Conference | Left-Wing Women’s Organizing and Activism in the Twentieth Century

We are pleased to announce a call for papers for an upcoming conference titled “Left-Wing Women’s Organizing and Activism in the Twentieth Century.” This conference seeks to bring together scholars from different disciplines working on various aspects of the history of women’s activism and organizing. It aims to explore how women across the spectrum of left-wing politics shaped and influenced the twentieth century’s political, social, and cultural landscapes. The conference aspires to assess the contribution of left-wing women’s activists to the general struggle for women’s emancipation using intersectional, postcolonial, and critical-feminist approaches, acknowledging the pluralities in forms and methods of organizing.

The twentieth century witnessed a surge of diverse forms of women’s activism and the proliferation of women’s organizations on both national and international levels. Consequently, women fought against multiple forms of oppression and for various, yet interconnected, causes across different contexts. Influenced by significant historical moments such as WWI, the fall of empires, the emergence of nation-states, and the success of the October Revolution, women relied on the frameworks of fast-developing left-wing politics to fight for different forms of emancipation. This same framework allowed them to organize within anticolonial and anti-imperial movements and to engage in black liberation struggles later in the century. In this way, they moved across the political spectrum of left-wing politics, which we hope to explore during this conference.

Despite the notable engagement of women activists across the globe, the historiography of twentieth-century left-wing politics has been notably androcentric, often neglecting the significant contributions women made. For decades, studies on left-wing women’s activism in the twentieth century remained limited, often sidelined by Cold War historiography. Furthermore, dismissive attitudes towards left-wing women activists persisted, excluding them from the narratives on the waves of feminism and feminist practices. However, historians have begun to challenge this perspective, striving to illuminate the efforts of women activists within left-wing politics. This conference joins them in this endeavor, fostering discussions on the varied currents and practices of left-wing women’s activism.

We encourage prospective participants from various disciplines to submit paper proposals that will tackle twentieth-century left-wing women’s struggles, ideas, and activism through a broad perspective focusing on intersectionality rather than exclusively on gender. Moreover, we strive to go beyond the discussion of the “unhappy marriage of Marxism and feminism” or the “feminist-communist debate.” We advocate exploring different forms and frameworks of women’s activism, collaboration, and/or antagonism. We propose exploring continuities and discontinuities within left-wing currents throughout the twentieth century. Lastly, we urge moving away from Western-centric perspectives, looking into the broader history of women’s activism.