Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2014
The 1914 British Nationality and Status of Aliens (BNSA) Act stated that “the wife of a British subject shall be deemed to be a British subject, and the wife of an alien shall be deemed to be an alien.” By this reenactment of an 1870 law, a British woman who married an alien became an alien herself, losing the rights and privileges accorded to British nationality. During the 1920s and 1930s, British feminists from around the Empire worked to change this regulation, but only in 1948 were women in the United Kingdom granted the right to their own nationality regardless of their marital status. The House of Commons largely supported the feminists' efforts to reform the laws so that women would not automatically lose their nationality on marriage. Members of Parliament introduced several bills to equalize the nationality laws that were read without division. The Government, however, consistently blocked the bills, citing the imperial nature of the nationality laws and Dominion disagreement with the change. This contest over nationality has been a neglected topic in the study of twentieth-century British history. Legal historians have, by and large, only described changes in the laws regarding married women's national status. While some historians of the women's movement in the British Isles have noted the equal nationality campaign, most have not realized how it can contribute to our understanding of interwar Britain and British feminism. Pat Thane, however, has seen in this topic an example of the way the Empire has influenced British culture.
1 British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act, 1914, 4 & 5 Geo. V, c. 17, s. 10(1).
2 Jones, Mervyn, British Nationality Law and Practice (London, 1947)Google Scholar; Parry, Clive, Nationality and Citizenship Laws of the Commonwealth and Ireland (London, 1957)Google Scholar; Dummett, Ann and Nicol, Andrew, Subjects, Citizens, Aliens and Others: Nationality and Immigration Law (London, 1990)Google Scholar. Writers of American history have in recent years rescued this topic from its similar neglect: see Bredbenner, Candice Lewis, A Nationality of Her Own: Women, Marriage and the Law of Citizenship (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1998)Google Scholar; and Kerber, Linda K., No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship (New York, 1998)Google Scholar.
3 See, e.g., Pugh, Martin, Women and the Women's Movement in Britain: 1914–1959 (Basingstoke, 1992), pp. 236–37Google Scholar.
4 Thane, Pat, “Introduction: Twentieth-Century British Studies,” Journal of British Studies 36 (April 1997): 141–46Google Scholar, and “The British Imperial State and the Construction of National Identities,” in Borderlines: Genders and Identities in War and Peace, 1870–1930, ed. Melman, Billie (New York, 1998), pp. 29–45Google Scholar.
5 Burton, Antoinette, “Some Trajectories of ‘Feminism’ and ‘Imperialism,’” in Feminisms and Internationalism, ed. Sinha, Mrinalini, Guy, Donna, and Woollacott, Angela (Oxford, 1999), p. 214Google Scholar.
6 Burton, Antoinette, Burdens of History: British Feminists, Indian Women, and Imperial Culture, 1865–1915 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1994)Google Scholar; Ware, Vron, Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism and History (London, 1992)Google Scholar; see also Chauduri, Nupur and Strobel, Margaret, eds., Western Women and Imperialism (Bloomington, Ind., 1992)Google Scholar; Midgley, Clare, ed., Gender and Imperialism (Manchester, 1998)Google Scholar.
7 Woollacott, Angela, “‘All This Is the Empire, I Told Myself’: Australian Women's Voyages ‘Home’ and the Articulation of Colonial Whiteness,” American Historical Review 102 (December 1997): 1003–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
8 Bredbenner, , A Nationality of Her Own, p. 197Google Scholar.
9 Rupp, Leila, Worlds of Women: The Making of an International Women's Movement (Princeton, N.J., 1998), pp. 48, 155Google Scholar.
10 Woollacott, Angela, “Inventing Commonwealth and Pan-Pacific Feminisms: Australian Women's International Activism in the 1920s–1930s,” in Feminisms and Internationalism, ed. Sinha, , Guy, , and Woollacott, , pp. 83–85Google Scholar.
