Women, Power, and Politics in Britain, 1945-1997

This volume explores the priorities and hopes, strategies and campaigns, and achievements and failures of women who sought to shape British politics in different ways across the half century between the Attlee and Blair governments. It examines two central questions: what impact did women have on British politics in the second half of the twentieth century? And what did politics mean to women themselves?

The authors argue that women were able to create significant political change, often discreet, gradual, behind-the-scenes, and longer term. But it happened nonetheless, forming new crevices, shorelines, and promontories on the map of British politics, and shifting the terrain for men as well as women. This change should not be underestimated, even when its limitations are clear.

They also note that there was no revolutionary or dramatic change in women's political involvement across this period. The impact of women's political activity was uneven, and its influence did not go as far as advocates hoped. But cumulatively, women's efforts have profound and far-reaching consequences for conventional politics as well as for women's lives. This exploration demonstrates that British political history can be enriched and enlivened by greater attention to women and gender, and political history must continue to be an important part of women's history.

Chapter 9 is open access and available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.