Feminist history. The question of whether young feminists today feel they have a connection with previous feminist movements has been raised recently by both academics and activists as events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the suffragettes have taken place over the last two years and the current upsurge of feminist activism has intensified. The idea that exploring women’s and feminist history provides a useful methodological tool for telling one’s own story and that of other women has been at the heart of a number of recent events. These include: the discussions which took place at the learning exchange days of the Feminist Activist Forum, in July 2012, on trans and intersex issues and their relationship with feminism from an intergenerational perspective; and the Sisterhood and After conference ‘In conversation with the Women’s Liberation Movement: intergenerational histories of second wave feminism’ which was held at the British Library in October 2013 and which posed questions about the issues and forms of activism linking feminists today with 1960s and 1970s feminism. As noted above, young feminists’ conscious decision to claim an unambiguous feminist identity indicates a willingness to be linked to previous feminist generations and a respect for their achievements. In addition they construct a feminist identity by using the language that feminists used in the 1960s and 1970s; they talk about sexism, patriarchy, women’s oppression and so on. There are of course new elements to current feminist identities among which are the awareness of how sexism interacts with other forms of oppression or discrimination like racism and poverty. Overall, however, the history of feminism that these young women relate to enables them to create a collective feminist identity.
