Doing and Becomming

A comprehensive analysis of the ideas and activities of Icelandic women's movements from their emergence in the last decades of the 19th century through to the present day. Events in the history of Icelandic women's rights, the social attributes of the women concerned, their ideas and activities, are described and analysed in terms of the contradictionary pull of social change and cultural conservatism. The importance of social personhood, and a demonstration of how women create and recreate themselves as social persons through their movement activities, is a key element in the analysis, shedding new light on the dynamism of social movements.