11 See, e.g., Rowbotham, Sheila, Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States (London, 1997), p. 172Google Scholar; and Beddoe, Deirdre, Back to Home and Duty: Women between the Wars, 1918–1939 (London, 1989), p. 6Google Scholar. Law's, CherylSuffrage and Power: The Women's Movement, 1918–1928 (London, 1997)Google Scholar is an exception, as is Smith's, Harold “British Feminism and the Equal Pay Issue in the 1930s,” Women's History Review 5 (Spring 1996): 97–110Google Scholar.
12 This had been true since 1608 (Calvin's Case); see Dummett, and Nicol, , Subjects, Citizens, Aliens and Others, p. 22Google Scholar; Jones, , British Nationality Law, pp. 28–32, 81Google Scholar.
13 Jones, , British Nationality Law, p. 72Google Scholar.
14 Dummett, and Nicol, , Subjects, Citizens, Aliens and Others, p. 87Google Scholar.
15 Report of the Royal Commissioners on the Laws of Naturalization and Allegiance, vol. 25, no. 4109 (1869), p. vGoogle Scholar.
16 Holdsworth, W. S., A History of English Law, (London, 1926), 9:91–92Google Scholar.
17 Naturalisation Act, 1870, 33 & 34 Vict., c. 14, s. 10 (1).
18 Dummett, and Nicol, , Subjects, Citizens, Aliens and Others, pp. 88–89Google Scholar.
19 Jones, , British Nationality Law, pp. 108–112Google Scholar.
20 Minutes of the Proceedings of the Imperial Conference, 1911, vol. 54, Cd. 5745 (1911), p. 270Google Scholar.
21 Parliamentary Debates (PD), 1914, Commons, 5th ser, vol. 62, col. 1201.
22 Ibid., col. 1203.
23 British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act, 1914, s. 1(1). The act also granted subjecthood to those whose fathers were British subjects wherever born.
24 For the definition of nationality as a legal tie between a state and an individual that is recognized internationally, see Jones, , British Nationality Law, pp. 2–4Google Scholar.
25 For more on these intersecting ideologies, see Oomen, T. K., Citizenship, Nationality and Ethnicity, Reconciling Competing Identities (Cambridge, Mass., 1997), pp. 19–21Google Scholar.
26 PD, 1930–31, Commons, 5th ser., vol. 245, col. 1735.
27 Hansen, Randall, “The Politics of Citizenship in 1940s Britain: The British Nationality Act,” Twentieth Century British History 10, no. 1 (1999): 70–73Google Scholar. In practice, the equality of the common status was restricted by the control individual Commonwealth states had over immigration. See also Parry, , Nationality and Citizenship Laws, p. 85Google Scholar; Dummett, and Nicol, , Subjects, Citizens, Aliens and Others, pp. 124–25Google Scholar; Paul, Kathleen, “‘British Subjects’ and ‘British Stock’: Labour's Postwar Imperialism,” Journal of British Studies 34 (April 1995): 242Google Scholar, and Whitewashing Britain: Race and Citizenship in the Postwar Era (Ithaca, N.Y., and London, 1997), pp. 10–14Google Scholar.
28 Eddy, John and Schreuder, Deryck, eds., The Rise of Colonial Nationalism (Sydney, 1988), pp. 19, 31Google Scholar; Rich, Paul, “Patriotism and the Idea of Citizenship in Postwar British Politics,” in The Frontiers of Citizenship, ed. Vogel, Ursula (London, 1991), p. 88Google Scholar.
29 PD, 1914, Commons, 5th ser., vol. 62, col. 1211.
30 PD 1914, Commons, 5th ser., vol. 65, col. 1465.
31 British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act, 1918, 8 & 9 Geo. V, c. 38, s. 2(5).
32 PD, 1914, Commons, 5th ser., vol. 65, col. 1493.
33 National Council of Women, Nationality of Married Women pamphlet, n.d., Fawcett Library, London Guildhall University (hereinafter FL/LGU), UDC Collection.
34 Pugh, , Women and the Women's Movement, p. 69Google Scholar; Law, , Suffrage and Power, pp. 51–53, 113Google Scholar.
35 Alberti, Johanna, Beyond Suffrage: Feminists in War and Peace, 1914–28 (London, 1989), p. 166CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
36 See National Council of Women, Annual Report, 1930, FL/LGU.
37 Evans, Dorothy and Madden, Claire, Six Point Group: A Brief Account of Its National and International Work (London, 1946), pp. 5–6Google Scholar; Six Point Group, annual reports for 1931–38, FL/LGU, SPG/B1-F.
