Women in movement : feminism and social action / by Sheila Rowbotham.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

What do women want? -- Women, power, and politics -- The Tocsin of reason: women in the French Revolution -- A new moral world: early radicals, cooperators, and socialists -- The abolition of slavery and women's emancipation -- Class and community: women and the chartist movement -- Women in revolution: nineteenth-century France -- Equality and individualism: Harriet Taylor and John Stuart Mill -- Sensuous spirits: Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin -- Transforming domestic life: cooperatives and the state -- Moral uplift, social purity, and temperance -- Nationalist movements and women's place.

Social reform: protection by the state -- Welfare and social action -- Socialism, women, and the new life -- Marxists and the woman question -- Anarchism and rebel women -- The suffrage: patriots and internationalists -- Women and revolution in Russia -- Indian women and self-rule -- The long march of Chinese women -- Sexual politics -- Battles around boundaries: conflicting strategies after World War I -- "Bornings" and beginnings: origins of women's liberation in many countries -- Personal politics: changing definitions through action -- Knots: theoretical debates -- The protests without a name: women in collective action.

Historical introduction to a wide range of women's movements from the late-18th century to the present. It describes economic, social and political ideas that have inspired women to organize, not only in Europe and North America, but also in the Third World.