After the protest: biographical consequences of movement activism in an oral history of women’s liberation in Britain

Oral history’s slow-burning, intimate interview method is uniquely placed to reveal the entwining of social protest with the changing structure of women’s life courses, elucidating the often unexpected biographical consequences of activism. This article explores these consequences in Sisterhood and After: The Women’s Liberation Oral History Project which recorded the life stories of core activists in United Kingdom movements from the late 1960s through to the 1980s. I argue that such accounts are valuable in a different way from evidence of more obvious political activity. They reveal the impact on the many individuals who become life-long activists, and contribute to cultural memories that show how gender relations can be different and fairer. In this respect, oral history can be part of a process of feminist cultural influence that goes beyond the more measurable aspects of campaigns.