‘[A] stronger position as women alone’: women’s associations in the British civil service and feminism, 1900-1959

Glew, H. 2021. ‘[A] stronger position as women alone’: women’s associations in the British civil service and feminism, 1900-1959. Women's History Review. 30 (4), pp. 669-687. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2020.1814511

Title‘[A] stronger position as women alone’: women’s associations in the British civil service and feminism, 1900-1959
TypeJournal article
AuthorsGlew, H.
Abstract

This article examines three successive organisations for women clerical workers in the Civil Service – the Association of Post Office Women Clerks (APOWC), the Federation of Women Civil Servants (FWCS) and the National Association of Women Civil Servants (NAWCS) – which explicitly identified as feminist and which pushed for the same conditions of employment for women as for men. In an era where a significant number of women’s trade unions and associations merged with male-dominated unions, the article explores the significance, politics, challenges and tactics of remaining ‘women alone’ and how the organisations and their members negotiated changing external perceptions of feminism and different generational understandings of the need for feminism. Finally, it offers a case study of the ways in which a women-only organisation based around a professional identity worked with the wider feminist movement for publicity, support and a sense of shared endeavour.

Keywordswomen
employment
British civil service
feminism
interwar
associations and trade unions
JournalWomen's History Review
Journal citation30 (4), pp. 669-687
ISSN0961-2025
Year2021
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Accepted author manuscript
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2020.1814511
Publication dates
Published online18 Sep 2020
Published2021

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