Women Teachers and Feminist Politics 1900-39

by Alison Oram

Women teachers were key players in twentieth century feminism. They fought for women's suffrage before the First World War and continued their vigorous campaigns for equal pay, equal promotion opportunities and abolition of the marriage bar into the less promising political environment of the 1920s and 1930s. This book is the first to offer a detailed assessment of why women teachers were so politically active, and makes an important contribution to the literature on women's politicisation.
Drawing on interviews with women teachers (in state elementary and secondary schools) as well as the records of teachers' associations and central and local government, it explores the tensions in the relationship between their position at the workplace and their family lives and unravels the connections and dissonances between how they saw themselves as both women and professional teachers.

258 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1996

About the author

Alison Oram is Professor of Social and Cultural History at Leeds Beckett University and a leading scholar of gender and sexuality, popular culture, public history and intersections of these with LGBTQ heritage.