The Short-Lived Marriage Between Feminism and Fascism: The Rise and Fall of the Richardson-Era Women’s Section of the British Union of Fascists

Abstract

This thesis engages in an intellectual history of Feminism and Fascism in interwar Great Britain through the case study of the Women’s Section of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) from 1933 through 1934. Tracing the dialogue between interwar feminists and fascists through newspapers, pamphlets, posters, books, manifestos, and internal memos, this thesis analyzes the Women’s Section brief yet relevant practice of ‘feminist fascism’ under the leadership of Mary Richardson. Chapter I interrogates motherhood as a device toward female political agency from the Victorian Era to equal franchise in 1928, recasting first-wave and interwar Feminism as capacious movements encompassing various complementary and opposing feminisms. Chapter II contextualizes the empowerment of the Richardson Women’s Section within the broader success of the BUF in 1934, depicting Richardson’s popular ideological orientation of the Women’s Section as derived from a patchwork of interwar feminisms. Chapter III frames the end of the Richardson Women’s Section as an intentional result of Oswald Mosley’s internal purges after the Olympia rally, contending that the destruction of the Richardson Women’s Section marked the end of ‘feminist fascism’ and ushered in a ‘feminine fascism’ that defined the Women’s Section until 1940. This thesis argues that the Richardson Women’s Section embodied a ‘feminist fascism’ until the fallout of the Olympia Rally subordinated the Women’s Section under a new ideology of ‘feminine fascism’. Intervening into the scholarly debates on the BUF Women’s Section, this thesis claims that the Richardson tenure represented a unique manifestation of the Women’s Section because it engaged and incorporated key tenets of interwar Feminism. Additionally, this thesis argues that Mosley intentionally disempowered the Richardson Women’s Section because of its practice of ‘feminist fascism’.