Feminisms

An authoritative and original history of global feminism from an award-winning historian

How has feminism developed? What have feminists achieved? What can we learn from the global history of feminism?

Feminism is the ongoing story of a profound historical transformation. Despite being repeatedly written off as a political movement that has achieved its aim of female liberation, it has been continually redefined as new generations of women campaign against the gender inequity of their age.

In this absorbing book, historian Lucy Delap challenges the simplistic narrative of 'feminist waves' - a sequence of ever more progressive updates ­- showing instead that feminists have been motivated by the specific concerns of their historical moment. Drawing on an extraordinary range of examples from Japan to Russia, Egypt to Germany, Delap explores different feminist projects to show that those who are part of this movement have not always agreed on a single programme. This diverse history of feminism, she argues, can help us better navigate current debates and controversies.

A real tour de force from an award-winning expert, Feminisms shows that a rich relationship to the past can infuse today's activism with a sense of possibility and inspiration.

About the Author

Lucy Delap is a historian of modern Britain, working on gender history and the history of feminism. She is currently a reader at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Murray Edwards College. Her book The Feminist Avant-Garde won the 2008 Women's History Network Prize, while her research has been awarded the Royal Historical Society Public History Prize for public debate and policy.