De juiste partij. Klasse, sekse en de macht van Nancy Astor
Auteurs
Hanneke Hoekstra
Samenvatting
Female pathways to power do not always
follow the meritocratic routes of education
and talent. In 1918, Nancy Astor wrote history
when she became the first female member of
the House of Commons. Her political success
was, however, in many respects not at all a
logical consequence of the feminist fight for
political rights. Nancy Astor was an American
nouveau riche who had campaigned for
the British Conservative Party, the traditional
party of the British aristocracy. Employing a
biographical method, the author argues that
the political culture of the old order was instrumental
for women in gaining influence on
the level of party elites, often privileging the
distinctions of class and of birth over gender.
The Conservative Party looked backward
rather than forward; its depended on the
informal mechanisms of networks of friends
and family and the intense social life of the
British elite. Within these circles, women had
a distinctive though gendered role legitimized
by the position of their husbands or families.They could exercise significant social power
as hostesses to political social occasions.
Nancy Astor was a well-connected political
hostess with impressive extra-parliamentary
powers. She was able to continue and expand
her role within the House of Commons, the
moment women were granted the vote.