Trans Feminism and the Women's Liberation Movement in Britain, c. 1970–1980

Abstract

The history of the British women's liberation movement (WLM) is a growing field of study, but it has had little to say about trans participants in the movement. Drawing on feminist and LGBT+ archives and interviews, this article argues that while trans acceptance in ‘women-only’ groups was not guaranteed during the period between 1970 and 1980, trans and cis feminists worked together to advance feminist positions on bodily autonomy and to develop critiques of medical authority. In doing so, this article demonstrates that it is ahistorical to approach trans rights and women's liberation as distinct from one another.