ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book explores the complex ways in which socialist women negotiated between their loyalties to class, to party and to their sex and in so doing developed a distinctive political identity. It examines three different areas of socialist women’s practice – suffragism, a politics of consumption and internationalism. The book focuses on the creativity of many socialist women and their relative success in challenging the agenda of socialist parties and of the women’s movement. It argues that a focus on socialist women challenges conventional wisdoms about the suffrage movement, in particular those interpretations which label adult suffragists as anti-feminist or uninterested in women’s enfranchisement. The book shows that socialist women did not all hold the same views and that it is important to differentiate between them if people are to understand the richness of their ideas and their political practice.
