Women of the Left, Patriotism, and National Identity, 1914–28

Abstract The literature on the role of women in the First World War, and the war’s effect on gender roles, considers conservative and socialist feminism, the expansion of the franchise in 1918 and 1928, and state welfare policies. However, there has been less work on the women of the Left who participated in the war effort, and who used nationalism to push for socialist and feminist objectives. These women have been understudied for various reasons: as women, they were often disregarded by military and political historians, and as enablers a conflict they have usually been overlooked by historians of gender and of the Left. This article is concerned with these women, and examines the extent, nature and significance of their participation within the war effort and their use of nationalism to advance socialist and feminist objectives. It analyses how their actions during the conflict affected the gender, class and political frameworks of the time, both in the lead-up to the Representation of the People Act 1918, and in the first years of female enfranchisement. Based on extensive use of the files of the War, Emergency: Workers’ National Committee and on the publications of the labour and co-operative movements, it argues that a substantial section of the female labour movement articulated a sense of British nationalism in the years during and after the First World War, utilized this to advance their political, economic, and feminist objectives, and in doing so challenged political orthodoxy and prevailing gender roles.