Left Feminisms: Conversations on the personal and political

This book brings together a decade of interviews with key feminist academics. Through sensitive and nuanced conversations, Jo Littler brings to life actions, arguments and solutions generated by diverse feminist thinkers on the left.

Beginning as an interview series for the journal Soundings, this collection has since grown into one of the most vibrant, interesting and accessible records of feminist theory and action in recent years. The conversations in Left Feminisms explore the complex relationships between the personal and the political. Academic and activist journeys of the interviewees are interwoven with analysis of social and cultural change and strategies for solidarity.

From discussions of the gendered dynamics of the far right in the US, to sexism and racism in UK academia, to organising against household debt in Argentina, the book offers a range of insights that traverse a broad spectrum of feminist politics in the twenty-first century. Including interviews with Nancy Fraser, Gargi Bhattacharyya, Sheila Rowbotham and Veronica Gago, this collection is an important archive in its own right. It will be indispensable to feminist activists, academics and anyone interested in the history and present of feminism on the left.

Contents

Introduction: Speaking of feminism

The fortunes of socialist feminism
Nancy Fraser

We do not have to be vicious, competitive, or managerial
Akwugo Emejulu

Every generation has to make its own women’s movement
Sheila Rowbotham

We want ourselves alive and debt free!
Verónica Gago

Where the fires are
Wendy Brown

Democracy in the making
Lynne Segal

Municipalism and feminism then and now
Hilary Wainwright

Gender, race, class, ecology and peace
Vron Ware

We haven’t got here just on our own. It’s a conversation
Carol Tulloch

Beyond anti-welfarism and feminist social media mud-slinging
Angela McRobbie

It’s not about academic life. That’s what I have to tell you
Gargi Bhattacharyya

Feminism is a project, not an identity
Sylvia Walby

We need to look at how we can build bridges and build solidarity
Finn Mackay

This is a collective history that belongs to all of us
Sophia Siddiqui

Acknowledgements