WLM quiz

Correct answer: Oxford

It was held at Ruskin College on 27 February to 1 March 1970, with 600 women attending. FAN’s audio-visual collection contains a short film about the conference called A Women’s Place.

Correct answer: Yellow Gate

Yellow Gate was also the last camp to close, in 2000. The camps were named after the colours of the rainbow – the Green Gate was the one that was women-only. Many collections in FAN contain materials relating to Greenham Common, including photographs, posters, leaflets, textiles, newsletters and press cuttings. Collections include Helen John, Judith Baron  and Marilyn Collins 

Correct answer: Andrea Dworkin

This is a quote from Dworkin’s article ‘Women-Hating Right and Left’ in The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism, eds Dorchen Leidhart and Janice G Raymond, 1990. Sadly we don’t have a copy at FAN but it’s available online at frauenkultur.co.uk

Correct answer: 1977

It took place on 12 November 1977 and was organised by the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group. The issue of male violence was very much at the forefront in Leeds, where serial killer Peter Sutcliffe murdered 13 women in the late 1970s. Women were furious at police advice that they (rather than men) should stay at home at night. FAN has a box of materials on Reclaim the Night in the Sandra McNeill collection, including a DVD of a 2001 film called Never Give Up which includes the Leeds march.

Correct answer: Equal pay

The first four demands were agreed at the national WLM conference in Skegness in 1971. The other three were equal education and job opportunities, free contraception and abortion on demand, and free 24-hour nurseries. It’s fair to say that over 50 years later not one of them has been achieved. Two further demands were agreed at the Edinburgh conference in 1974 and the final one at Birmingham in 1978. FAN holds an extensive collection of conference papers.

Correct answer: Section 28

They were protesting against the introduction of a new UK law to stop the ‘promotion of homosexuality’. Known as Section 28, it was eventually repealed in Scotland in 2000 and the rest of the UK in 2003. FAN holds a dissertation by Jean Carabine on media representations of campaigns against Section 28 and the Lena Milosovich/Jane Stageman collection has some materials

Correct answer: Buckingham Palace

Using ladders, 15 women from the Women’s Nuclear Test Ban Network scaled the walls of Buckingham Palace and walked in the grounds until they were arrested by police. They were protesting against British nuclear testing in Nevada, on land belonging to the Shoshone people. The Helen John collection has a box of documents relating to the action, including photographs, press cuttings, witness statements and personal accounts.

Correct answer: 1991

The Rape in Marriage Campaign started in 1981, but it wasn’t until a landmark judgment in 1991 that it became a criminal offence. A ruling by the House of Lords in the case of a man challenging his conviction of attempting to rape his wife said: “Nowadays, it cannot seriously be maintained that by marriage, a wife submits herself irrevocably to sexual intercourse in all circumstances.” Later, marital rape was explicitly included in the Sexual Offences Act 2003. There are some references to this case in the Sandra McNeill collection.

Correct answer: Shrew

Shrew was started by the London Women’s Liberation Workshop. The first issue was published in 1969, and each issue was produced by a different Women’s Liberation Workshop group. It closed in 1978. FAN holds a complete set of Shrew.

Sisterhood of Spit was a 1980s London-based women’s jazz big-band which brought together professional musicians such as Alison Rayner and Deidre Cartwright with non-professionals. They delighted audiences at many women’s benefit gigs. More information at womensliberationmusicarchive.co.uk