Feminism, culture and women's lives in Britain, c.1945-c.2015

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This Fellowship will provide a major study of the relationship between feminism (broadly defined as the aim for equality between women and men) and non-activist women in Britain since 1945. Existing studies of feminism focus on activists. This research examines how feminism affected women outside activist networks. But it goes further than this, by revealing the importance of these women in constituting and developing feminism. My work will offer a new understanding of the relationship between cultural and political action. It will highlight the importance of the cultural sector as a locus where gender roles were challenged and feminist networks established. This is a conclusion I developed in earlier research on Spare Rib magazine and on cultural participation in Manchester. Since then, as co-Director of Oxford's Women in Humanities (WiH) research centre, I have led interdisciplinary networks on women's cultural production and on their political participation. These highlight theatre as a neglected but important nexus that involves amateur and professional writers and performers; viewers, including those of productions adapted for TV or film; and readers, including schoolchildren studying set texts. Advancing on this, my proposed Fellowship will use a case study of the playwright and screenwriter Shelagh Delaney (1938-2012) to examine how women of her generation challenged socio-cultural norms outside activist networks, and specifically within the cultural sector. Analysing the relationship between cultural and political change will develop my intellectual research leadership in modern history and enhance my contribution to interdisciplinary debates.Building on my first two books, which provided an overview of women's lives across the twentieth century, this Fellowship will use a biographical lens to scrutinize the personal motivations and experiences that provoked women's public actions. I will focus on a pioneering generation of women, those born between c.1935 and 1950. They were the first for whom combining work, family life, sexual and emotional fulfillment was an apparently realizable goal. This research challenges scholarly assumptions that feminism emerged, or was rediscovered, in the 1970s. It questions the existing chronological frameworks of studies of feminism, which suggest that feminism was a series of 'waves' of activism, each of which was generationally specific. My focus on non-activist women demonstrates significant chronological continuities since the early 1960s, the importance of cross-generational relationships, and the importance of cultural participation (both for practitioners and spectators) in shaping political change.My research will be communicated through outputs devised to foster dialogue between academic and non-academic users. These include a major book aimed at academic and non-academic audiences, a theatrical performance, an international symposium bringing together scholars, practitioners and activists, and a radio docudrama written in collaboration with a professional writer. In-depth life history interviews with cultural practitioners and spectators will enrich and inform scholarship. Methodologically, the Fellowship will be informed by a groundbreaking collaboration with the cultural and public sectors. Its findings will be informed by, and some preliminary results communicated through, a major theatrical production undertaken with a professional writer, a community theatre company, a social housing provider and its tenants, and theatre audiences. This will generate new knowledge about the influence that cultural participation has on the creation and dissemination of feminist ideas. Building on my existing experience of fostering interdisciplinary debate within Oxford, this Fellowship will develop my leadership by enabling me to create collaborative partnerships between scholars, cultural practitioners and groups with low rates of educational and cultural participation.