Anarcha‑Feminism: The history of an underground current

Anarcha‑Feminism: The History of an Underground Current

Although anarchism—as a political philosophy critical of power—developed a reflection on the family as an authoritarian structure, the relationship between anarchists and feminist movements has historically been far from straightforward. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, anarchist women activists were reluctant to identify as feminists, notably because, as anarchists, they rejected the issue of suffrage rights. Their distance from the label feminist contributed to obscuring in historiography this distinctive conception of women’s emancipation, even though it remained alive throughout the 20th century.

It was only in the late 1970s that, drawing on the legacy of historical anarchists and in dialogue with the feminist movements of the time, a current emerged that adopted the name anarcho‑feminism, later anarcha‑feminism. The objective of this ongoing research is therefore twofold: first, to trace the genealogy of this current of thought, which offers a specific approach to women’s emancipation; and second, by questioning the widespread idea of a “natural anarchism” within women’s liberation movements, to highlight the influence of anarcha‑feminism on feminist theories and practices.

Guest Speaker: Sidonie Verhaeghe
Sidonie Verhaeghe is a Lecturer (maîtresse de conférences) in political science at the University of Lille. A socio‑historian of anarchist and feminist ideas, she is notably the author of Vive Louise Michel! Célébrité et postérité d’une figure anarchiste (Éditions du Croquant, 2021), based on her doctoral dissertation defended in 2016. Her current research focuses on tracing how the anarcha‑feminist perspective took shape within the history of French‑language anarchism.