Working-Class Women Activists: Citizenship at the Local Level

Abstract

This essay traces patterns in the activism of working-class women who contributed to the development of civil society in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century. The chapter considers their participation in voluntary work and their statutory roles as Poor Law Guardians and local councillors. It assesses how they achieved social reforms that were humane and inclusive, and argues that they encouraged an expanded citizenship for working-class women. Local activism, indeed, was highly viable before the welfare state, and in some respects remained central even after. Thus by foregrounding the central state, the reforms of 1948 can be seen as undercutting the active, participatory and democratically accountable civil society that working-class women activists had created in the first half of the twentieth century.