The women's movement, politics and citizenship, 1918- 1959

'No doubt some of us exaggerated [the power of the vote].' 1 This was the view expressed by the feminist campaigner Eleanor Rathbone in 1936 eighteen years after the enactment of the 1918 Representation of the People Act. Despite this great victory for the suffrage movement, the campaign for the right of all women to full political, social and economic equality within British society was far from over. This chapter explores the ongoing campaign for women's rights in Britain in the four decades following the extension of the parliamentary franchise to women over thirty. The aims and achievements of the women's movement during these years and the involvement of women in public life will be considered. Here the term women's movement is defined in its broadest context to include feminist, political and mainstream women's organisations all of whom, in different ways, campaigned to enhance the role and status of women in British society. From this perspective, the chapter argues that there was an active and vibrant women's movement in Britain throughout the middle decades of the twentieth century.