Cultures of Activism
Questions to ponder whilst you read鈥�
- How were the activist techniques of the WLM innovative?
- What was different about the way the WLM organised from previous social movements?
- What do you think 鈥榯he personal is political鈥� means?
- How might the activist culture of the WLM make us think differently about the kinds of sources we use to study social movements?
Core Reading
E. Setch, 鈥楾he Face of Metropolitan Feminism: The London Women's Liberation Workshop, 1969-79鈥�, Twentieth Century British History 13:2 (2002) 171-90 digitised
S. Bruley, 'Consciousness-Raising in Clapham; Women's Liberation as 鈥楲ived Experience鈥� in South London in the 1970s', Women's History Review 22 (2013), 717-738 digitised
Further Reading
L. Foster, 'Spreading the Word: feminist print cultures and the Women's Liberation Movement', Women's History Review 25:5 (2016), 812-831 [This whole Special Issue of this journal is useful] digitised
L. Foster, 鈥楶rinting Liberation: The Women's Movement and Magazines in the 1970s鈥�, in L. Forster, Laurel & S. Harper, British Culture and Society in the 1970s : the Lost Decade (2010) digitised
S. Bruley, Article on Consciousness Raising Groups, in Feminist Anthology Collective (ed.) No Turning Back: Writings from the Women鈥檚 Liberation Movement 1975-1980 (1981)
M. Jolly, In Love and Struggle: Letters in Contemporary Feminism (2008) digitised
D.M. Withers & R. Chigley, 鈥楢 Complicated Inheritance: Sistershow and the Queering of Feminism, 1973-4鈥�, Women: A Cultural Review 21:3 (2010), 309-322 digitised
M. Wandor, Once a Feminist: Stories of a Generation (1990)
C. Hughes, 鈥楻ealigning personal and political: narratives of activist women in the late 1960s and 1970s鈥�, Women鈥檚 History Network Magazine, Spring 2012 digitised
R. Baxandall & L. Gordon (ed.s) Dear Sisters: Dispatches from the Women鈥檚 Liberation Movement (2000)
Kathy Battista, Renegotiating the Body: Feminist Art in 1970s London (2013) digitised
Melanie Waters, 'Risky Ms.-ness? The Business of Women鈥檚 Liberation Periodicals in the 1970s', Women: a Cultural Review 32:3-4 (2021), 272-294
Spare Rib no.38 (1975) [available to view in MRC 711/C/1/55]
Shrew (autumn 1974) digitised