Embracing the language of human rights: international women’s organisations, feminism and campaigns against the marriage bar, c.1919-1960

Glew, H. 2023. Embracing the language of human rights: international women’s organisations, feminism and campaigns against the marriage bar, c.1919-1960. Gender & History. 35 (3), pp. 780-794. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12705

TitleEmbracing the language of human rights: international women’s organisations, feminism and campaigns against the marriage bar, c.1919-1960
TypeJournal article
AuthorsGlew, H.
Abstract

This article considers four international women's organisations - the International Council of Women, the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship, the International Federation of University Women and the Open Door International - and their campaigns for the right of married women to undertake paid work. It examines how each organisation adopted and engaged with the language of human rights in the late 1920s and 1930s. It is argued that after 1948, precisely because of its formal adoption by the UN, the language of human rights became less usable as a way to make the point that women still faced inequalities, and so other framings became more significant. In so doing, this piece contributes to historiographies on international women’s organisations, offers a detailed discussion of their activism against the marriage bar, and challenges the conventional chronology of the concept and language of human rights.

KeywordsArts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
History
Geography, Planning and Development
Gender Studies
JournalGender & History
Journal citation35 (3), pp. 780-794
ISSN0953-5233
1468-0424
Year2023
PublisherWiley
Publisher's version
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12705
Publication dates
Published online28 May 2023
Published in printOct 2023
Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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