Yvonne Reynolds
My involvement in second-wave feminism in the 1970s and 80s had two distinct sources: the British Communist Party (‘Euro-communist’ wing, influenced by Antonio Gramsci and the Italian communists, and opposed by what we called the ‘Stalinist wing’ who took their lead from the Soviet communism of the day); and local politics and community activity.
Those with whose views I associated myself wrote for the journal Marxism Today, and included Martin Jacques, Beatrix Campbell, Stuart Hall, Eric Hobsbawm and others, many of whom formed an intellectual avant-garde for the feminist, anti-racist, and lesbian and gay movements of those years.
At Women’s Liberation and other feminist conferences I was usually overawed by prominent, articulate feminists, and frustratingly tongue-tied.
Locally, women’s groups sprang up all over the place, amid a ferment of ideas. I was a bit unusual among local feminists I knew, in already having three small children. I also worked part-time. I was 27 or 28. Few of us were comfortably off in those days, or cared about that.
I can’t now remember what we discussed in those women’s groups, only that they were exciting and made us feel powerful. Oh, I do remember a dilemma about ‘feminist qualities’. Women wanted to claim ‘feminine’ qualities like gentleness, sympathy, caring, as female strengths, but also to acquire ‘masculine’ ones like ambition, physical courage, ‘objectivity’. The two sets of virtues seemed at odds. That they would be at odds seems so old-fashioned, now.
Many of us were involved with other local movements. There was a constant ferment of activity, much of it spontaneous and experimental. Local door-to-door activity around the National Abortion Campaign. Support groups for women’s refuges. Anti-racist groups. The Black Parents Movement. The Haringey Free Press. A Claimants Union (we – sometimes officiously! – advocated for individual claimants at the local unemployment office). The Tottenham Free School (a brief existence) where, I seem to remember, children made paintings all day.
There was whirlwind energy about all this. We talked incessantIy, to each other and anyone else who was around. We read voraciously. What we did was informed in a very immediate way by the theories that were developing. We felt we could immediately put these into practice, and that the world was ours to transform. You just had to get on and do it. For example, dirty or boring work should obviously be shared throughout society. So share it!
Oh, Reclaim the Night. Reclaim the Night in Finsbury Park (then quite a scary area) was wonderful. Roaming the streets in a female gang, in exotic clothing, especially headgear. Tiaras, flowers, ‘ethnic’ gear of various kinds, including a horned Viking helmet.