The decline of feminism in England during the 1930s and 1940s has been the subject of numerous historical investigations. Jane Lewis (1980), Olive Banks (1986), Johanna Alberti (1989) and Martin Pugh (1990), have all considered the activities of women's societies which demanded equal rights for women, including equal pay, equal opportunities and an equal moral standard for men and women. These studies suggest that the feminist movement, understood to represent political feminist groups, was unable to capitalise on the triumph of the suffrage campaign. Although legislation enacted during the 1920s did improve the position of women in society, it was clear by the 1930s that the struggle for women's equality was far from over. As a result, the 1930s and 1940s have often been characterised as a period which witnessed one of feminism's deepest troughs, the era as a whole assumed as having an "anti-progressive and reactionary character".