The University of Portsmouth: Friday 4 July 2014

The women’s liberation movement (WLM) erupted into late 1960s Western society as a powerful force for social change, challenging rigidly defined and oppressive sex role stereotypes, promoting a set of formal demands for women’s equality and introducing terms such as ‘sexism’ and ‘male chauvinist’ into everyday language. There is little doubt that the women’s liberation movement had a profound impact, yet popular images of the original ‘women’s libbers’ portray second wave feminists as men hating, bra burning, dungaree clad harridans. There is currently renewed interest in feminism, and an upsurge of feminist activity. This has been accompanied by a desire amongst feminist historians to develop the historiography of the WLM. The aim of this one day conference is to historicize the women’s liberation movement within western society between c1968-1990.

Papers are invited in any area of women’s liberation c1968-90 in Britain, Continental Europe and North America. We are particularly interested in the following themes:

• ‘The personal is political’: consciousness raising, personal narratives, oral testimony – remembering the WLM;
• Sexuality and contraception, including lesbian, bisexual and transgender feminists, sexual violence and ‘reclaim the night’;
• Struggles at work: women’s strikes, equal pay, against sex role stereo typing – equal opportunities;
• The WLM and media: campaigns against sexist advertising;
• feminist publications;
• Black feminism;
• Women from ethnic minorities/ women of colour in the WLM;
• Cultural dimensions of the WLM: feminist art, theatre, writing;
• Transnational dimensions

This conference is aimed primarily at historians but will also be of interest to scholars in other disciplines, notably Literature, Cultural Studies, Sociology and Media Studies.

Please send abstracts up to 300 words to Sue Bruley ([email protected]) by 4^th April 2014.

Website and Booking: http://www.port.ac.uk/centre-for-european-and-international-studies-research/events/situating-womens-liberation/

Local Information:  http://www.visitportsmouth.co.uk/

The post Cfp – Situating Women’s Liberation; Historicizing a Movement Symposium appeared first on Feminist Archive South.

Pat VT West & Jackie Thrupp sit together under a giant hat that was made by Jackie for the first Sistershow performance in March 1973

In the meantime, enjoy these photos that we digitised as part of the project:

The figure dressed in red satin is Alison Rook, who donated a large archive for the exhibition, and was instrumental in getting the project off the ground.

Part of Helen Taylor and Brenda Jacques tape slide project that was used to raise awareness between women/ feminist groups about the activities and ideas behind women’s liberation

One of the few photographic documents of the Sistershow performances. This is the first show, that took place at Bower Ashton. Note the degradation of the image.

We still have catalogues from the exhibition available and you can get one for a small donation.

The post Sistershow materials catalogued and searchable appeared first on Feminist Archive South.

Ellen Malos’ archives are now searchable on the Special Collections catalogue at the University of Bristol.

They carry the classificatory mark of ‘Ellen Malos Papers, DM2123/8/112-128′ should you wish to find them.

Thanks to Sarah Cuthill, the project archivist, for her fantastic work getting all the papers organised to such a high standard!

The post Ellen’s Papers available on the Special Collections Catalogue appeared first on Feminist Archive South.

Conni was particularly interested in material relating to Greenham Common, as both her grandmother and mother protested at the camp. Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, established in Sept 1981, was a protest against the presence of nuclear cruise missiles on British land. Missiles were removed from the camp in 1991, but women still protested there until 2000. For more information about the camp, please visit here and here.

             Part of fence at Greenham Common

This photo is a piece of the fence, which women used to cut into during actions.

Shawl collectively made by women at Greenham   Common

This photo is of a collectively made shawl by Greenham Women which depicts a number of spider webs sewn together. Before the world wide web connected people across the world, women at Greenham used the metaphor of a spiders web to imagine global connections between peace activists.

Brighton University Student Conni Rosewarne films the shawl and piece of the fence for her university project

Conni in action! She has promised to send us her film when it has been made – so watch this space!

                     The fence, from a different angle

Another close-up of the fence – a highly emotive part of our collection. If you want to see some amazing pictures of Greenham, visit Cary Welling‘s site.

The post Greenham Materials appeared first on Feminist Archive South.

We will compare interviewing, archiving, interpretation and publicising methods and identify good practice that we can share. We will also identify strategies for future oral-historical research on transnational and cross-cultural feminism.

Featuring seven innovative feminist oral history projects

• Sisterhood and After: The Women’s Liberation Oral History Project
• The China Women’s University Women’s Oral History
• Unfinished Histories: British Alternative Theatre, 1968-88
• Oral Histories of the Black Women’s Movement: The Heart of the Race
• The Trade Union Congress Recording Women’s Voices Series
• Subverting Stereotypes: Asian Women’s Political Activism in the UK
• Unbecoming Men: Masculinities and the Women’s Liberation Movement, 1970–1985

Join us

Date Thursday 11 April 2013

Time 09:30-16:30

Venue University of Sussex, Silverstone Building, Room 309

Cost and registration The day is free but registration beforehand is essential. Please contact Margaretta Jolly at [email protected]

This event is co-sponsored by The University of Sussex (Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research) and The University of Brighton (Centre for Memory, Narrative, History). We also thank the British Academy for its generous contribution.

Further information http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/mnh

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/clhlwr/

The post Hearing Her: New Feminist Oral Histories appeared first on Feminist Archive South.

Get in touch with George at the address stated below.

‘My name is George Stevenson and I am PhD student at the University of Durham researching the ways in which women’s socio-economic background and circumstances impacted on their relationship to the women’s liberation movement and other women within and outside of it. I am considering how ‘class’ was conceived of and treated within the movement and whether working-class women faced particular class-based oppressions that middle-class women did not, as well as how these were interpreted and responded to. My research will also detail the cultural, economic, political and social contributions made by working-class women to the women’s movement in whatever arena to illustrate the significant role they played within it.

I am looking to speak to any women who were involved in the women’s movement in this period, as well as women who may have been involved in parallel political movements, such as industrial disputes, about their experiences and feelings about the movement. If you are interested in being involved or have any questions then please feel free to contact me at [email protected].’

The post Seeking oral history participants from the second-wave women’s movement, c. 1968-1980 appeared first on Feminist Archive South.