Edith Summerskill - The Life and Times of a Pioneering Feminist Labour MP

An Independent Book of the Month Edith Summerskill was a remarkable politician, feminist, physician, campaigner and writer. At a time when there were few powerful women in public life, Dr Edith, as she was known, served in Clement Attlee''s transformational post-war Labour government and oversaw the National Insurance scheme which solidified the welfare state in Britain. Here, Labour MEP Mary Honeyball, provides the first biography of this remarkable early pioneer for women in politics. Honeyball shows how Edith Summerskill''s direct campaigning was instrumental in promoting women''s causes throughout her life and lays out her remarkable achievements in securing the equal rights of housewives and divorced women over property. This is an uplifting and enlightening account of a forgotten Labour hero.

Product details

• Authors: Mary Honeyball, Honeyball Mary
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.10.2025
• EAN: 9781350499652
• ISBN: 978-1-350-49965-2
• No. of pages: 280
• Dimensions: 154 mm x 232 mm x 24 mm
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Political, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Women in Politics, Politics & government, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Gender studies: women, Gender studies: women and girls, Biography: historical, political and military, Political leaders and leadership