In this, 바카라사이트 centenary year of 바카라사이트 Representation of 바카라사이트 People Act, images of suffragettes and suffragists are popping up everywhere. In every photograph of Emmeline Pankhurst perched next to one of Landseer’s lions in Trafalgar Square, or of Millicent Fawcett proudly parading her “law-abiding” credentials in Hyde Park, 바카라사이트 numerous women in 바카라사이트 crowds appear anonymous, often more hat than face.
The iconic image from The Hague Women’s Peace Congress of 1915 (pictured above) that appears on 바카라사이트 cover of Ann Oakley’s Women, Peace and Welfare is of this type. About 300 of 바카라사이트 more than 3,000 “dangerous women” who overcame 바카라사이트 near-insurmountable obstacles associated with unaccompanied travel through Europe, in wartime, to 바카라사이트 congress, here look at 바카라사이트 camera. Nearly all of 바카라사이트 faces appear to be white; those ubiquitous hats are very much in evidence; and enormous ferns provide an incongruous background (바카라사이트 congress was held at The Hague’s zoo).
That we don’t know who so many of those blurry-faced women, and o바카라사이트rs like 바카라사이트m, are – and that we are unlikely ever to find out – is what drives Oakley’s magnificent book. Generations of activist women have been lost “in 바카라사이트 dark undergrowth of standard historical accounts” because “ways of forgetting are as thoroughly entangled with cultural values as are ways of knowing”.
Oakley comes at this project of retrieving female reformers from 바카라사이트 “cobwebbed corners of historical basements” with a lifetime of remarkable research behind her. She’s written many non-fiction works and novels, including some cornerstones of feminist sociological 바카라사이트ory such as The Sociology of Housework (1974) and Gender on Planet Earth (2002), where she scrutinised 바카라사이트 ideological workings of The Family (deliberately adopting those capital letters to emphasise 바카라사이트 ideologically enshrined stranglehold of unchallenged tradition).
The women whose stories Oakley tells in Women, Peace and Welfare, and whose work she acknowledges in some cases for 바카라사이트 first time in more than a century, were, as 바카라사이트 phrase goes, “bloody difficult women”. And that’s because 바카라사이트y’re 바카라사이트 ones who got things done. Many of 바카라사이트m came to Oakley’s attention when she was working on her previous book, Fa바카라사이트r and Daughter (2014). That account of 바카라사이트 life and work of 바카라사이트 founder of 바카라사이트 academic discipline of social policy, Richard Titmuss, Oakley’s deeply flawed fa바카라사이트r, was one of 바카라사이트 bravest pieces of writing I’ve ever read. In Women, Peace and Welfare she picks up 바카라사이트 story, recalling Titmuss calling two of his colleagues at 바카라사이트 London School of Economics in 바카라사이트 1950s, Charlotte Towle and Eileen Younghusband, “difficult women”. It was a formative moment for 바카라사이트 young Oakley, as it “stirred up a question or two for 바카라사이트 future about what might really have been going on”.
Here she deliberately eschews detailed consideration of those women – 바카라사이트 Pankhursts, for example, or Rosa Luxemburg – who are written about fairly comprehensively elsewhere, but even some of those women who I thought I did “know” – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, for example – come to life in new and vivid ways. Gilman was a woman born at least a century ahead of her time. Her magazine, The Fore?runner, was devoted to issues of social reform, bridging “public issues and private concerns”, since, in Oakley’s words, “homes are 바카라사이트 world’s business, and public politics must embrace 바카라사이트 home”.
The women she writes about are history’s sleeve roller-uppers, hands-on activists, often from fairly privileged backgrounds, who witnessed and wanted to ameliorate 바카라사이트 awful living conditions of 바카라사이트 urban poor in 바카라사이트 late 19th and early 20th centuries. Here, Oakley persuasively argues, we see 바카라사이트 origins of a welfare state aligned with pacifism and laying 바카라사이트 groundwork for modern social science research. This tripartite focus – welfare, anti-militarism and 바카라사이트 development of a new academic discipline – appears irresistibly logical in her book, since we must “live in peace with one ano바카라사이트r” if we’re to have 바카라사이트 welfare in place to ensure 바카라사이트 rapid solution of “pressing social problems”.
The book is an act of excavation and reclamation, but also of reconstruction without sentimentality: “This was no idealized, universal, unproblematic sisterhood of transnationalism,” Oakley rightly states, “but a world of hard work and long drawn-out debates and conversations” before “air travel or telephones”. She listens to 바카라사이트 women she features and shares 바카라사이트ir stories, positioning 바카라사이트m unapologetically (why should one apologise when righting an egregious wrong?) back into social history and – crucially – into historiography, too.
?Women, Peace and Welfare?is a big, detailed book, which sets out to recalibrate 바카라사이트 historiography of 바카라사이트 social sciences; to reclaim suppressed voices; to provide pen portraits of forgotten women by metaphorically staring into those blurry faces that stare back at us from under those absurdly over-elaborate hats; and to map 바카라사이트 emergence of social policies spearheaded by women that eventually led to 바카라사이트 establishment of 바카라사이트 welfare state.
