Political Not Generational: Getting Real About Contemporary UK Radical Feminism

Mackay, Finn

Abstract

© 2014 Taylor & Francis. In this article, I present data from qualitative research with 30 self-identified radical feminists who are currently active in the British feminist movement. I explore how participants defined their feminism, and threats to it – particularly challenges to organising women-only political space. I also focus on how participants related to the term third wave feminism, their definitions and critiques of this type of feminism as they perceived it. Many of the radical feminists in my research were keen to disassociate from the term ‘third wave’ and expressed an allegiance and connection to second-wave radical feminism, including those radical feminists too young to have any direct connection to that ‘wave’, being born too late to be politically active during the 1970s and 1980s.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2015
• Journal: Social Movement Studies
• Print ISSN: 1474-2837
• Electronic ISSN: 1474-2829
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 427-442
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2014.963545
• Keywords: feminism, lesbian, radical feminism, activism, third wave, young women
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/831587
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2014.963545