Women's Refuges in Britain and Northern Ireland, 1971-2010

Abstract

This thesis examines the movements to establish women’s refuges in Britain and Northern Ireland between 1971, when the first refuge opened in London, and 2010, when the arrival of the coalition government reformulated, once again, the political environment in which they operated. Emerging alongside the Women’s Liberation Movement and the Black feminist movement, refuges have previously been understood as feminist groups, and principally conceptualised through a narrative of decline: from radical origins in the 1970s towards de- politicisation in the 1990s and 2000s. Through four case studies and two survey chapters, this thesis provides an alternative interpretation. It highlights how, throughout their first four decades of operation, refuges in different parts of the UK brought together eclectic groups of activists, and varied ideas and methods, the character of which confounds any effort to separate them into neat categories of ‘feminist’ or ‘professional’ organising. Moreover, faced with shifting policy environments, these refuges developed their services to meet the evolving needs of victim-survivors. As such, the thesis argues that refuges are better understood as a form of women’s community activism, which united diverse personnel in the pursuit of more equal and peaceful societies. Redefining refuges in this way unsettles existing accounts of the decline of the refuge movements, the ‘professionalization’ of voluntary action, and the second and third ‘waves’ of feminism in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It offers, in their place, a history of endurance, adaptation, and renewal. Alongside this analysis, the thesis also examines how the ‘loss’ narrative came about through a process of movement building and collective memory formation. Across their first five decades of operation, refuges forged a foundation myth. They produced newsletters and annual reports, conferences, research, and oral history projects. Together, these activities constructed a narrative of depoliticisation, which made it harder for participants and those studying refuges to see continuities across the 1970s and 2000s. By delineating this process, the thesis offers an insight into how histories of women’s activism can become overdetermined by those involved. It also demonstrates an alternative approach, combining four nations analysis and a critical engagement with oral histories, documentary sources, and sociological interviews.