David - Reclaiming feminism: challenging everyday misogyny

To all my children and grandchildren and future generations in the hope that they will continue to strive for a more socially and sexually just world

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by

Policy Press University of Bristol 1-9 Old Park Hill Bristol BS2 8BB UK Tel +44 (0)117 954 5940 e-mail

North American office: Policy Press c/o The University of Chicago Press 1427 East 60th Street Chicago, IL 60637, USA t: +1 773 702 7700 f: +1 773-702-9756 e:

Miriam E. David 2016

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ISBN 978 1 44732 817 9 paperback
ISBN 978 1 44732 819 3 ePub
ISBN 978 1 44732 820 9 Mobi

The right of Miriam E. David to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Miriam David, known to family and close, older friends as Miki, has been a feminist and activist throughout her adult life. As an academic, she has worked in several universities and institutions of higher education in the UK, and on occasion, in North America. She is now professor emerita of sociology of education at University College London Institute of Education. She has a worldwide reputation for her research and scholarship on education, family, feminism, gender and social policy. She has published numerous papers and books, including most recently Feminism, gender and universities: Politics, passion and pedagogies (Ashgate, 2014). Together with colleagues in the USA, she is editing the Sage International Encyclopaedia of Higher Education to be published in 2018. She remains involved in campaigning for social and sexual justice, nowadays through the Feminist Forum - Seventies Sisters and as chair of the trustees of the Womens Therapy Centre in London.

Many friends and family have helped me with the preparation of this manuscript. I am immensely grateful for all your friendship and support. I hope that I have portrayed your insights, views and values appropriately. I am also very grateful to Alison Shaw of Policy Press for believing in me and bringing this book to fruition.

In particular, there are colleagues and friends with whom I have collaborated on various research and book projects. Many contributed to my recent studies of feminism and womens studies in academe, and to the European Union-funded project on challenging gender-related violence for children and young people.

I should particularly like to thank those women who talked to, or wrote to, me for these studies.

They include all my dear friends from the Bristol Womens Studies Group (BWSG) and others in and around Bristol at the time, namely Sandra Acker, Alison Assiter, Liz Bird, Avtar Brah, Sarah Braun, Claire Callender, Davina Cooper, Sara Delamont, Carol Dyhouse, Mary Fuller, Naomi Fulop, Jane Gaskell, Helen Haste, Maggie Humm, Tessa Joseph, Hilary Land, Ruth Levitas, Ellen Malos, Caroline New, Marilyn Porter, Teresa Rees, Sheila Riddell, Susie Skevington, Helen Taylor, Linda Ward, Jackie West, Fiona Williams, Lyn Yates.

I should also like to thank friends and colleagues in London and abroad from my numerous feminist international networks including Pam Alldred, Madeleine Arnot, Barbara Biglia, Jill Blackmore, Mimi Bloch, Penny-Jane Burke, Pam Calder, Kelly Coate, Fiona Cullen, Vaneeta DAndrea, Rosemary Deem, Rosalind Edwards, Debbie Epstein, Sharon Gewirtz, Dulcie Groves, Gigi Guizzo, Val Hey, Carolyn Jackson, Ileana Jimenez, Heather Joshi, Jane Kenway, Terri Kim, Annette Lawson, Gail Lewis, Ruth Lister, Wendy Luttrell, Frinde Maher, Jane Martin, Sue Middleton, Heidi Mirza, Louise Morley, Gemma Moss, Diane Reay, Emma Renold, Jessica Ringrose, Sasha Roseneil, Maxine Seller, Bev Skeggs, Corinne Squires, Mary Stiasny, Kathleen Weiler, Gaby Weiner, Lois Weis, Elizabeth Wilson, Nira Yuval-Davis.

More recently my U3A group on Women and Wisdom, my Knit and Natter sisters, and the London Seventies Sisters and Feminist Forum, including Gail Chester, Irena Fink, and Amanda Sebestyen, have been important sources of on-going support. Other more recent important feminist friendly colleagues include Melissa Benn, Leslie Gardner, Chloe Stallibrass and Gill Yudkin.

As I was putting the finishing touches to the manuscript I learnt of the appointment of another dear feminist friend - Becky Francis as my boss or Director of UCL IOE. This makes the future prospects for feminism in higher education much less gloomy.

Finally, I would like to thank my family for all the support and practical help you give me as well as the fun times we have: Jeff [Duckett] for thinking with me about our ageing, Charlotte [Reiner] and David [Hershman] for allowing me to share in the care of your delightful Jacob, and Toby [Reiner], Meg [Winchester] and Matt [Duckett] for supplying me with political critiques and nous from the US.

The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission to reproduce excerpts from the following publications: What should we tell our daughters? by Melissa Benn ( Melissa Benn, 2013; published by John Murray Press); and A Womens Liberation Movement woman by Judith Viorst ( Judith Viorst, 1970; published by A.M. Heath & Co Ltd).

It is important to note that the waves of feminism are not separate and necessarily different but may be distinctive in responding to the wider sociopolitical and economic contexts.

First wave (19th/early 20th centuries): struggles for womens suffrage

Second wave (1960s-80s): civil rights, womens rights and the era of social democracy

Third wave (1980s-90s): the era of diversity and globalising feminisms

Fourth/fifth wave (21st century): feminisms in a digital era with millennials, the selfie generation and the rise of everyday sexism

This book is a feminist memoir about political activism and scholarship over the last 50 years to enable us to reclaim feminism, given its resurgence in endangered neoliberal public spaces. Quite clearly, we women now have a place in politics, public life, in education, higher education, employment, and in personal family life, including in sexual and social relationships.

Just five decades ago, feminism was barely on the public agenda. Today, by contrast, we see feminism in countless media, public and political places, although as women, we are still treated as other and different from men, especially those in power. There has been an increase in patriarchy, sexism and misogyny in various media, particularly with the rise in social media the selfie generation within a sharply competitive global economy. So what have been the obstacles to and opportunities for change, which have led to the resurgence of feminism in the 21st century? In this book, I argue about the importance of feminism to womens lives, even if equality, respect, fairness and social justice for women remain a distant prospect. Despite the everyday misogyny experienced by women, we feel empowered by feminism.