Reflections on women’s activism in twentieth-century Britain

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article is based on a talk I gave at the London School of Economics in March 2023. The talk was structured in a way to give me the freedom to reflect upon some of the key themes in my book Women’s Activism in Twentith Century Britain; making a difference across the political spectrum. I wrote the book during the pandemic. Archives were closed and even when they opened I could not use them as I had to shield because of health issues. Consequently, the material I relied on was what I could access on-line and on people who I could interview on Zoom. My book drew on my own experiences as an activist and my own theoretical development as a feminist. History and activism intertwined: my story as a former activist and my view that feminist historical scholarship is itself a type of activism came together to give direction and meaning both to my research and to my writing. In my talk, and in this Viewpoint, I want to show the heterogeneous nature of activism, of how individuals and groups from a range of different class and racial background sought to make a difference to their locality, their country and sometimes the world. I argue that women are not a homogenous group but are united—and divided—by class, ethnicity, gender and so on. For instance, not all female activists campaigned for progressive measures, indeed many promoted reactionary agendas.