Manchester University Press
6 The middlebrow and the making of a ‘new common sense’
Abstract
Historians have had a tendency to oppose what is seen as Conservatism's positive appeal that is its historic capacity to construct political identities and assimilate diverse constituencies of support with the Conservative Party's more negative anti-socialist strategy. This chapter shows that both appeals were part and parcel of the same overall Conservative response to the political challenges of the interwar period. It examines how the deliberate choice of middlebrow rhetoric as well as the language of citizenship enabled Conservative women to construct a cross-class language of democracy. Tapping into the Conservative Party's self-identified anti-intellectualism was another strategy for women to appropriate a specific place for themselves within the Party. The Women's Voluntary Services (WVS), set up in 1938 by Lady Reading at the request of the Home Office, had over a million volunteers at the height of the war and was crucial in supporting the war effort.
Abstract
Historians have had a tendency to oppose what is seen as Conservatism's positive appeal that is its historic capacity to construct political identities and assimilate diverse constituencies of support with the Conservative Party's more negative anti-socialist strategy. This chapter shows that both appeals were part and parcel of the same overall Conservative response to the political challenges of the interwar period. It examines how the deliberate choice of middlebrow rhetoric as well as the language of citizenship enabled Conservative women to construct a cross-class language of democracy. Tapping into the Conservative Party's self-identified anti-intellectualism was another strategy for women to appropriate a specific place for themselves within the Party. The Women's Voluntary Services (WVS), set up in 1938 by Lady Reading at the request of the Home Office, had over a million volunteers at the height of the war and was crucial in supporting the war effort.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xii
- Introduction 1
- 1 ‘Open the eyes of England’ 11
- 2 Christabel Pankhurst 29
- 3 At the heart of the party? 46
- 4 Conservative women and the Primrose League’s struggle for survival, 1914–32 66
- 5 Modes and models of Conservative women’s leadership in the 1930s 89
- 6 The middlebrow and the making of a ‘new common sense’ 104
- 7 Churchill, women, and the politics of gender 122
- 8 ‘The statutory woman whose main task was to explore what women …were likely to think’ 140
- 9 Conservatism, gender and the politics of everyday life, 1950s–1980s 156
- 10 Feminist responses to Thatcher and Thatcherism 175
- 11 The (feminised) contemporary Conservative Party 192
- 12 Conserving Conservative women 215
- 13 Women2Win and the feminisation of the UK Conservative Party 232
- Index 242
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xii
- Introduction 1
- 1 ‘Open the eyes of England’ 11
- 2 Christabel Pankhurst 29
- 3 At the heart of the party? 46
- 4 Conservative women and the Primrose League’s struggle for survival, 1914–32 66
- 5 Modes and models of Conservative women’s leadership in the 1930s 89
- 6 The middlebrow and the making of a ‘new common sense’ 104
- 7 Churchill, women, and the politics of gender 122
- 8 ‘The statutory woman whose main task was to explore what women …were likely to think’ 140
- 9 Conservatism, gender and the politics of everyday life, 1950s–1980s 156
- 10 Feminist responses to Thatcher and Thatcherism 175
- 11 The (feminised) contemporary Conservative Party 192
- 12 Conserving Conservative women 215
- 13 Women2Win and the feminisation of the UK Conservative Party 232
- Index 242
