The ‘silver thread’: Hazel Hunkins-Hallinan (1890–1982), the Six Point Group, and new understandings of intergenerational female activism in England, 1960s to 1980

Abstract

ABSTRACT Focussing on the life-long activism of former suffragette and feminist Hazel Hunkins-Hallinan this article presents an innovative re-appraisal of histories of the women’s movement in England during the 1960s and 1970s. Adopting a micro-history approach the article uses Hunkins-Hallinan’s experience of feminist activism to make two connected arguments. The first is to challenge the suggestion that post-suffrage feminist societies such as the Six Point Group lost their ability to participate in and influence campaigns for gender equality into the second half of the twentieth century. The second is to ensure that the contributions made by older women to the women’s movement during the 1960s and 1970s are no longer obscured by the emergence of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Drawing on both arguments the article reveals the previously hidden co-operation and intersection between older and younger generations of women campaigning for women’s rights during these two pivotal decades.