Feminine Fascism

Women in Britain's Fascist Movement

Julie V. Gottlieb

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2000
• Print ISBN: 9781860645440
• eBook ISBN: 9780857712622
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: Social Sciences

How far did women support Oswald Mosley's Black Shirts? This important reference work fills a significant gap in the historiography of British fascism, which has generally overlooked the contribution of the women's movement to Britain's fascist experience. Looking at female fascist activism and the influence of feminist ideology on the fascist agenda, Gottlieb shows the significant impact of feminist thought in this area. In spite of its mainstream vocal opposition to fascism, parts of the women's movement as Gottlieb demonstrates, had an implicit connection with the British Union of Fascists. Gottlieb's extensive research, which makes use of newly released government documents, a huge range of contemporary pamphlets, newspapers and speeches, and original interviews with those personally involved in the fascist movement, provides an impressive and convincing body of evidence to support her claims.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction Feminine Fascism: Women in Britain's Fascist Movement, 1923-45
• Chapter 1 Feminized Fascism: Rotha Lintorn-Orman and the British Fascists, 1923-35
• Chapter 2 Women in the British Union of Fascists: Organization and Forms of Participation
• chapter 3 The Ideology of Feminine Fascism
• Chapter 4 The Legacy of the Suffragettes for the British Fascism
• Chapter 5 Mosley's Women and Mosley's Woman: The Leader's Sexual Politics
• Chapter 6 Behind Bars and Barbed Wire: Women's Experience of Internment Under Defence Regulation 18B, 1940-45
• Conclusion Women, Fascism, and Fanaticism, Past and Present
• Appendix Who's Who in the History of Women and Fascism in Britain
• Bibliography
• Index