Equivocal Feminists: The Social Democratic Federation and the Woman Question 1884-1911

This book takes a new look at the relationship between socialism and feminism before the First World War, through a detailed examination of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), Britain's first Marxist party. It reassesses the history of the SDF, exploring for the first time SDF ideas and practice on issues such as marriage and "free love," women and work, and the suffrage, as well as the attitudes taken toward women and their potential as socialists. Dr. Hunt shows how the SDF came to equivocate officially on the woman question and how this shaped what it meant to be a socialist woman in the following years.