Transnational Women's Liberation

Across different cities, countries, and continents, the women's liberation movement grew from the grassroots, beginning with small discussion groups in the late 1960s to thousands marching in the streets less than a decade later. Political positions varied and methods of struggle were diverse, from consciousness-raising, street theatre, and squatting, to feminist bookshops, healthcare services, and refuges for women escaping domestic violence. But how did this informal, staunchly leaderless social movement grow across national borders? Did women's liberation activists in different countries see themselves as fighting in the same struggle? Taking a case study of movements in the US, UK, and France, this history investigates the transnational reach of women's liberation. It brings together analyses of archival sources-from flyers, posters, and activist newsletters to personal correspondence and oral testimony, including interviews recorded by the author, now archived at the British Library. Chapters move from activist awakenings and movement origins in all three countries to different areas of activism: theorising, protest, healthcare, and the establishment of childcare, refuge, and rape crisis services. Throughout, Tess Little traces the creation and travel of feminist texts, protest tactics, and organisational methods, examining the ways activists adapted ideas to new contexts. How did a sketch drawn by a woman in New York appear on Parisian t-shirts? How did a derelict house in Hounslow lead to the international establishment of refuges? How did a French abortion manifesto inspire women abroad to speak out? And where were connections with other countries not so significant? This is a history of the movement of feminism between groups, cities, regions, countries, a history of the travel of ideas. But it is also a history of the movement itself: how the women's liberation movement worked, how it operated, where it came from, and what it was. It is, moreover, the history of feminism as movement: a certain kind of feminism which was put into practice through collective action.