Demands and Recommendations

Written by Lou Brodie, MSc Applied Gender Studies

This is the third in our series of blog posts from students on the class ‘Feminisms: Continuity & Change’, inspired by their work at the Glasgow Women’s Library archive. Here Lou Brodie explores the continuities and shifts between the demands of the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970s and the recent recommendations of a government advisory body in Scotland.

I love an opportunity to attend events that are about making positive changes for women and girls. Which means I was very happy to be going along to the First Minister’s National Advisory Council on Women and Girls (NACWG) ‘circle event’ on the 30^th of January this year.

  

‘#GenerationEqual’, NACWG 9 April 2019: Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zncWBMpijds

 The council consists of 16 members, tasked with ‘playing a leading role in raising awareness of gender inequality in Scotland, to act as champions for positive progress and be a catalyst for change’. In order to reach out and gather as much feedback and expertise as possible the NACWG organise three circle events throughout the year. Other professional bodies and the wider populace are invited to come together, discuss and analyse the topics the council have chosen to focus on. This particular circle event on the 30th of January was to launch the 2018 First Report and Recommendations. The report itself is 24 pages long with pages 19 and 20 dedicated to laying out the NACWG recommendations to the First Minister.

Upon reading the recommendations, I was reminded immediately of the seven demands of the British Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) of the 1970s, worked out at various WLM conferences over a number of years:

1.  Equal Pay
2. Equal Educational and Job Opportunities
3. Free Contraception and Abortion on Demand
4.  Free 24-hour Nurseries[1]
5. Legal and Financial Independence for All Women
6.  The Right to a Self Defined Sexuality. An End to Discrimination Against Lesbians.[2]
7.  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.[3]

 

 ‘We Demand’, WLM Bolton, 1970: Feminist Archives North collection, hosted by the website Using Archives to Teach Gender, Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, University of Leeds, http://gender-archives.leeds.ac.uk/poster-we-demand/

With simple clarity, the seven demands set out what the WLM at the time believed necessary for women to be liberated. The resonances between the demands and the NACWG recommendations leads me to ask: where are we now and how far have we come? Moreover, what can we learn about our progress from the change in language between the two sets of claims?

‘Demand’ can be both a noun or a verb and is defined as follows by Google dictionary:

noun

o    an insistent and peremptory request, made as of right …

verb

1.      ask authoritatively or brusquely.

‘Recommendation’ is a noun defined, again by Google dictionary, as follows:

noun

1.      a suggestion or proposal as to the best course of action, especially one put forward by an authoritative body …

the action of recommending something or someone.

The two words at first seem oppositional to each other. My initial instinct is to see a loss between demand and recommendation – and to lament the lack of power in the latter. Demand is, at first look, more forceful, connoting a kinetic energy with action behind it and a fight to come. Recommendation is softer: it seems to contain an unspoken subplot with the opportunity to opt-out if the recommendation doesn’t quite suit.

However, an alternative reading is possible if we consider the five decades that has passed between the creation of these two documents. This passage of time has seen significant feminist work and the creation of a new political context. Most notably, a number of feminist organisations have emerged and become institutionalised. These organisations work not only at a grassroots level for the rights and needs of women and girls, but also within government and business. In addition, we have seen the continued progression of feminists within the academy. These individuals and organisations make up the circle that the NACWG call upon, bringing with them years of research, case studies, examples and new knowledge that inform the recommendations and build on the gains of the 1970s. So when I look at the difference between ‘demand’ and ‘recommend’, I also see the story of 49 years’ worth of work. Work that means the NACWG is the initiative of the First Minister. Rather than outsiders to power having to demand that government pays attention to and meets the needs of women and girls, political leaders like the First Minister are actively asking how they can make systemic change, in part by speaking to those in the wider feminist movement who are best placed to advise on that.

It’s not lost on me that this second reading of the two words has an air of romanticism about it. For that reason, it is important to interrogate the language choices here more fully, to see what is lost or gained. An example of a direct comparison that can be drawn between the seven demands and the NACWG recommendations comes in demand four: ‘Free 24-hour nurseries’ and the recommendation on page 20 of the NACWG report: ‘Provide 50 hours per week of funded, good quality and flexible education and childcare for all children between six and five years old’. In this instance, nuance and pragmatism come to the fore, but have we lost something when we look back at the equivalent demand? As the language becomes more practical and specific, does the feminist agenda become diluted?

Nonetheless, as the work of the advisory council grows over the next few years, I’m excited to see their future recommendations. What stories and heritage will the language hold within it, and what progress might it offer feminist activism for social change?

Who gets to tell women's stories on screen? See the previous post in this 2018-19 student series here. Or read the fourth and final twin blog post in the series, on rereading the past in the light of #MeToo

Notes

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[1] Demands 1-4 were passed at the National WLM Conference, Skegness 1971

[2] Demands 5-6 were passed at the National WLM Conference, Edinburgh 1974. In 1978, at the National WLM Conference, Birmingham, the first part of the sixth demand was split off and put as a preface to all seven demands

[3] Demand 7 was passed at the National WLM Conference, Birmingham 1978