ABOUT THIS BOOK

An inclusive history of women’s activism to improve working conditions in Eastern Europe, Turkey, and beyond.

So often, theories of activism and social change neglect acts of resistance in informal, community, and domestic contexts. This collaborative investigation from a transnational team of scholars addresses two related shortcomings: the lack of class analysis in gender history and the neglect of gender dynamics in labor history. Women’s Labour Activism in Eastern Europe and Beyond highlights understudied topics in both of these fields, such as radical, grassroots, and interclass women’s labor activism on behalf of lower-income and working-class women and communities; women’s participation in trade unions on both sides of the Iron Curtain; and the heretofore neglected presence of Eastern European women in international organizations, including the cooperative movement.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Selin Çağatay is a research affiliate on the ZARAH project at the Central European University. Mátyás Erdélyi is a research affiliate on the ZARAH project at the Central European University. Alexandra Ghiț is a research affiliate on the ZARAH project at the Central European University. Olga Gnydiuk is a research affiliate on the ZARAH project at the Central European University. Veronika Helfert is a research affiliate on the ZARAH project at the Central European University. Ivelina Masheva is assistant professor at the Institute for Historical Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and a research affiliate on the ZARAH project at the Central European University. Zhanna Popova is a research affiliate on the ZARAH project at the Central European University. Jelena Tešija is a PhD candidate and research affiliate on the ZARAH project at the Central European University. Eszter Varsa is a research affiliate on the ZARAH project and visiting lecturer at the Central European University. Susan Zimmermann is professor and principal investigator for the ZARAH project at the Central European University.

REVIEWS

"Women’s Labour Activism in Eastern Europe and Beyond tackles the class biases of women’s history as deftly as it does the gender blindnesses of labour history ... It asks: on whose lives do we build our theories of collective action and social change? … The unwaged become as significant as the waged; the informal, community and household spheres emerge from the shadows. … We have been underestimating resistance because we have been ignoring the activism of the majority of workers."

— From the foreword by Dorothy Sue Cobble

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of figures
List of maps
List of tables
List of abbreviations
Notes on authors
Foreword
Acknowledgements

A reader’s guide
Vocabulary of concepts and terminology: a contribution to global labour history
Chronology of political geography: maps
Chronology in pictures: a very short history

A transnational and inclusive history of women’s labour activism: general introduction

Part I: Women in mixed-gender labour movements: transgressing and confronting limitations

1 Economy, education, re-evaluation: women in the co-operative movement, 1900s to 1940s

2 Trade unions: gender politics and women’s organizing, 1900s to 1980s

3 Radical women: gendered social critique in anarchist, communist and New Left movements, 1890s to 1980s

4 Regional awareness and international engagement: social democratic women, 1890s to 1930s

Part II: Women’s gendered activist agendas and repertoires: from margins to centre

5 The power of education: improving women’s status in the world of work, 1900s to early 1990s

6 Exit and action: migrant women workers, 1890s to 1980s

7 Lines of division, lines of solidarity: minoritized women, 1880s to 1980s

8 Beyond the workplace: activism and the everyday in the twentieth century

Part III: Women’s labour activism across class and political divides: gender at the core?

9 Women addressing women workers: revisiting the class divide, 1860s to 1930s

10 Women addressing working mothers: trade unionists and the welfare state during the Cold War

Towards new global histories of gendered labour activism: a concluding essay

Tables Appendix 1: Glossary of select organizations
Appendix 2: Glossary of select protagonists

Bibliography
Index