Ethical consumption and consumer choice are at the heart of public debates today, but consumer activism has a long history. At the end of the nineteenth century, groups of women activists in different countries weaponised their reputation as consumers to mount campaigns against labour exploitation. By the early twentieth century, they had built an international network of Consumers’ Leagues that influenced public opinion and achieved legislative change. Analysing the campaign writing of women activists, including both well-known and recently rediscovered historical figures, Flore Janssen provides new insights into the campaigns that underpinned important developments in the rights of workers and the social position of women. Highlighting the social, economic and political influence of women as activists, this book discusses campaign strategies, but also draws attention to problematic politics within these campaigns. Through its critically contextualised analysis of this specific consumer movement, the book reveals the origins of many consumer campaign strategies that remain familiar today.
Uncovers the central and leading roles of women in the development of organised consumer activism in the UK and the USA between 1885 and 1920
Arvustused
Today, when fast fashion and food miles are prominent topics of public concern, Flore Janssens book about early campaigns for ethical shopping strikes a timely note. This is a compelling study of turn-of-the-century womens activism which offers rich material for comparison with the consumer politics of the present time. -- Rachel Bowlby, University College London
List of FiguresAcknowledgments
Series Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction. Gender, Wealth and the Rhetoric of Ethical Consumption
Part I: Establishing the movement, 18851900
1. Let the Buyer Beware: Clementina Black and the Consumers League in the
UK, 18871890
2 An Epoch-Making Movement: Consumers Leagues in the USA and Beyond,
18901900
Part II: Strategic developments, 19001920
3 Encounters with Sweating: Public Outreach and Political Influence in the
UK, 19001910
4. The Health and Welfare of the Republic: The National Consumers League
and the Question of Gender in US Protective Labour Legislation, 18951920
Conclusion. Afterlives: Citizen Consumers and the Continued Influence of
Consumers League Strategies Bibliography
Index
Flore Janssen is Assistant Professor in Comparative Literature at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She is co-editor, with Lisa C. Robertson, of the collection Margaret Harkness: Writing Social Engagement 18801921 (Manchester University Press, 2019) and editor of Margaret Harknesss 1921 novel A Curates Promise (Shield Books, 2021). Her research interests include marginalisation, activism and archives and she has published widely on these topics.
