| Summary: | This thesis shows that the first wave Women's Movement continued the struggle for the franchise during the Great War and throughout the 1920s until its success in 1928. It also details the campaigns for the social and economic emancipation of women in the period from 1918 to 1928. It provides a first step in recovering this history of political activity carried out through a network of women's organizations which expanded to embrace all aspects of women's lives. Chapter 1 acts an introduction and clarifies some questions of treatment and perspective. Chapter 2 describes the Movement's membership and details the suffragists' activities throughout the War and their contribution to the success of the franchise in 1918. In Chapter 3, the consequences for the women's organizations of re-ordering agendas and constitutions because of the vote, is followed in the next three chapters by a detailed examination of the post-War period of reconstruction. This includes the progress of women's political participation, the scale of the reforms it pursued and the economic problems of demobilisation and political opposition. The documentation•of the growth of political confidence and skill in the three General Elections from 1922 to 1924 in Chapter 7, also serves to illustrate the diversity of approach enshrined in the non-party and party organizations. The reappraisal of feminist ideology is set within the context of the development of the equalitarian and welfare theories in Chapter 8. Chapter 9 deals with the campaign which united the Movement in a concerted effort to win the vote for all women. The thesis concludes in Chapter 10, with a brief description of the Movement's response to its franchise success and its remit for future activity in.
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