considered. The book extends into the First World War, and investigates the new alliance that were formed when earlier societies contracted or closed