Our archive exists thanks to the foresight of some feminists in the early Women’s Liberation Movement. They realised the need to preserve the history of the campaigns and struggles they were involved in and started collecting materials. That early collection was based in the south-west of the UK, but in the early 1980s some documents were moved north to Bradford.
Feminist Archive became a registered charity in 1981, having two branches: Feminist Archive North (FAN) in Bradford, and Feminist Archive South (FAS) in Bristol. FAN later moved to Leeds, ending up with a home in the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds, whose support we gratefully acknowledge. The archive is run entirely by volunteers.
The Women’s Liberation Movement has been a major factor in social change, from the groups and demonstrations of the 1970s to the activist policy work of the 1980s and 1990s. In our collections you can find out where ideas began, how feminist politics were put into practice, and how they can inform feminist activism today.
FAN’s collections have come from individuals, campaigns and organisations. They range in size from very large (100+ boxes) to a single folder. Together, they tell the story of how women came together from the late 1960s and started to organise for women’s liberation. They did this through activism, through setting up organisations and through influencing policy: these different strands are reflected in the collections we hold.