38 See Law, , Suffrage and Power, pp. 7–8Google Scholar, on the productiveness of interlinking membership within women's organizations.
39 See Woollacott, , “Inventing Commonwealth and Pan-Pacific Feminisms,” pp. 83–85Google Scholar; Paisley, Fiona, “‘Citizens of Their World’: Australian Feminism and Indigenous Rights in the International Context, 1920s and 1930s,” Feminist Review 58 (Spring 1998): 78Google Scholar.
40 See British Commonwealth League Conference reports, 1925–39, FL/LGU.
41 Beddoe, , Back to Home and Duty, p. 140Google Scholar.
42 See, e.g., Smith, Harold, “British Feminism in the 1920s,” in British Feminism in the Twentieth Century, ed. Smith, Harold (Aldershot, 1990), pp. 47–48Google Scholar; Caine, Barbara, English Feminism, 1780–1980 (Oxford, 1997), pp. 187–97Google Scholar.
43 Six Point Group, Annual Report, 1931–32, FL/LGU, Box 55, SPG/B1-5.
44 Who Was Who, 1929–40; and Europa Biographical Dictionary of British Women (London, 1983)Google Scholar.
45 Thane, , “British Imperial State,” p. 32Google Scholar.
46 Feldman, David, Englishmen and Jews: Social Relations and Political Culture, 1840–1914 (New Haven, Conn., 1994), pp. 375–77Google Scholar.
47 British Commonwealth League Report of 1927 Conference, FL/LGU, pp. 46–47.
48 “The Report of the Select Committee on the Nationality of Married Women,” Parliamentary Papers, 1923, vol. 7, p. 17Google Scholar. For the large-scale internship and repatriation of enemy aliens, sometimes including their British-born wives, see Panayi, Panikos, Enemies in Our Midst: Germans in Britain during the First World War (New York and Oxford, 1991), pp. 75–97Google Scholar.
49 Dummett, and Nicol, , Subjects, Citizens, Aliens and Others, pp. 107–8Google Scholar.
50 Treaty of Peace between Allied and Associated Powers and Germany, vol. 53, Cmd. 153 (1919), sec. 4Google Scholar, art. 297(b). See also “The Report of the Select Committee on the Nationality of Married Women,” p. 144; Westlake, John, A Treatise on International Law: With Principal Reference to Its Practice in England, ed. Bentwhich, Norman (London, 1925), p. 376Google Scholar.
51 The 1894 Local Government Act disqualified aliens from district, parish, and metropolitan borough councils. Under the 1914 County and Borough Council Qualifications Act aliens were not eligible for those bodies.
52 Proceedings of Special Nationality Conference, 31 July 1918, Public Record Office (PRO), Home Office (HO) 45/11902/365303/3.
53 National Council of Women, Annual Report, 1924, FL/LGU, pp. 53–55.
54 NUSEC, Nationality of Married Women pamphlet, 1925, UDC Collection, FL/LGU.
55 Proceedings of Deputation to the Home Secretary, 11 September 1918, PRO, HO 45/11902/365303/6.
56 PD, 1933, Commons, 5th ser., vol. 281, col. 389.
57 IWSA, Nationality of Married Women pamphlet, 1921, UDC Collection, FL/LGU.
58 “The Report of the Select Committee on the Nationality of Married Women,” pp. 129–30.
59 Ibid., p. 41.
60 NMWPBC pamphlet, n.d., UDC Collection, FL/LGU.
61 Archdale to Pedder, 4 December 1929, PRO, HO 45/15145/523629/36.
62 Rupp, Leila, “Constructing Internationalism: The Case of Transnational Women's Organizations,” American Historical Review 99 (December 1994): 1585CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
63 British Nationality (Married Women) Bill, , Public Bills, vol. 1 (1922)Google Scholar.
64 Law, , Suffrage and Power, pp. 99–100Google Scholar.
65 “The Report of the Select Committee on the Nationality of Married Women,” pp. xv–xvi.
