In our own words

In Our Own Words was an Oral History Project capturing the Early Days of Women’s Aid Federation of England (WAFE) 1974-1984

“I think that was the beginning…some of the more feminist groups thinking we need to create … a democratic organisation that is feminist and that doesn’t allow one person to head it up.”

Liz Kelly, Women’s Aid founding member

The Women’s Aid Federation of England is the national co-ordinating body for all local and domestic violence services, including refuges, in England. It provides information, training, and resources to these services as well as to other agencies. It monitors the experiences of and the provision for women and children suffering abuse. It lobbies, advocates, and campaigns both in England and abroad. Growing out of the Women’s Liberation Movement in 1974 the organisation moved in 20 years from being one which met with aggression from the police to one which was highly regarded for its knowledge and research.

WAFE was set up as a national United Kingdom federation to co-ordinate the refuges that had been established over the country. It was originally known as the National Women’s Aid Federation before separate organisations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were formed. WAFE was set up as a charity and was instrumental in lobbying for the 1976 Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act, and for having women and children at risk of domestic violence to count as homeless under the 1977 Housing Act. The organisation marked its 50th year in 2024.

Women’s Aid – the refuge movement – began in the UK in 1973 and then spread to other countries. It is clear that the Women’s Aid movement grew out of the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) and its aims and initial structure reflected the informal and non-hierarchical ethos of the WLM, with the individual refuges being autonomous. Over time, the refuges were professionalised to enable them to get much needed funding.

This project aimed to make accessible the history of Women’s Aid through the words of some of the women involved in the establishment and development of the Women’s Aid Federation. It made a series of recorded interviews with the women who played a key role in the development, setting up and running of the National Women’s Aid Federation (as WAFE was then known) to produce a lasting record of the women behind the Women’s Aid movement. It stretches from activists like Jalna Hanmer and Liz Kelly, through early workers like Jo Sutton and Jude Stoddart, to Nicola Harwin, who was National Co-ordinator from 1987 to 2012. These oral history interviews provide a lasting record of this history in their own words.

The interviews

These 12 interviews were carried out in 2022-2024, some in person and some online, as a Heritage Lottery funded project. The interviewers were Sandra McNeill (FAN trustee) and Sally Deane (FAN volunteer and former manager Women’s Aid Refuge Bradford). There is a further recording of Jalna Hanmer from a previous interview.