ABSTRACT
E thel Snow den’s assessm ent o f the support given by the socialist group, the In d ep en d en t L abour Party (ILP),2 to the struggle for w om en’s suffrage and o f the possibilities th a t the p a rty offered to w om en to influence policies and events was echoed in m any o ther books, pam phlets an d articles w ritten by IL P m em bers in the period 1913 to the 1920s.3 T his positive view has then been rep ea ted in m ainstream labour history texts righ t up to the presen t day, despite the fact th a t fem inist historians have questioned this version o f socialist history4 an d have suggested th a t the IL P ’s a ttitude tow ards w o m en ’s involvem ent in socialist politics was far m ore am bivalen t th an the retrospective accounts o f contem poraries m ight im ply.5