66 Ibid., pp. 41–42.
67 Ibid., p. 48.
68 The American Cable Act of 1922 did not apply nationality laws equally to men and women. An American woman lost her nationality if she lived abroad with her foreign husband and could only gain it back through naturalization. American-born women of color married to aliens who were ineligible for naturalization lost their citizenship permanently. Bredbenner, , A Nationality of Her Own, pp. 90–98Google Scholar.
69 “The Report of the Select Committee on the Nationality of Married Women,” p. 96.
70 Ibid., pp. xviii–xix.
71 Ibid., p. 49.
72 Ibid., p. 50.
73 Henriquez, Fernando, Children of Caliban: Miscegenation (London, 1974), p. 150Google Scholar; Callaway, Helen, “Purity and Exotica: Cultural Considerations,” in Legitimacy and the State in Twentieth-Century Africa: Essays in Honour of A. H, M. Kirk-Green, ed. Ranger, Terrence and Vaughan, Olufemi (London, 1993), pp. 53–54Google Scholar; Bush, Barbara, “‘Britain's Conscience on Africa’: White Women, Race and Imperial Politics,” in Gender and Imperialism, ed. Midgely, , pp. 215–16Google Scholar.
74 Ballhatchet, Kenneth, Race, Sex and Class under the Raj: Imperial Attitudes and Policies and Their Critics, 1793–1905 (London, 1980), p. 19–20Google Scholar; Rich, Paul, Race and Empire in British Politics, 2d ed. (Cambridge, 1990), p. 127–28Google Scholar.
75 “The Report of the Select Committee on the Nationality of Married Women,” p. 14.
76 The British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act was amended in 1918 and 1922 expressly to allow British men to transmit their nationality to children born outside the British Empire indefinitely, thus ensuring the longevity of British communities overseas. See Dummett, and Nicol, , Subjects, Citizens, Aliens and Others, pp. 124–25Google Scholar.
77 That British women needed to be protected and prevented from marrying men from another race can be compared with Dutch attitudes. In the Dutch colonies, European women who married non-Europeans were deemed to be degenerate and to have therefore forfeited their right to European status. Stoler, Ann, “Sexual Affronts and Racial Frontiers: European Identities and the Cultural Politics of Exclusion in Colonial Southeast Asia,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 34, no. 3, (1992): 542–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
78 “The Report of the Select Committee on the Nationality of Married Women,” p. xviii.
79 Ibid., p. xvi.
80 Klug, Francesca, “‘Oh to Be in England’: The British Case Study,” in Woman-Nation-State, ed. Yuval-Davis, Nira and Anthias, Floya (New York, 1989), p. 22Google Scholar.
81 Home Office Memorandum for Imperial Conference, 1923, Nationality Committee, [E(N.C.)2], October 1923, PRO, HO 45/11902/365303/50.
82 Imperial Conference, 1923, Summary of Proceedings, vol. 12, pt. 1, Cmd. 1987 (1923), p. 22Google Scholar.
83 PD, 1924–25, Commons, 5th ser., vol. 180, col. 1188.
84 British Commonwealth League Report of 1925 Conference, FL/LGU, p. 12; and National Council of Woman, Annual Report, 1925, FL/LGU.
85 Minute on Commonwealth debates, 21 July 1926, PRO, HO 45/12243/323341/ 175.
86 British Commonwealth League Report of 1926 Conference, FL/LGU.
87 Memorandum on Nationality of Women, Six Point Group, 1930, FL/LGU, UDC Collection.
88 Imperial Conference, 1926, Appendices to the Summary of the Proceedings, vol. 11, Cmd. 2769 (1926), pp. 245–46Google Scholar.
89 Memorandum by Dowson, February 1925, PRO, HO 45/12243/32341/139.
90 Pellew, Jill, The Home Office, 1848–1914: From Clerks to Bureaucrats (London, 1982), pp. 87–88Google Scholar; Young, Hugo, “The Department of Civil Liberties?” The Home Office: Perspectives on Policy and Administration—Bicentenary Lectures, 1982 (London, 1983), p. 86Google Scholar.
