Remembering Women Activism

Remembering Women’s Activism examines the intersections between gender politics and acts of remembrance by tracing the cultural memories of women who are known for their actions.

Memories are constantly being reinterpreted and are profoundly shaped by gender. This book explores the gendered dimensions of history and memory through nation-based and transnational case studies from the Asia-Pacific region and Anglophone world. Chapters consider how different forms of women’s activism have been remembered: the efforts of suffragists in Britain, the USA and Australia to document their own histories and preserve their memory; Constance Markievicz and Qiu Jin, two early twentieth-century political activists in Ireland and China respectively; the struggles of women workers; and the movement for redress of those who have suffered militarized sexual abuse. The book concludes by reflecting on the mobilization of memories of activism in the present.

Transnational in scope and with reference to both state-centred and organic acts of remembering, including memorial practices, physical sites of memory, popular culture and social media, Remembering Women’s Activism is an ideal volume for all students of gender and history, the history of feminism, and the relationship between memory and history.

Sharon Crozier-De Rosa is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Wollongong. Her research examines the intersections between gender, nationalism, imperialism, emotions, and violent activisms. She recently published Shame and the Anti-Feminist Backlash: Britain, Ireland and Australia, 1890–1920 (Routledge 2018).

Vera Mackie is Senior Professor of Asian Studies in the Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts and Director of the Centre for Critical Human Rights Research at the University of Wollongong. Recent publications include The Routledge Handbook of Sexuality Studies in East Asia (Routledge 2015, co-edited with Mark McLelland).