Women's Activism (Women's and Gender History)

Women’s Activism brings together twelve innovative contributions from feminist historians from around the world to look at how women have always found ways to challenge or fight inequalities and hierarchies as individuals, in international women’s organizations, as political leaders, and in global forums such as the United Nations.

The book is divided into three parts. Part one, brings together four essays about organized women’s activism across borders. The chapters in part two focus on the variety of women’s activism and explore women’s activism in different national and political contexts. And part three explores the changing relationships and inequalities among women.

This book addresses women’s internationalism and struggle for their rights in the international arena; it deals with racism and colonialism in Australia, India and Europe; women’s movements and political activism in South Africa, Eastern Bengal (Bangladesh), the United Kingdom, Japan and France. Essential reading for anyone interested in women’s history and the history of activism more generally

Francisca de Haan is Professor of Gender Studies at the Central European University,
Budapest, Hungary. Her publications include The Rise of Caring Power. Elizabeth Fry and Josephine Butler in Britain and the Netherlands (Amsterdam University Press, 1999), co-authored with Annemieke van Drenth; and A Biographical Dictionary of Women’s Movements and Feminisms. Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe, 19th and 20th Centuries (Central European University Press, 2006), co-edited with Krassimira Daskalova and Anna Loutfi.

June Purvis is Professor of Women’s and Gender History, University of Portsmouth, UK. Her publications include, Emmeline Pankhurst: a biography (2002, Routledge), and The Women’s Suffrage Movement: new feminist perspectives, co-edited with Maroula Joannou (Manchester University Press, 1998 and 2010).

Margaret Allen is Professor Emerita in Gender Studies, University of Adelaide, Australia. Her publications include, as coauthor, Fresh Evidence, New Witnesses Finding Women's History Adelaide, (Stateprint, 1989) and Limited Access: Women's Disadvantage in Higher Education Employment (NTEU, 1995).

Krassmira Daskalova is a Professor of Modern European Cultural History at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, Bulgaria. She is the author, editor and co-editor of fifteen books