91 Wheeler-Bennett, John, John Anderson, Viscount Waverley (London, 1962), pp. 84–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
92 Minutes, Conference on the Operation of Dominion Legislation, 18 October 1929, PRO, HO 45/20163/551457/8.
93 PD, 1928–29, Commons, 5th ser., vol. 226, cols. 386–88.
94 Ibid., col. 5712; Home Office minute, 7 March 1929, PRO, HO 45/15145/523629/13.
95 National Council of Women, Annual Report, 1929–30, FL/LGU, p. 66.
96 Weis, P., Nationality and Statelessness in International Law (Alphen aan den Rejn, 1979), p. 119Google Scholar.
97 Miller, Carol, “‘Geneva—the Key to Equality’: Interwar Feminism and the League of Nations,” Women's Historical Review 3 (Summer 1994): 239Google Scholar.
98 National Council of Women, Annual Report, 1925, FL/LGU.
99 Helen Archdale, Memorandum on Nationality, 26 August 1929, PRO, HO 45/15145/523629/33.
100 Memorandum to Home Secretary, 6 August 1929, PRO, HO 45/15145/523629/30.
101 International Women's News 24, no. 7 (April 1930)Google Scholar.
102 International Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws (April 1930), vol. 28, Cmd. 4347 (1932–1933)Google Scholar.
103 United Nations, Nationality of Married Women (New York, 1963), p. 22Google ScholarPubMed.
104 Macmillan, Chrystal, Nationality of Married Women, NMWPBC, 1932, FL/LGU, UDC CollectionGoogle Scholar.
105 Anderson minute, 27 January 1930, PRO, HO 45/15145/523629/52a.
106 Dowson minute, 7 September 1930, PRO, HO 45/15145/523629/107.
107 Weis, , Nationality and Statelessness, p. 65Google Scholar; Johnstone, W.Ross, Sovereignty and Protection (Durham, N.C., 1973), pp. 4–5Google Scholar; Brownlie, Ian, The Principles of Public International Law (Oxford, 1973), p. 468Google Scholar.
108 Imperial Conference, 1930, Summary of Proceedings, vol. 14, Cmd. 3717 (1930–1931), p. 22Google Scholar.
109 Memorandum for the Cabinet on the Imperial Conference, 1930, Nationality of Married Women, [E(B)(30)25], September 1930, PRO, HO 45/15148/523629/255.
110 Sankey to Herbert Samuel, 21 September 1932, PRO, HO 45/15148/523629/226.
111 Notes on 1929 and 1930 nationality discussions, 2 March 1934, PRO, HO 45/15644/427425/46.
112 Conference on the Operation of Dominion Legislation and Merchant Shipping Legislation, vol. 16, Cmd. 3479 (1929–1930), p. 171Google Scholar.
113 McIntyre, David, The Commonwealth of Nations: Origins and Impact, 1869–1971 (Minneapolis, 1977), pp. 191–92Google Scholar; Dummett, and Nicol, , Subjects, Citizens, Aliens and Others, p. 130Google Scholar. It could be said that the right to appeal from Commonwealth courts to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council constitutes another tie that bound the Empire together. It can be argued, however, that this right was originally based on the ancient tie of allegiance that bound the king and subject. See Latham, R. T. E., “The Law and Commonwealth,” in Hancock, W. K., Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs, 1918–1936 (London, 1937), 1:520Google Scholar.
114 Notes on the 1930 Imperial Conference, 16 October 1930, PRO, HO 45/15644/427425/47.
115 Davenport, T. R. H., South Africa: A Modern History (London, 1987), pp. 287–90Google Scholar.
116 Notes on 1929 and 1930 discussions, 2 March 1934, PRO, HO 45/15644/427425/46; Parry, , Nationality and Citizenship Laws, p. 452Google Scholar.
