Overview

The thirteen critical and well-documented chapters of Women, Work and Activism examine women’s labor struggle from late nineteenth-century Portuguese mutual societies to Yugoslav peasant women’s work in the 1930s, and from the Catalan labor movement under the Franco dictatorship to workplace democracy in the United States. The authors portray women's labor activism in a wide variety of contexts. This includes spontaneous resistance to masculinist trade unionism, the feminist engagement of women workers, the activism of communist wives of workers, and female long-distance migration, among others. The chapters address the gendered involvement of working people in multiple and often precarious and unstable labor relations and in unpaid labor, as well as the role of the state and other institutions in shaping the history of women’s labor. The book is an innovative contribution to both the new labor history and feminist history. It fully integrates the conceptual advances made by gender historians in the study of labor activism, driving home critiques of Eurocentric historiographies of labor to Europe while simultaneously contributing to an inclusive history of women’s labor-related activism wherever to be found. Examining women’s activism in male-dominated movements and institutions, and in women’s networks and organizations, the authors make a case for a new direction in gender history.

Full Product Details

Author:   Eloisa Betti (Adjunct Professor of Labor History, University of Bologna) ,  Leda Papastefanaki (Associate Professor, University of Ioannina) ,  Marica Tolomelli (Associate Professor, University of Bologna) ,  Susan Zimmermann (University Professor of History and Gender Studies, Central European University)
Publisher:   Central European University Press
Imprint:   Central European University Press
Weight:   0.664kg
ISBN:  

9789633864418

ISBN 10:   9633864410
Pages:   368
Publication Date:   10 September 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of Acronyms List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgments Introduction. Thinking the History of Women’s Activism into Global Labor History Eloisa Betti, Leda Papastefanaki, Marica Tolomelli, and Susan Zimmermann PART I. TOWARD INCLUSIVE FRAMINGS: WOMEN'S LABOR ACTIVISM IN MEN- AND WOMEN-DOMINATED CONTEXTS Women in the Mutual Societies of Portugal from the End of the Nineteenth Century to the 1930s Virgínia Baptista and Paulo Marques Alves The Female Staff in the PTT International between Trade Unionism and Feminism from the Early Twentieth Century to the Interwar Period  Laura Savelli  Women and the Labor Movement under a Dictatorship: Comisiones Obreras (Workers’ Commissions) in Greater Barcelona during Franco’s Dictatorship and the Transition to Democracy (1964–1981) Nadia Varo Moral “Traditionally Reserved for Men”: Australian Trade Unions and the 1970s Working Women’s Campaign for Liberation Diane Kirkby, Lee-Ann Monk, and Emma Robertson PART II. WOMEN IN MOTION: RETHINKING AGENCY AND ACTIVISM AT THE WORKPLACE AND BEYOND The Strike, the Household, the Gendered Division of Labor, and International Networks: Women Auxiliaries and the Ship Repair Workers’ Strike (Genoa, 1955)  Marco Caligari “In Order to Safeguard the Lives of Our Children and Families”: Resistance and Protest of Women Workers in the Greek Tobacco Industry, 1945–1970 Thanasis Betas Inside the Factory, Outside the Party-state: The Agency of Yugoslav Women Workers in Late Socialism (1976–1989) Rory Archer Work and the Politics of the Injured Body: Nurse Activism, Occupational Risk, and the Politics of Care in the United States Elizabeth Faue PART III. HOW THE PERSONAL REVEALS THE POLITICAL: WOMEN ACTIVISTS BIOGRAPHIES AND BEYOND Women Activists’ Relationship to Peasant Women’s Work in Yugoslavia in the 1930s Isidora Grubački Women in the Trade Union Movement and Their Biographies: The Camera del Lavoro (Chamber of Labor) in Milan (1945–1965) Debora Migliucci French Trade Unionists Go International: The Circulation of Ideas on the Education and Training of Women Workers in the 1950s and 1960s Françoise F. Laot Trade Union Feminism in Lyon: Commissions-femmes as Sites of Resistance and Well-being in the 1970s Anna Frisone Working Women on the Move: Genealogies of Gendered Migrant Labor Maria Tamboukou List of Contributors Chapter Abstracts Index

Reviews

Women, Work, and Activism captures the intellectual energy and innovative thinking of feminist labor historians across Europe and beyond. This eye-opening collection models new theories of class and gender and dismantles outmoded assumptions, categories, and narratives in labor and feminist history. Written by an impressive mix of up-and-coming younger scholars and distinguished senior researchers, these essays are pioneering in their attention to new sites of working women's agency, their adoption of transnational methodologies, and their fluency with global scholarship in multiple fields and languages.--Dorothy Sue Cobble By providing a rich range of examples of labor-related women's activism--from mutualism to conventional trade unionism, and from feminist workers to communist wives of workers--this volume demonstrates not only that 'activism' can be defined very differently in various contexts but also the myriad positions workers' politics can take positions vis-a-vis the politics of class and gender. There have been very few collected volumes on women's labor politics that could be compared to this book, and even less with a view back on the twentieth century as long as offered by this collection. Also, Women, Work, and Activism comes timely, at a pivotal moment for labor politics marked by structural changes in the labor market that will impact gender composition and gendered practices--a moment when we especially need to recognize and understand the history of women's labor activism.--Samita Sen

"""Women, Work, and Activism captures the intellectual energy and innovative thinking of feminist labor historians across Europe and beyond. This eye-opening collection models new theories of class and gender and dismantles outmoded assumptions, categories, and narratives in labor and feminist history. Written by an impressive mix of up-and-coming younger scholars and distinguished senior researchers, these essays are pioneering in their attention to new sites of working women's agency, their adoption of transnational methodologies, and their fluency with global scholarship in multiple fields and languages.""--Dorothy Sue Cobble ""By providing a rich range of examples of labor-related women's activism--from mutualism to conventional trade unionism, and from feminist workers to communist wives of workers--this volume demonstrates not only that 'activism' can be defined very differently in various contexts but also the myriad positions workers' politics can take vis-á-vis the politics of class and gender. There have been very few collected volumes on women's labor politics that could be compared to this book, and even less with a view back on the twentieth century as long as offered by this collection. Also, Women, Work, and Activism comes timely, at a pivotal moment for labor politics marked by structural changes in the labor market that will impact gender composition and gendered practices--a moment when we especially need to recognize and understand the history of women's labor activism.""--Samita Sen"

Author Information

Dr. Eloisa Betti is Adjunct Professor of Labor History at the University of Bologna. Leda Papastefanaki is Associate Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Ioannina and Collaborating Faculty Member at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies – FORTH (Greece). She has published on the social and economic history of industrialization and labor in the Mediterranean context, and gender history.  Marica Tolomelli is Associate Professor at the University of Bologna. Her research focuses on social conflicts, social movements, and political cultures since the end of WWII until the end of the 20th century, and the history public spheres and the circulation of ideas in the “long 20th century” from a global perspective.  Susan Zimmermann is University Professor at Department of History and Department of Gender Studies, Central European University. Her research has focused on the history of the Habsburg Monarchy, international women’s organizations in the 20th century, the ILO, and women and trade unions in state-socialist Hungary. She is President of the International Conference of Labour and Social History (ITH).

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