Women’s Activism in the Transatlantic Consumers’ Leagues, 1885–1920 by Flore Janssen is a significant contribution to the study of women’s history. The book examines the early campaigns for ethical shopping and unpacks the networks, strategies, and ideologies behind them. The work expands on existing scholarship in the fields of labour history and consumer activism – which have investigated the interplay between consumer practices and labour reform – by exploring the transatlantic nature of the Consumers’ Leagues. Through its transatlantic focus, the study reveals the wide exchange, adaptations of strategies and ideas, and the shared trials and tactics within the bigger movements for women’s empowerment and labour justice.

During the last twenty years, historians of consumption – including Frank Trentmann, Lawrence B. Glickman and Matthew Hilton – have produced noteworthy studies on consumer movements, particularly in relation to governance, civic identity, social and labour justice, citizenship, ethics, and economic thought. Janssen’s work develops this field by emphasizing gender as a crucial lens for understanding consumer politics, showing how the Consumers’ Leagues and women behind them were pivotal to progressive reform in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth. By challenging the traditional focus on male-dominated labour unions, Janssen highlights how women effectually leveraged their roles as consumers to advocate for fairer labour practices, ethical consumption, and early consumer protection policies.

The study is divided into two parts that trace the parallel development of Consumers’ Leagues in the UK and the USA. Part I focusses on their emergence in the late nineteenth century, and Part II on their consolidation in the early twentieth. Central to the first chapter is an exploration of the work of British trade unionist Clementina Black. The chapter delves into her place within the consumer activism movement and how she designed her proposals to appeal to readers, reframing the familiar rhetoric of consumer guilt to focus on consumers’ goodwill and the ability for collective action. Though Black’s efforts did not lead to the results she wanted in the UK, in the USA her ideas proved influential. Chapter 2 investigates the creation of the Consumers’ League of New York and the National Consumers’ League and how a large support base and sustained leadership led to their endurance and successes. Differing from Black’s work, the shift in rhetoric analysed in this chapter is from consumer guilt towards “making use of social distance and divisions to act on behalf of exploited workers” (102).

Part II examines how the leagues diverged from each other in the twentieth century. Chapter 3 explores how Black’s campaign moved away from her originally proposed Consumers’ League towards legislative action for an enforceable minimum wage. Janssen consistently showcases how her campaign writing stands out because of “its emphasis on the humanity and experience of working women” and their “domestic and caring responsibilities” (145). Chapter 4 assesses how US campaigning differed, where rights were fought for based on women’s potential role as mothers, bringing the argument for women’s rights into “uncomfortable dialogue with … gender hierarchies, gender essentialism, and even eugenics” (19). In most chapters, though the problematic portrayals of female workers are labelled as such, further analysis is needed when it comes to their unsettling aspects and repercussions.

As we see with Janssen’s analyses of “Caveat Emptor” (1887) by Clementina Black (39–46) and “Report on the Condition of Working Women in New York Retail Stores” (1890) by Alice L. Woodbridge (77–89), central to each chapter is extensive close textual analysis, which provides the backbone and shape of Janssen’s argument. However, the extent of this focus sometimes limits the study’s scope, with consideration of influential contextual factors – such as how the rhetoric of the Consumers’ Leagues was shaped by popular trends and genres, including sensationalism and sentimentality – left underexplored. These broader cultural currents could have enriched the study’s engagement with the leagues’ rhetorical strategies and their reception by contemporary audiences. Nevertheless, in two hundred pages there is only so much a study can cover. Janssen’s book is a methodically argued, deeply researched analysis that is a valuable addition to the field of consumption history as it investigates the previously overlooked role of women in shaping labour rights, ethical consumption, and transatlantic reform networks. In doing so, it grows our understanding of the influence of female consumer activists on social and economic change in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth.