Feminine fascism : women in Britain's fascist movement 1923 - 1945

Thurlow, and my editor at I.B. Tauris, Lester Crook, have each provided me with invaluable advice and thought-provoking comments. My thanks are also due to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for awarding me a post-doctoral fellowship which gave me the opportunity to put the finishing touches to the book, and to my colleagues at the University of Manchester for their support and encouragement during the last months. I have saved the most important acknowledgements to last. I wish foremost to thank my doctoral supervisor Professor Peter Clarke for seeing the script through its many drafts, and for his excellent advice and deeply-appreciated mentoring, and my parents, Erika and Paul, for indulging me in my earliest requests to be told 'true stories' rather than fables, as well as for their support, editorial expertise and inspiration. This book is dedicated to them. ## Notes 1 Sophie Jane Evans, 'SPREADING HATE: The far-right "Barbies" luring Brit girls with promise of luxury lifestyle, "star" status and thousands of male admirers', The Sun, 9 October 2019. 2 The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was renamed the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936, thereafter abbreviated to British Union. threat of a second world war. 18 It can be argued that feminist momentum was maintained when female activists grouped around the anti-fascist cause. Rather than abandoning their demands for women's rights, women in the centre and on the left were far-sighted enough to understand that only by defending democratic government would it be possible to pursue gender-specific demands for political and economic parity. During the 1930s, successful feminism was the child of the marriage between democratic government and regard for human as well as women's rights. Before we can understand the contemporary anti-fascist explications and apprehensions, however, we must examine closely what they were reacting against. From 1932 through to 1940, BUF women and men designed an array of blue-prints for a fascist future, complete with prescriptions for the ideal woman, the fascist family, sexual normality, the Corporate State, and the specialization of women's work. These were accompanied by proscriptions against sexual abnormality, the narrow political agenda of feminist organizations, democratic effeminacy, and motherly emotional yearnings to protect those outside the 'British race.' This book traces the main developments in the history of women and fascism in Britain during the inter-war period. In order to make sense of some of the material and record the outcome of women's fascist activities, the final chapter goes beyond the inter-war period and deals with the internment of fascist women from 1940 to 1945. The first chapter examines the relationship between women and fascism during the 1920s by focussing on the early manifestations of British fascism, and the feminization of the British Fascisti under the leadership of Miss Rotha Lintorn-Orman. Chapter 2 traces the history of women in Mosley's British Union of Fascists, from the formation of the Women's Section to the launch of the Women's Peace Campaign, and probes issues related to the sexual division of labour within the movement, membership and demographic patterns, and the roles and activities of women members. Chapter 3 defines, what I have termed, the ideology of feminine fascism, and explores how women's political demands were integrated into a masculine creed. Arguing that women's political activism and the place of woman in fascist policy cannot be properly understood in isolation from male constructs of gender and masculinity, this chapter also explores the psychology and pathology of fascist sexuality, the new Fascist Man, and the implications of the model of the youth-worshipping gang of fascist men for the position of women, mothers and wives. Chapter 4 investigates the legacy of three former suffragettes to British fascism -Norah Elam, The British Fascisti, the first fascism movement in Britain, was founded by a woman in 1923. During the 1930s, 25 per cent of Sir Oswald Mosley's supporters were women, and his movement was 'largely built up by the fanaticism of women.' What was it about the oBritish form of Fascism that accounted for this conspicuous female support? Gottlieb addressed these questions in the definitive work on women in fascism. This book continues to fill a significant gap in the historiography of British fascism, which has generally overlooked the contribution of women on the one hand, and the importance of sexual politics and women's issues on the other. Gottlieb's extensive research makes use of government documents, a large range of contemporary pamphlets, newspapers and speeches, as well as original interviews with those personally involved in the movement. This new edition includes a preface where Gottliev considers the changing and growing relevance of the study, and against the backdrop of current affairs. Here, she looks at the resurgence of populism, the rise of women as leaders of far-right parties across Europe and North America, and the normalization of fascism in political discourse, in the media and in fiction--back cover "The British Fascisti, the first fascism movement in Britain, was founded by a woman in 1923. During the 1930s, 25 per cent of Sir Oswald Mosley's supporters were women, and his movement was 'largely built up by the fanaticism of women.' What was it about the British form of Fascism that accounted for this conspicuous female support? Gottlieb addresses these questions in the definitive work on women in fascism. This book continues to fill a significant gap in the historiography of British fascism, which has generally overlooked the contribution of women on the one hand, and the importance of sexual politics and women's issues on the other. Gottlieb's extensive research makes use of government documents, a large range of contemporary pamphlets, newspapers and speeches, as well as original interviews with those personally involved in the movement. This new edition includes a preface analysing the current affairs of the last 20 years, reframing the book according to contemporary context. Here, Gottlieb looks at the resurgence of populism, the rise of women as leaders of far-right parties across Europe and North America, and the normalisation of fascism in fiction and political discourse."-- Provided by publisher Cover Half-title Title Copyright Contents Dedication Acknowledgements Preface to Second Edition Introduction: Feminine Fascism: Women in Britain's Fascist Movement, 1923-45 1. Feminized Fascism: Rotha Lintorn-Orman and the British Fascists, 1923-35 2. Women in the British Union of Fascists: Organization and Forms of Participation 3. The Ideology of Feminine Fascism 4. The Legacy of the Suffragettes for British Fascism 5. Mosley's Women and Mosley's Woman: The Leader's Sexual Politics 6. Behind Bars and Barbed Wire: Women's Experiences 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 "Representations of fashionable femininity have multiplied through the twentieth century. In fashion store advertising, magazines, photography and museum collections, complex versions of feminine identity have been and are being formed. This book examines the relationship between women's fashion, female representation and femininity in Britain from the end of the nineteenth through to the end of the twentieth century. The authors unpick the dynamics of the fashion system throughout the century, and set fashion into the context of British social life, using as one of their many sources the oral history accounts of women of all classes to highlight the meanings of particular fashions in that context."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Dedication Acknowledgements Introduction - Feminine Fascism: Women in Britain's Fascist Movement, 1923-45 -- Chapter 1 - Feminized Fascism -- Chapter 2 - Women in the British Union of Fascists -- Chapter 3 - The Ideology of Feminine Fascism -- Chapter 4 - The legacy of the Suffragettes to British Fascism -- Chapter 5 - Mosley's Women and Mosley's Woman -- Chapter 6 - Behind Bars and Barbed Wire Conclusion - Women, Fascism and Fanaticism, Past and Present Appendix: Who's Who in the History of Women and Fascism in Britain Bibliography Index Machine generated contents note:1.Feminized Fascism: Rotha Lintorn-Orman and the British Fascists, 1923-35 --2.Women in the British Union of Fascists: Organization and Forms of Participation --3.The Ideology of Feminine Fascism --4.The Legacy of the Suffragettes to British Fascism --5.Mosley's Women and Mosley's Woman: The Leader's Sexual Politics --6.Behind Bars and Barbed Wire: Women's Experiences of Internment Under Defence Regulation 18B, 1940-45