An Archive of the Women's Liberation Movement: a Document of Social and Legislative Change

Abstract

AbstractThis paper, by Polly Russell, offers an introduction to the material available to researchers in the recently launched ‘Sisterhood & After: an Oral History of the Women's Liberation Movement’ archive at the British Library. Drawing from the archive's oral history recordings, the author demonstrates how they can be used to examine the ways that legislative changes are experienced and raise questions about the relation between legislative change, cultural change and the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM). The paper argues that these oral history recordings provide a unique opportunity to reflect on the ways that legislative and structural change were experienced by WLM activists in their everyday lives.