IN-PERSON London Heritages. Section B

Abstract

This paper explores the legacy of cultural work produced by women involved in the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) of the 1980s and its potential impact on current feminists. The article investigates the socio-cultural significance of collecting archival materials, exhibiting and producing podcasts using oral history methods, to draw attention to gender inequalities. The project is attentive to ‘the local’, arguing that a significant aspect of socially engaged culture is in response to locality, with specific historical and situated concerns which are meaningful to local communities (Gilmore et al., 2019). Building on current interests in the work of second wave Feminists, as seen in flagship exhibitions such as Tate Britain’s Women in Revolt, the research creates a dialogue between practices from the 80s and contemporary concerns. Our findings suggest that cultural artefacts which are both defined by and define ‘the local’ play an important role in questioning political, social and cultural histories. The project focuses on a project in Birmingham UK, as a case study, exploring the relationship between feminist activities from the 1980s and using archival materials to connect across feminist generations. The research contributes to a growing body of work which seeks to highlight the voices and the influence of women’s activism, feminist or not, which are disproportionately missing from historical records (Jolly, 2015). Furthermore, the paper investigates the value and potential impact of connecting contemporary practitioners to local histories of women’s activism.