Women’s Labour Activism in Eastern Europe and Beyond: A new transnational history

This collaborative monograph presents a deeply researched, inclusive history of women’s labour activism in Eastern Europe, Austria, Turkey and transnationally, from the age of empires to the late twentieth century. It explores women’s activism and organizing to improve the working conditions and living circumstances of lower-income and working-class women and their communities in the region and internationally.

Moving beyond the celebratory or partisan perspectives of many classical and some feminist labour histories, Women’s Labour Activism in Eastern Europe and Beyond provides a careful historicization of women’s actions in a multiscalar perspective. Through a study of diverse contexts, the authors follow women aligned with a wide range of political persuasions, highlighting unexpected elements and continuities of women’s labour activism. Women’s activities are seen in the workplace, in the everyday, within and across social movements and organizations, and inside the state, all presented through a framing that spotlights long-term developments and bridges the divide between the literatures on state socialist and capitalist societies concerning gendered labour politics and activism. Combining a regional focus and transnational perspectives, the authors examine the sources of women’s labour activism in the region and the role of activists from the region within international women’s, labour and inter-state organizations. Moving women’s labour activism from the margins of labour, gender and European history to the centre of historical study, the volume makes an innovative contribution to the new global histories of labour and gender.