2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

It has usually been assumed that Conservatism and feminism are and have been anathema and that difficult conversations between feminist historians and Conservative women are further complicated by the assumption that Conservative women’s interests were confined to the limits of the domestic and local realms. However, the women’s history of Conservative parties throughout Europe suggests other possibilities. This panel will explore how Conservative women throughout mid-twentieth century Europe used traditional gender roles to feminist ends of public and political mobilisation; it will question how women, defined as a minority and marginalized accordingly, functioned in political movements and parties that represented the majority, and how they were instrumental in the electoral success of Conservative parties. It will compare different understandings of the nation and different political strategies and thereby propose new ways in which women’s historians can approach the history of Right-Wing parties.