Media and the History of Feminisms

Since the nineteenth century, the emergence of mass media has run in parallel with the proliferation of movements for women's rights. Technological developments in printing, radio, film, and television enabled the growth of mass audiences across the twentieth century and gave women's rights activists important new outlets for their campaigns. Drawing on these new technologies, women activists have developed—and continue to develop—feminist counter-media and publications. Women have also engaged with the established mass media, whether as journalists reporting on women's issues or as readers.This volume examines the historical nexus between feminist activism and the growth and spread of the mass media from European and postcolonial perspectives. It explores the interconnections, contingencies, and relationships between the growth and intensification of media and the parallel spread of feminist politics and practices globally during the twentieth century. It asks how media have acted as a forum for mobilizing and politicizing issues of gender equality and justice, and considers the challenges of the relationships between feminists, feminisms, and media. Exploring these themes, the volume reflects on the function of modern media as tools for spreading knowledge that guides action, but also on the limits to the circulation of knowledge, and the consequences of these.