117 Notes on meeting between Home and Dominions Offices, 14 April 1932, PRO, HO 45/15710/513043/44.
118 Cabinet memorandum on Nationality of Married Women, [CP13(31)], January 1931, PRO, HO 45/15146/523629/131.
119 Cabinet Memorandum by Foreign Secretary, [CP53(31)J, 17 February 1931, and extract from conclusions of Cabinet Meeting, 18 February 1931, PRO, HO 45/15146/ 523629/131.
120 Deputation to Foreign Secretary by Women MPs, 19 March 1931, PRO, HO 45/15146/523629/143.
121 Memorandum to Dominions, July 1931, PRO, HO 45/15146/523629/156; notes, 3 September 1931, PRO, HO 45/15146/523629/165.
122 Letters, Dowson to Newsam, 8–11 September 1931, PRO, HO 45/15147/523629/169, 170.
123 Interdepartmental Memorandum, 23 December 1931, PRO, HO 45/15147/523629/181A.
124 Cabinet Memorandum on the Nationality of Married Women, [CP162(32)], May 1932, PRO, HO 45/15148/523629/194.
125 Cabinet Memorandum on the Nationality of Married Women, [CP394 (32)], 15 November 1932, PRO, HO 45/15148/523629/227.
126 Dodd of Foreign Office to Markbreiter, 20 January 1933, PRO, HO 45/15148/523629/242.
127 Pugh, , Women and the Women's Movement, p. 50Google Scholar.
128 Daily Telegraph, 20 and 30 June 1933; Daily Express, 22 June 1933; Morning Post, 22 June 33; see also Evening News, 20 June 1933; Daily Herald, 21, 22 June 1933.
129 PA 1933, Lords, 5th ser., vol. 88, cols. 521–22.
130 Ibid., col. 525.
131 Ibid., col. 532.
132 Letters, PRO, HO 45/15366/661710/13, 18, 26, 36.
133 Harrison, Brian, Prudent Revolutionaries: Portraits of British Feminists between the Wars (Oxford, 1987), p. 80Google Scholar.
134 PD, 1933, Commons, 5th ser., vol. 281, cols. 386–91.
135 Ibid., cols. 369, 374–76.
136 Ibid., cols. 365–66.
137 Ibid., col. 397; Harrison, Brian, “Women in a Men's House: The Women MPs, 1919–45,” Historical Journal 29 (September 1986): 643Google Scholar.
138 PD, 1933, Commons, 5th ser., vol. 281, cols. 355, 358, 409, 416.
139 Ibid., col. 412.
140 Six Point Group, Annual Report, 1933–34, FL/LGU, Box 525, SPG/B1-5.
141 International Women's News, 28, no. 8 (May 1934)Google Scholar.
142 Rupp, , Worlds of Women, pp. 146–49Google Scholar.
143 Home Office minute, February 1933, PRO, HO 45/15148/523629/254.
144 News Chronicle, 28 November 1939.
145 Jones, , British Nationality Law, pp. 246, 258Google Scholar; Parry, , Nationality and Citizenship, pp. 532, 611, 669Google Scholar.
146 Paul, , “‘British Subjects’ and ‘British Stock,’” p. 242Google Scholar.
147 Hansen, , “The Politics of Citizenship in 1940s Britain,” pp. 72–73, 76–77Google Scholar.
148 Dummett, and Nicol, , Subjects, Citizens, Aliens and Others, pp. 134–37Google Scholar
149 Dowson to Dixon, 24 January 1946, PRO, Dominions Office (DO) 35/1385.
150 Nationality of Married Women Memorandum by the South African delegation, [PMM(46)28], Meeting of Prime Ministers, 17 May 1946, PRO, DO 35/1386. Further research is needed to determine how this change of mind came about.
151 Draft Cabinet Memorandum by the Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, n.d., PRO, DO 35/1387; PD, 1945–46, Commons, 5th series, vol. 426, col. 1208–12.
152 Telegram from New Zealand government, 12 September 1946, PRO, DO 35/1387; Parry, , Nationality and Citizenship, p. 661Google Scholar.
153 Parry, , Nationality and Citizenship, pp. 547, 589Google Scholar.
154 Thane, , “British Imperial State,” p. 42Google Scholar.
155 PD, 1947–48, Commons, 5th ser., vol. 453, cols. 496–97.