In the three decades before the First World War, the relationship between socialism and feminism was both curious and convoluted. Despite strong theoretical links between these ideologies, class and sex seem to have inspired conflicting loyalties and opposing demands. In Britain, the uniquely middle-class, reform-minded Fabian Society might have been expected to bridge the gap between these movements. Yet, between 1884 and 1914, the Fabian Society’s record on the "woman question" was highly inconsistent and, at times, overtly regressive. Originally published in 1987, this title looks at three of the most influential members, Sidney Webb, George Bernard Shaw and Hubert Bland and the women they were married to, who were also active in the Society.

Routledge Library Editions: Women and Politics (9 Volume set) presents titles, originally published between 1981 and 1993. The set draws attention to the importance of women and how their presence and active involvement, in politics and related fields, during the twentieth century has been crucial throughout the world.

This book seeks to explore the understanding of Fabianism of both the Webbs and the Fabian Women’s Group and how this understanding shaped their views regarding such gender-centred issues as the family wage; protective labour law; and women’s place in the welfare state, the home and the labour market.

This book examines the centrality of the countryside to women's work, creativity, and aspirations in early-twentieth-century England.

Centering the Olivier sisters in their own time, Watling presents a vivid and fascinating group portrait of sisters, sisterhood, and feminism in the early twentieth century

Throughout history, records of women's lives and work have been lost through the pervasive assumption of male dominance. Wives, especially, disappear as supporters of their husbands’ work, as unpaid and often unacknowledged secretaries and research assistants, and as managers of men’s domestic domains; even intellectual collaboration tends to be portrayed as normative wifely behaviour rather than as joint work. Forgotten Wives examines the ways in which the institution and status of marriage has contributed to the active ‘disremembering’ of women’s achievements. Drawing on archives, biographies, autobiographies and historical accounts, best-selling author and academic Ann Oakley interrogates conventions of history and biography-writing using the case studies of four women married to well-known men – Charlotte Shaw, Mary Booth, Jeannette Tawney and Janet Beveridge. Asking critical questions about the mechanisms that maintain gender inequality, despite thriving feminist and other equal rights movements, she contributes a fresh vision of how the welfare state developed in the early 20th century.