‘Working in Between’: Women’s Aid and networks of anti-domestic abuse activism in the UK, 1971-1996

James Robertson, Charlotte Josephine (2024) ‘Working in Between’: Women’s Aid and networks of anti-domestic abuse activism in the UK, 1971-1996. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This thesis will explore how Women’s Aid and other forms of anti-domestic abuse activism have been established, expanded and maintained by feminist activists working in between a variety of networks from 1971 to 1996. In so doing, it will contribute to our understanding of the history of post-war feminist activism in the UK by providing an indepth case study of one of the most enduring activist projects to emerge from the WLM. Furthermore, it will contest some of the existing historiographical and popular narratives about the WLM. The idea that the WLM was London-centric will be challenged by examining the ways in which feminist activism was organised in the cities of Edinburgh, Leeds and Bristol. Moreover, focusing on the issue of domestic abuse and violence against women more broadly reveals the means by which feminist activist projects were maintained into the 1990s, complicating the idea that the WLM was in decline by 1978. Furthermore, this thesis will further our knowledge of the different levels on which the WLM operated by interrogating anti-domestic abuse networks from a local to an international scale. This is a significant contribution to this field of study, as previous scholarship about the WLM has often focused on specific localities or a more limited time period. By following the development of anti-domestic abuse activism, then, the present study is able to broaden our understanding of the scope and influence of feminist activism and how this was maintained in the long term. Beyond this, the WLM and Women’s Aid is positioned within a wider story of postwar activism in the UK whereby an overlapping milieux of social movements began to address issues of equality including those relating to gender, sexuality, race, social class, the environment and pacificism.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [grant number AH/R012717/01] and co-supervised at the University of Strathclyde.
• Subjects: D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain; H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform; H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > History
• Funder's Name: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
• Supervisor's Name: Abrams, Professor Lynn and Boyle, Professor Karen
• Date of Award: 2024
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2024-84323
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 16 May 2024 13:46
• Last Modified: 08 Jan 2026 11:14
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.84323
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/84323