Socialist Feminism, Reproductive Rights and Political Action

Abstract

The problem of translating political aims into effective political practice is of longstanding concern for political activists, including feminists. This article considers this problem for socialist feminist political activity around reproductive rights. It includes a consideration of the strategy of feminist alliances with socialist movements in political practice. It does so through a study of the Workers’ Birth Control Group in the 1920s and the National Abortion Campaign in the 1970s. Both these feminist organisations attempted the difficult task of taking feminist demands for bodily control into the labour movement. These two cases examine how far successful alliance with a reformist dominated labour movement was facilitated through the promotion of moderate—as opposed to radical—politics on reproductive rights, and, further, how far class and gender politics clashed in the process.