Quiet Revolutionaries

I believe this book to be of central importance to scholars studying the history of women and feminist movements, and family law in the twentieth century. It is so rare for a legal history book to truly convey how and why the law developed in the way it did, and the significance of these developments to the people subject to the legislation. In Quiet Revolutionaries, Sharon Thompson has raised the bar for those of us working in the field. -- Jennifer Aston * Feminist Legal Studies *
Sharon Thompson is to be thanked and congratulated for giving us this detailed and perceptive account of the activities of a previously little-known group of quiet but determined activists … A treasure trove, offering newly accessible detail and contributing across so many areas to the understanding of the process of law reform and to the history of feminist thought and strategies for reformers. -- Mavis Maclean * Journal of Law and Society *
Quiet Revolutionaries is a fantastic book that should be read by legal historians, practitioners and anyone interested in how legal change is achieved … Drawing upon rich insights from archival and empirical research, this book reveals that ‘the MWA’s story is a microcosm of feminist legal activism’ … Quiet Revolutionaries provides a new way of thinking about that activism and how ‘success’ might be measured for reform projects in family law today. -- Andy Hayward * Financial Remedies Journal *
The book is beautifully written, providing the reader with a real sense of what it was like for women (and men) in previous decades, for Thompson has done her research in archives and from interviews and knows the period thoroughly. What it also offers is a properly accurate and nuanced examination of the law and the proposed reforms that one could only get from an experienced teacher of both family law and property law. Quiet Revolutionaries takes feminist legal history – and legal history generally – to a new level. -- Rosemary Auchmuty * Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies *
A rich, multifaceted and thought-provoking resource, and an important contribution to the literature challenging narratives stressing the weakness and quiescence of the women's movement in the 1940s and 1950s * Women's History Today *
The influence and importance of the Married Women’s Association and its visionary leading lights ... ought to be much better known, not only among family lawyers but also among everyone who is interested in the movement for women’s equality. Sharon Thompson has enriched our knowledge and understanding by shining a light upon these quiet revolutionaries. * Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, former President of the Supreme Court of the UK [from the foreword] *
Quiet Revolutionaries brilliantly illustrates the value of taking a feminist approach to legal history. Meticulously researched and engaging, it shines a light on an overlooked but vitally important campaign for substantive equality within marriage and on the challenges of reforming the law. * Rebecca Probert, Professor of Law, University of Exeter, UK *
Economic dependence in marriage was an abiding concern for twentieth-century feminists, but until now we have known too little about how activists used the law as a tool for change. Deeply researched and highly readable, Sharon Thompson’s book recovers the dogged campaigning of the Married Women’s Association, revealing its steely efforts to reshape norms about gender, power and the value of women’s labour in the family. * Helen McCarthy, Professor of Modern and Contemporary British History, University of Cambridge, UK *