L’Engagement des femmes dans le monde associatif (1928-1951), un volontariat politique au service du Parti conservateur ?

The First World War saw the emergence of a variety of non-party organisations to aid the war effort, in which women played a crucial role. Social action, in its broadest sense, developed in the 1920s and 1930s through the advent of a multiplicity of associations that were diverse in their forms and objectives. The establishment of new kinds of voluntary organisations raises questions as to their instrumentalisation by political parties, in particular the Conservative party. The political mobilisation of Conservative women within some of these associations seems to have played an important role in the Conservative electoral success of the interwar period. This paper will explore the role of Conservative women in the reworking of the relationship between the voluntary sector and the state after 1945.