Women on the Right

Clarisse Berthezène is Professor of Modern History at the University of Paris, France. Laura Lee Downs is Directrice d’études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France and Professor of History at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.Julie Gottlieb is Professor of Modern History at University of Sheffield, UK.

This fascinating and wide-ranging collection illuminates the understudied phenomenon of women’s right wing political action across Europe. The collection extends as far eastward as Tukey and as far south as Spain, drastically expanding the parameters of Women’s History, often narrowly focused on Western Europe. Moving the lens away from traditional feminist politics, the authors instead examine the way ideas of tradition, family, and religion became tools with which to mobilize women through social action on the Right. This volume should be essential reading to anyone teaching in the field of Women’s History or examining the rise of the New Right in Europe today.

• List of ContributorsAcknowledgementsIntroduction, Clarisse Berthezène, Laura Lee Downs, and Julie V. Gottlieb1. The limits of right-wing women’s rights activism: The case of Hungary, Judith Szapor2. Social Action on the (Far) Right: Gender, Class and ‘Internal Welfare’ in the Romanian Legionary Movement, Anca Diana Axinia3. Right-wing women and social action: The aristocratic women of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Donne Italiane during the interwar years, Anne Cova4. ’Our True Purpose is Patriotic Propaganda in la Slavia’: The association ‘Assistenza all’Italia Redenta’ and the ‘unpolitical’ politics of social assistance, 1919-1925, Laura Lee Downs5. ‘Joan of Arc was nationalist and feminist without a label’: Women’s engagement in the Action française (1900-1930s), Camille Cleret6. British nationalist feminism in the sphere of international relations in the interwar period, Julie V. Gottlieb7. Nurses, Social Action and Female Identity During the Spanish Civil War and Early Franco Dictatorship (1937-1947), Ángela Cenarro8. An example of a ‘Patriarchal bargain’ : The trajectory of Samiha Ayverdi between Gender, Islam and Cold War, Zeynep Bursa9. The Catholic women's movement in Austria, Irene Bandhauer-Schöffmann10. Catholic Women and Social Action in Spanish Social Catholicism, 1898-1931, Inmaculada Blasco Herranz11. Dear Life Protectors! Women in Right-Wing Environmentalism in the Federal Republic of Germany, Lauren K Stokes12. Between conservative ideology and the New Women’s movement: Conservative women in 1970s Swedish politics, Helena TolvhedAfterword: Women’s History Comes of Age? K. CowmanBibliographyIndex