This event will bring together scholars exploring the history of global women’s activism around working motherhood, state support for families, and reproductive autonomy during the interwar period.

A One-Day Hybrid Workshop at the University of Glasgow

Friday 27 February 2026

Argument

This event will bring together scholars exploring the history of global women’s activism around working motherhood, state support for families, and reproductive autonomy during the interwar period. Professor Eileen Boris of the University of California Santa Barbara will deliver an online keynote titled “Regulating Women’s Labors: Cultures of Protection, Womanly Duties, and the Wages of Care.”

The workshop aims to examine how women both shaped and were influenced by national and international politics concerning these issues. Through intersectional, postcolonial, and critical-feminist approaches, we seek to reassess the contributions of working-class women to struggles for emancipation at work and in the family.

Following World War I, as women entered the labour force in unprecedented numbers, governments, political parties, and international actors began debating policies aimed at working women and mothers. Although women were only discreetly present in these policy discussions, their influence was significant. Yet, while the role of conservative and liberal currents has been studied, the ideas and policies of international left-wing and working-class movements regarding working mothers, childcare, and reproductive rights remain underexplored. This historical amnesia persists despite the progressive character of these movements and the fact that many of their demands – such as free, medically supervised deliveries, paid maternity leave, unconditional state support for mothers and families, public childcare and schooling, and access to contraceptives – later on came to form the bedrock of welfare states worldwide. 

This workshop aims to address this gap by fostering dialogue among scholars working on such activism in local, national, and global contexts. We particularly welcome proposals that:

• Examine working class and left-wing women's ideas and demands related to state policies towards working mothers' and children 
• Explore working-women’s ideas on work and reproductive autonomy
• Adopt transnational and global perspectives on working motherhood, moving beyond Western-centric case-studies and narratives
• Investigate connections, networks, and ties and/or antagonisms between movements and activists across different countries and political movements

Submission Guidelines

We welcome proposals for individual papers, co-authored papers, and panels. Please submit these to daria.dyakonova@uniroma1.it by November 10, 2025:

1.     Title of the paper or panel.

2.     Abstract (max. 250 words).

3.     Short biography for each presenter (max. 150 words), including affiliation and contact information.

Funding 

We encourage researchers to seek funding through their respective institutions.

Publication Opportunity

Selected papers from the workshop will be considered for publication in an edited collection or special journal issue. Further details will be provided following the event.

We look forward to receiving your proposals and will inform you on our decision by 1 December 2025.

Academic committee 

• Dr. Daria Dyakonova, Civis 3 i Horizon 2020 fellow, Sapienza University, Rome..
• Prof. Maud Anne Bracke, Professor of Modern European History, University of Glasgow 

Centre For Gender History, University of Glasgow

Global History Research Cluster, University of Glasgow

Funded under EU Horizon 2020 R&I Programme