During the 20th century, women experienced significant changes in their political, social and economic status within British society. This volume offers a detailed examination of the forces that influenced those developments. It identifies the range of factors, which helped to shift opinions and attitudes, and assisted in the continuing emancipation of women. Particular attention is given to the impact on women's lives of two World Wars, political, social, economic and educational reforms, technological change and evolving feminist ideas. The role played by key individuals is also examined. Finally, the book provides an overview of the progress achieved by women and questions the extent to which they have secured equality with men.

Publisher Description

This book, first published in 2000, is an authoritative volume of new essays on women's writing and reading in the eighteenth century.

Presents 35 thematically organised, research-led essays on women, periodicals and print culture in Victorian Britain.

Foregrounds the diversity of periodicals, fiction and other printed matter targeted at women in the postwar periodForegrounds the diversity and the significance of print cultures for women in the postwar period across periodicals, fiction and other printed matterExamines changes and continuities as women's magazines have moved into digital formatsHighlights the important cultural and political contexts of women's periodicals including the Women's Liberation Movement and SocialismExplores the significance of women as publishers, printers and editorsWomen's Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1940s-2000s draws attention to the wide range of postwar print cultures for women. The collection spans domestic, cultural and feminist magazines and extends to ephemera, novels and other printed matter as well as digital magazine formats. The range of essays indicates both the history of publishing for women and the diversity of readers and audiences over the mid-late twentieth century and the early twenty-first century in Britain. The collection reflects in detail the important ways in magazines and printed matter contributed to, challenged, or informed British women's culture. A range of approaches, including interview, textual analysis and industry commentary are employed in order to demonstrate the variety of ways in which the impact of postwar print media may be understood.

A clear, comprehensive survey of British history from 1900 to the present, integrating political, economic, social and cultural history.

Women's lives have changed dramatically over the course of the twentieth century: reduced fertility and the removal of formal barriers to their participation in education, work and public life are just some examples. At the same time, women are under-represented in many areas, are paid significantly less than men, continue to experience domestic violence and to bear the larger part of the burden in the domestic division of labour. Women in 2000 may have many more choices and opportunities than they had a hundred years ago, but genuine equality between men and women remains elusive. This unique, illustrated history discusses a wide range of topics organised into four parts: the life course - the experience of girlhood, marriage and the ageing process; the nature of women's work, both paid and unpaid; consumption, culture and transgression; and citizenship and the state.