Women and Socialism Conferences

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 106 5WSC
Held at	: Women's Library   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.lse.ac.uk/Library/Collections/Collection-highlights/The-Womens-Library ›
Full title	: Women and Socialism Conferences
Date(s)	: 1973
Level of description	: fonds
Extent	: 1 folder (29 items)
Name of creator(s)	: Women and Socialism Conferences

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The second wave of the feminist movement, or the Women's Liberation Movement, began in the 1960s. It moved beyond the action for social and economic equality with men that earlier liberal activists had focused on to undertake the theoretical study of social relationships and ways in which they created the oppression of women. Its emergence occurred at the same time as that of anti-imperialist, left-leaning political movements in the United States and Great Britain and was influenced by them. Large numbers of those involved in the women s liberation movement began to make a connection between working class oppression and women's oppression, resulting in the formation of socialist or Marxist feminism that aimed at a general social transformation which would also encompass a radical change in women's status.

The first Women's Liberation conference was held in 1970, at Ruskin College, Oxford and from it emerged four demands: equal pay, equal education and job opportunities, free contraception and abortion on demand and free 24hr nurseries. They did not, however, emphasis the end of capitalism as a means of achieving their objectives. Soon, however, socialist feminists began to predominate in the British Women's Liberation Movement, influenced by a strong British socialist tradition and recent events such as the strike at the Ford car factory in Dagenham by female workers campaigning for equality with male colleagues. Their analysis of women's situation as a combination of male domination and class exploitation came to dominate the movement in the early part of the decade and led many to call for the end of the conventional family as a key step towards women's liberation within communism.

Activists in both the feminist and the socialist movements shared aspects of their working methods . Both sought to develop strategy through both local groups and national conferences and carried out their analysis of the family and women's role in those contexts. In 1969 the Women's Liberation Workshop begun in London, publishing the SHREW newsletter. This was followed the next year by the first National Women's Liberation Conference in Oxford. In 1972 National Women's Liberation Conferences were held in London and Manchester, with one in Bristol the following year. It was largely from these events that future agendas for discussion of women and their roles evolved. Subsequently, the Conference on the Family took place at the Leeds Polytechnical University on the 12th and 13th May 1973. It included sessions on the History of the Family including work on the family in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century, the Family under Capitalism and the Family in the Post-Capitalist Society. Papers were read which also examined the socialist position on abortion and homosexuality in a capitalist society from a Marxist perspective. Another, more feminist-centred event took place in London that same year. The second conference on Women's Liberation and Socialism was held at the Conway Hall on the 22nd-23rd September. It was intended as a follow-up to the first conference that had been held in Birmingham at the request of a local political study group holding on-going discussions of the issue. Both were intended for feminists of a Marxist orientation within the movement and consisted of three workshops dealing with different subject areas raised at the Birmingham event. Areas treated were the history and development of the Women's Liberation Movement and its future organisational development. A follow up workshop to deal with the issues raised was held the following November.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Printed papers relating to The Women and Socialism Conference 1973, and the Leeds Conference on The Family 1973, from a left-wing Women's Liberation Movement perspective. Includes papers from International Feminist Collective and Gay Liberation. Collator unknown.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Finding aids:

Handlist

Collection level description available on-line on the Women's Library website

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Allied Materials

Related material:

The Women's Library Printed Collections holds the Women and Socialism, Conference paper 3 : Birmingham, 21-22 Sep 1974.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
This document was generated by Javascript from an HTML form which structured the input according to the elements of ISAD(G) Version 2. Collection description by the Archives Hub, Dec 2001, amended by Genesis Project Manager, 2002. Fawcett Library Catalogue by Anna Greening Feb 1997. Edited for AIM25 by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions:
In compliance with ISAD (G): General International Standard Archival Description - 2nd Edition (1999); UNESCO Thesaurus, December 2001; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Dec 2008