Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the diverse ways in which socialist women struggled to translate the tension between socialism and feminism into a creative political practice in the period from the mid-1880s to the 1920s. It examines issues and themes which concerned socialist women, rather than focusing on the policies and developments of individual socialist organisations. The book considers socialist women’s activities in Scotland and England, where the Independent Labour Party and Social Democratic Federation had a strong presence. It describes the usual watershed of the First World War and into the 1920s. The book focuses on the ways in which they used the space, and the audience, of potential socialists to make socialist propaganda. It shows how women sought to find new ways to balance their socialist and women’s politics and how they tried to put their ideas into practice.