Socialist-feminism and conceptualisations of work in the British Women’s Liberation Movement, c.1968-1992

The 1968 Ford Dagenham strike looms large in modern British and feminist memory as the event which began the British Women’s Liberation Movement, and which threw media attention onto a group of women workers fighting for skill level increase, and thus equal pay. The resulting intervention by MP Barbara Castle, and the 1970 Equal Pay Act, were not the only stories of work in the BWLM though, and there is much that can be garnered from exploring how the BWLM engaged with ‘work’ to explore the position of women in society. Within this, there can be seen the ‘socialist-feminist spectrum’ which this paper will engage with extensively, to explore how ‘work’ was debated within this group, and the resulting grassroots engagement. Using an intellectual history methodology, this paper aims to explore how the notion of work was conceptualised by those within the British Women’s Liberation Movement (BWLM) from its inception around 1968, until the beginning of the 1990s. Using periodicals, published literature, and anthologies, I will examine the development of different concepts within work that dominated socialist-feminist literature and theorising as the dominant strand within the BWLM during the 1970s, and one which continued to engage with theory throughout the rest of this period. As such, this paper will examine the position of women in the workforce, the notion of value which includes both skill and equal pay, homework, domestic labour, and sex work. The paper thus argues that socialist-feminism’s engagement with conceptualisations of work explored the extensive and continually evolving nature of the workplace and woman’s position in society through their theoretical interventions. The rapidity with which they addressed, and redressed theories of work by exploring the intersections of Marxism and feminism, and the changing industrial and economic position of Britain, demonstrated the complex identity and experiences of women in late-twentieth-century Britain through this socialist-feminist critique.

Amy Longmuir is a third year AHRC-funded PhD student at the University of Reading, focusing on socialist-feminism and work in late-twentieth century Britain. By using anthologies, periodicals, and published texts, Amy explores how socialist-feminist theories conceptualised elements of work from around 1968 to 1992. Amy has published in the Exchanges journal on the Programme for Reform of the Law on Soliciting, and has reviewed Paula Bartley’s book Women’s Activism in Twentieth-Century Britain for Women’s History Review. Amy is also a Postgraduate Representative for History at the University of Reading, and secretary of the SWWDTP Technology and Society cluster.