1919: Opportunities and Constraints for Women Activists

Abstract

In 1919 international conferences attended by women were significant for activists Marie-Louise Puech and Hannah Sheehy Skeffington who had little political space in their home countries. In France conservative upper house denied women the suffrage even though the bill for that reform had finally got through the lower house. In Ireland 1919 the year when women voted and took their seats in the first Dáil, the Irish would-be independent parliamentary Chamber, violence erupted once more when the War of independence resumed. I shall compare the experiences of the two women who were delegates at international events to examine what they made of their opportunities and how they networked to overcome restrictions.