Quiet revolutionaries: The married women's association and family law

Conventional histories of family law focus on legal actors, while neglecting the little-known yet indispensable work by dedicated groups of life-long activists. This book tells the untold story of one such group: the Married Women’s Association. Formed in 1938, the Married Women’s Association took reform of family property law as its chief focus. The name is deceptively innocuous, suggesting tea parties and charity fundraisers, but in fact the MWA was often involved in dramatic confrontations with politicians, civil servants, and Law Commissioners. The Association boasted powerful public figures, including MP Edith Summerskill, authors Vera Brittain and Dora Russell, and barrister Helena Normanton. They campaigned on matters that are still being debated in family law today. Quiet Revolutionaries sheds new light upon legal reform then and now by challenging longstanding assumptions, showing that piecemeal legislation can be an effective stepping stone to comprehensive reform and highlighting how unsuccessful bills, though often now forgotten, can still be important triggers for change. Drawing upon interviews with members’ friends and family, and thousands of archival documents, this book is compulsory reading for lawyers, legal historians and anyone who wishes to explore histories of law reform from the ground up