‘Our Point of Departure is Feminist’: Féminin Masculin Avenir and the Intersectional Origins of Women's Liberation in France, 1967–1970

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines the intersectional origins of the Mouvement de libération des femmes (MLF) in France through analysis of one of its founding groups: Féminin, Masculin, Avenir (FMA). Complicating historiographical perceptions that the feminist revival of 1970 largely resulted from the revolutionary activity of May 1968 in France, this article argues that Women's Liberation also sprung from a transnational, multi‐issue activist network that predated the events of that year. FMA, though statistically insignificant in the vast arena of late‐1960s activism, boasted a disproportionately influential share of MLF activists who would go on to shape the principle theories of Women's Liberation in France. Their engagement with anti‐colonialism, Black liberation and Marxism facilitated their feminist activism, sharpened their theories of oppression and provided them with models of successful identity‐based social movements. FMA explored the intersections of race, class and gender before eventually abandoning these intersections in the name of ‘women’ as a class. This turn away from solidarity with anti‐racist and anti‐colonial movements in the name of feminism shaped the priorities of Women's Liberation for years to come.