Women's liberation movement
Encyclopedia
The Women's Liberation Movement was a political movement, born in the 1960s from Second-Wave Feminism.
It generated mythology almost before it was born such as bra burning - and it was allegedly a matter of deep concern to those within it at the time that its history would allegedly be rewritten by those who weren't in it. Allegedly one important reality was that it is more sensibly seen as a movement of the 1970s and 1980s, not the 1960s, despite allegedly often being described as a 1960s phenomenon. The term 'women's liberation' allegedly was coined in the early 1960s, when the word liberation was becoming popular, but (for example) the first Women's Liberation Conference in Britain took place in 1969, at Ruskin College, and its major publications such as Spare Rib and off our backs not founded until 1970 and beyond.
(ERA) in the USA; and a more 'liberation' inspired movement with strong roots in the US Civil Rights Movement - and, it must be said, as much reacting against as working with the more radical political groups of the late 1960s.
To see the blossoming of the latter, it is most useful to look at publications coming out of 'the underground', such as off our backs in 1970 in the USA (amazingly still going strong today) and Spare Rib in 1972 the UK. It could be argued that Spare Rib itself did not really explicitly identify itself as part of the women's liberation movement until its coverage of the 2007 National Women's Liberation Movement Conference - before that still working out how much it aimed to be a challenging popular women's magazine and how much an explicitly radical political publication. (See the Penguin Spare Rib Reader for a good description and depiction of its development.) The fact that Spare Rib reached its high point of circulation and influence (after some very good PR when it first started) in the late 1970s usefully charts the women's liberation movement itself.
It's in 1981, for example, the European Union invited editors from the four leading WLM magazines in Europe (from Germany, France, Italy and UK) to a debate on women's rights in the European Parliament in Luxembourg; and the sheer number of women's initiatives in the late 1970s has still to be documented. It is important not to back date views and influence: the 1970s were a crucial time for significant changes in attitudes to women in Western societies.
, Gloria Steinem
or Germaine Greer
. The WLM didn't much agree with 'stars' or leaders (although Simone de Beauvoir
was certainly honoured by many within it). After years of being defined as loony women's libbers, it found itself attacked as elitist and racist.
One source for the earliest days of the more radically feminist roots of the WLM is Alice Echols
, Daring to Be BAD: Radical Feminism in America 1967 - 1975 (1989). She describes the first explicit 'women's liberation' groups forming in 1968 in the USA. It makes little sense to talk about the WLM existing in any form before then.
An important reference for the more radical impulses of the WLM later on is the Trouble and Strife Reader, published in 2010, and its Introduction on both the magazine and its political context from 1983 to 2002.
A good more general history of the WLM has yet to be written. Several groups attempted at the time to capture history from its living actors; and the Feminist Library in London as well as the University of Wisconsin at Madison (which had a tireless feminist librarian in the 1970s and 80s) are good sources for original material.
It generated mythology almost before it was born such as bra burning - and it was allegedly a matter of deep concern to those within it at the time that its history would allegedly be rewritten by those who weren't in it. Allegedly one important reality was that it is more sensibly seen as a movement of the 1970s and 1980s, not the 1960s, despite allegedly often being described as a 1960s phenomenon. The term 'women's liberation' allegedly was coined in the early 1960s, when the word liberation was becoming popular, but (for example) the first Women's Liberation Conference in Britain took place in 1969, at Ruskin College, and its major publications such as Spare Rib and off our backs not founded until 1970 and beyond.
Second Wave Feminism
There was always a creative tension between a growing general climate of liberalisation - culminating in legal liberalisation in the late 1960s and early 1970s, for example on abortion, gay rights and equal pay in the UK; what was termed a 'second wave' of liberalising feminism, perhaps best characterised by the formation of the National Organization of Women (NOW) and the Equal Rights AmendmentEqual Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...
(ERA) in the USA; and a more 'liberation' inspired movement with strong roots in the US Civil Rights Movement - and, it must be said, as much reacting against as working with the more radical political groups of the late 1960s.
To see the blossoming of the latter, it is most useful to look at publications coming out of 'the underground', such as off our backs in 1970 in the USA (amazingly still going strong today) and Spare Rib in 1972 the UK. It could be argued that Spare Rib itself did not really explicitly identify itself as part of the women's liberation movement until its coverage of the 2007 National Women's Liberation Movement Conference - before that still working out how much it aimed to be a challenging popular women's magazine and how much an explicitly radical political publication. (See the Penguin Spare Rib Reader for a good description and depiction of its development.) The fact that Spare Rib reached its high point of circulation and influence (after some very good PR when it first started) in the late 1970s usefully charts the women's liberation movement itself.
It's in 1981, for example, the European Union invited editors from the four leading WLM magazines in Europe (from Germany, France, Italy and UK) to a debate on women's rights in the European Parliament in Luxembourg; and the sheer number of women's initiatives in the late 1970s has still to be documented. It is important not to back date views and influence: the 1970s were a crucial time for significant changes in attitudes to women in Western societies.
The 1980s
The WLM ran into problems in the 1980s, both with a political backlash more generally, and questions about which women it was speaking for. It had always had extremely vociferous critics, from the tabloid press to Marxist groups; and, generally, not a happy relationship with the so-called 'stars' of feminism such as Betty FriedanBetty Friedan
Betty Friedan was an American writer, activist, and feminist.A leading figure in the Women's Movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the "second wave" of American feminism in the twentieth century...
, Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s...
or Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
. The WLM didn't much agree with 'stars' or leaders (although Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...
was certainly honoured by many within it). After years of being defined as loony women's libbers, it found itself attacked as elitist and racist.
For the record
The WLM also had an interesting relationship with academic women's - and then 'gender' - studies. The history and analysis of feminism in the 1970s and 80s is now mostly done by academic researchers, who may or may not have experienced it, or fully grasped what provoked and propelled women to organise within it.One source for the earliest days of the more radically feminist roots of the WLM is Alice Echols
Alice Echols
Alice Echols is a cultural critic and historian. A specialist of the 1960s, Echols is Professor of English, Gender Studies and History at the University of Southern California.-Education:Echols received her Bachelor's degree from Macalester College in 1973...
, Daring to Be BAD: Radical Feminism in America 1967 - 1975 (1989). She describes the first explicit 'women's liberation' groups forming in 1968 in the USA. It makes little sense to talk about the WLM existing in any form before then.
An important reference for the more radical impulses of the WLM later on is the Trouble and Strife Reader, published in 2010, and its Introduction on both the magazine and its political context from 1983 to 2002.
A good more general history of the WLM has yet to be written. Several groups attempted at the time to capture history from its living actors; and the Feminist Library in London as well as the University of Wisconsin at Madison (which had a tireless feminist librarian in the 1970s and 80s) are good sources for original material.