‘Questions of social justice rather than feminism’: Lena Jeger and ‘women’s issues’ on the Labour backbenches in the 1950s and 1960s

Book section : Chapter

This chapter uses the life and work of Lena Jeger, MP for Holborn and St Pancras from 1953-1959, and 1964 to 1979 to examine Labour women’s activism for women in the 1950s and 1960s. It argues that while Labour women sometimes resented that they were disproportionately responsible for carrying out this work, they did it anyway, because tackling discrimination relating to sex was essential to improving the lives of working-class women. This chapter thus questions conventional historiographical arguments that Labour women concentrated their efforts on class, rather than sex, and that they were quiescent on women’s issues until spurred into action by the rise of the women’s liberation movement. In doing so, it contributes to recent literature seeking to offer a more comprehensive understanding of women’s activism in the post-war period. The chapter focuses on Jeger’s efforts to improve provision for widows, her role at the United Nations Commission on the status of women, and her commitment to equal pay as a means of demonstrating the range and breadth of her activism, and is indicative of women’s role in contemporary progressive politics.

Authors: Jenkins, L

• Publication status: Accepted
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Host title: Women, Power, and Politics in Britain, 1945-1997
• Chapter number: 17
• ISBN: 9780198913306
• Language: English
• Subtype: Chapter