Women's Liberation Movement Project

The Women’s Liberation Movement in Edinburgh: Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1974 Women’s Liberation Conference
In June 1974, the sixth National Women’s Liberation Conference was held in Edinburgh at James Gillespie’s High School. In celebration of the conference’s 50-year anniversary, GENDER.ED and the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) are partnering with Women’s History Scotland (WHS) and James Gillespie’s High School to organise a series of public engagement events and blog posts on the history of the 1974 conference and its relevance for feminist activism today. The project involves collecting memories of the event and situating them within wider historical and contemporary contexts; and to connect past with present and future campaigns.
The conference led to the adoption of the fifth and sixth demands of the Women’s Liberation Movement: for legal and financial independence for all women; and the right to a self-defined sexuality. With these additions, the demands of the movement were as follows:
- Equal pay
- Equal educational and job opportunities
- Free contraception and abortion on demand
- Free 24-hour nurseries
- Legal and Financial Independence for All Women
- The Right to a Self-Defined Sexuality.
- Freedom for all women from intimidation by the threat or use of violence or sexual coercion regardless of marital status; and an end to the laws, assumptions and institutions which perpetuate male dominance and aggression to women. (Added at the 1978 Birmingham Conference)
Events:
Workshop with James Gillespie’s High School Ppupils
Reception Event and Panel Discussion
Planned Outputs from the project include blog posts co-published by GENDER.ED and WHS on archival materials, memories and recollections pertaining to the 1974 conference, and on wider historical contexts, especially regarding legal and financial independence; graphic novel/web-comic on events from the original conference as well as the 2024 commemorative events; online showcase on new scholarship around women’s liberation; WHS work placements; coverage in the GENDER.ED and WHS newsletters.
Blog Posts:
Women’s Liberation 50 Years On: demanding legal and financial independence by Louise Jackson