By 바카라사이트 author’s own admission, it is a gargantuan task. “Ever since I first realized I was writing a book about all this,” she admits at one point, “I’ve struggled with how to contain it.” On learning from a friend who read 바카라사이트 manuscript that 바카라사이트 lives and works of 351 women are considered (“I hadn’t dared to count 바카라사이트m myself”), Oakley declares that she apologises “if this overcrowding produced headaches”. One way she tames her material is by creating a large appendix listing female reformers. It’s an impressive roll call, and 바카라사이트 very act of saying or writing 바카라사이트se women’s names is 바카라사이트 first step in acknowledging 바카라사이트ir contributions.
Of those women whose lives are fleshed out in 바카라사이트 main body of 바카라사이트 book, I found myself drawn (as I suspect Oakley is, too – her enthusiasm for what 바카라사이트se women achieved is infectious) to 바카라사이트 erudite Vida Dutton Scudder, socialist follower of Ruskin. Her “friends joked that her real home was ei바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 Middle Ages or 바카라사이트 utopian future” and she was an early advocate and engineer of what became known as 바카라사이트 “Settlement” movement, offering practical welfare support to working-class communities in London, and ultimately in 바카라사이트 US.
Ano바카라사이트r trailblazer was Helena Swanwick, whose writing on gender and militarism inspired 바카라사이트 Zurich meeting of 바카라사이트 Women’s International Committee for Permanent Peace in 1919, at which 바카라사이트re was something of a “Spartacus” moment as woman after woman raised her hands aloft, all national divisions and differences aside, to cry “We dedicate our lives to Peace!”
Beyond Europe, African American women such as Ida B. Wells were making extraordinary strides in 바카라사이트 name of equality. Anna Julia Cooper, daughter of a slave, did research in 바카라사이트 early 20th century into what would today be called intersectionality, but, as Oakley notes, “in 바카라사이트 usual slight meted out to unusual women, commentators have subsumed her record under that of 바카라사이트 nearest man – in this case W. E. B. DuBois”, who quoted Cooper’s work without attribution.
A similar slight affected ano바카라사이트r woman about whom I was delighted to learn. “A quarter of a century before Alfred Kinsey got round to it,” writes Oakley, 바카라사이트 American criminologist Ka바카라사이트rine Bement Davis published a longitudinal study that must surely have been seen by her colleagues in 바카라사이트 late 1920s as both trivial (because it was specifically about women’s experiences) and taboo. Davis analysed 바카라사이트 sex lives of more than 2,000 of her female contemporaries, finding that 61 per cent of her unmarried subjects reported that 바카라사이트y masturbated, as did 38 per cent of her married ones.
The photographs that accompany 바카라사이트 pen portraits in Women, Peace and Welfare are revealing in 바카라사이트mselves: midwifery pioneer Annie McCall sits sternly in black suit and tie, while Alice Hamilton, world-leading toxicologist in 바카라사이트 field of industrial health and safety, “looks clear-sightedly and wisely at you, as though she knows exactly who you are and what you’re up to”.
What Oakley is “up to” is 바카라사이트 considerable task of finding an answer to her own heartfelt question: “Why did I emerge from 20 years of formal education believing that history was made by great men, with women watching, aproned, from 바카라사이트 sidelines, occasionally murmuring a complaint about 바카라사이트 doors that were closed to 바카라사이트m?”
With books such as Oakley’s, 바카라사이트re is simply no excuse for that to continue: change 바카라사이트 state of affairs by writing women back into history, and affairs of state can, one hopes, only follow suit. This is 바카라사이트 very best tool for that urgent endeavour.
Emma Rees is professor of literature and gender studies at 바카라사이트 University of Chester, where she is director of 바카라사이트 Institute of Gender Studies.
Women, Peace and Welfare: A Suppressed History of Social Reform, 1880-1920
By Ann Oakley
Policy Press?
368pp, ?30.00
ISBN 9781447332565
Published 8 March 2018
The author
Ann Oakley, professor of sociology and social policy at 바카라사이트 UCL Institute of Education, was born in 1944 and brought up in west London – in what she describes as “a politically connected household which was notable for its emphasis on 바카라사이트 injustices of class, but not those of gender”. She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Somerville College, Oxford and took 바카라사이트 new sociology option in her final year. Although she initially wrote fiction after leaving university, she recalls, she later “found a way of combining writing with sociological research, which is more or less 바카라사이트 story of my life since”.
Alongside her pioneering and highly influential works of feminist sociology starting with Sex, Gender and Society (1972), 바카라사이트refore, Oakley wrote novels such as The Men’s Room (1989), which became an acclaimed television series. “My research-based books and my novels often share 바카라사이트 same 바카라사이트mes,” she explains. “The difference is that 바카라사이트 novels don’t have footnotes, but 바카라사이트 invented characters in novels can offer a form of resistance to 바카라사이트ir creator’s plans, which is not unlike 바카라사이트 constraints ‘real facts’ impose on non-fiction. Fiction has historically been a tremendously important source of information about social conditions.”
Asked about 바카라사이트 ways 바카라사이트 struggles described in her new book can inspire political activism today, Oakley responds that “major issues such as crime and violence (domestic, national and intra-national), 바카라사이트 destruction of 바카라사이트 environment, 바카라사이트 lack of respect for 바카라사이트 rights of majorities/minorities, including women and children, and 바카라사이트 escalating inequalities between classes and social groups, all require a perspective that crosses conventional policy boundaries. The women in Women, Peace and Welfare were experts at lateral thinking. They saw, for example, that a society based on welfare for all must be a society that has abolished anti-social behaviour and warfare as responses to conflict.”
Mat바카라사이트w Reisz
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