Theorising the Women’s Liberation Movement as Cultural Heritage

Recent interest in documenting and re-evaluating histories of the UK Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) has produced a number of significant and multifaceted appraisals of the movement. The vast majority have emerged from within feminist communities of interest wishing to preserve, organize and collect histories of the movement because they risk being forgotten. This article attempts to understand the contemporary recovery and dissemination of feminist legacies as examples of cultural heritage rather than ‘history’ per se. It examines how filtering historical information through the lens of heritage offers different tools for re-presentation as well as creating alternative social and cultural relationships with the legacies of the WLM. This article draws upon my practice as a curator and custodian of feminist histories and relevant theoretical literature. I argue utilizing heritage practices and theories can help articulate a politics of transmission essential for the longevity and sustainability of both feminist cultural heritage and feminist histories.