UK Feminist Psychology: Lasting Legacies and Feminist Futures

INTRODUCTION

The history of feminist psychology in the UK is a fascinating one. It took substantial campaigning for feminist psychology to become established within professional Psychology. This wasn’t because there weren’t any feminists who wanted to—it was because they weren’t allowed!

Around this time, an intrepid group of UK-based feminists known as WIPS! (Women in Psychology) were working to establish a group similar to the U.S., Canadian, and Australian groups you can see in the timeline below:

These feminists were: Sue Wilkinson, Jan Burns, Paula Nicholson, Janet Sayers, Jane Ussher, Marilyn Aitkenhead, Linda Greenbury, Mat Idema, Sandra Oliver, Sheila Rossan and Alison Thomas.

In 1987, the group were finally given official status within the British Psychological Society (BPS), where they named themselves the Psychology of Women Section (POWS).

Photograph courtesy of POWES

Since then, POWS has changed its name to POWES (Psychology of Women and Equalities Section) to reflect its inclusive and wider equalities perspectives and commitments.

In countries such as Turkey, Spain, China, Brazil, India, Israel, and many others, no such formal homes or structures for feminist psychology exist... which is not to say there aren’t any feminist psychologists!

Photograph courtesy of POWES

In this exhibit, we will explore the history of UK-based feminist psychology including and beyond POWES. In doing so, we aim to protect the legacy of feminist psychology in the UK and ensure wider access to this history.

With this in mind, we now invite you to choose one of the following three pathways to explore further:

This exhibit is based on a project which involved collecting and curating material and documents relating to POWES, and conducting oral history interviews with 13 key UK feminist psychologists. These included:

The project was funded by the British Psychological Society, and was partially funded by the Open University. The project upon which this exhibit is based was conducted by Drs. Rose Capdevila, Katherine Hubbard, and Lois Donnelly.

Credits

Banner image courtesy of POWES team.

Annie Spratt [entrance door IMG]

Andrej Lišakov [activist preparing signs for a demonstration IMG]

Katarzyna Pypla [hand graffiti IMG]