Feminists and Flourbombs

The protesters

Sally Alexander

Sally Alexander is a professor of modern history at Goldsmith's College, University of London.

She grew up in Sonning-on-Thames, outside Reading in Berkshire. A rebellious and argumentative young woman, she loved her parents very much, but did not want to live the kind of life that they did.

Sally's involvement in the Women's Liberation movement led her to explore related political ideas — she read through all four volumes of Karl Marx's Das Kapital — but that political discovery was also personal. 'Changing everyday life was part of the political philosophy of the women's movement,' she says. 'It was a very important part of our thinking that we should share childcare and domestic work.'

Mair Davies

An artist from Wales, Mair Davies now lives in London with her second husband, Brian. She has one daughter from her previous marriage.

Mair became involved in the Miss World protest after hearing about it on the radio. 'They were saying that they were against inequality for women, and I thought — I feel like that,' she says.

Although Mair did not class herself as a feminist then, and does not today, she felt at the time that she was not getting a fair deal in her work.

Many of her paintings feature female figures. 'The feminine is always under threat,' she says. In one work, she puts the female figure — herself — in the fridge, 'to keep it from deteriorating or disappearing altogether'.

Jenny Fortune

Jenny Fortune is an architect who lives with her daughter Maya in a semi-collective household.

Jenny's relationship with her mother was a key factor in shaping her feminist ideals. She was, for a while, 'utterly opposed' to her mother's values and lifestyle. After her parents separated, Jenny went to university in London, but dropped out shortly after the Miss World protest, 'because revolution and politics was a lot more exciting than doing Spanish'.

In the early 1970s she lived in a commune — a lifestyle she has continued to embrace. As a direct result of her involvement in the women's movement, Jenny became an architect: she developed an idea for a kind of housing that would break down the isolation of single parents by placing four individual flats around a communal living area.

Jo Robinson

Jo Robinson is an art teacher. She has one son, Sam, and lives alone in London.

Jo was a key figure in the 1970 protest: it was she who sprayed a bouncer with blue ink from a water pistol. She lived in the same commune as Jenny Fortune in the early 1970s, an experience she describes as 'harsh, like year zero'.

Jo's mother died when she was still a teenager and she came to London, bereft. It was then that she became involved in the Women's Liberation movement. 'I was very into blaming myself,' she said. 'People were saying: "It's the system that's at fault," and I latched on to that.'

Jan Williams

Jan Williams is a physiotherapist who lives alone in Brighton. She is divorced, and has two daughters, both of whom are now married.

Jan became involved in the Women's Liberation movement by way of the Peckham Rye One O'Clock Club, which had nothing to do with feminism: it was simply a group where women with young children could meet. Before long, however, politics became part of the women's group. Jan was one of the women who spoke at the first National Women's Liberation Conference in 1970. She, and others, demanded recognition for women's unpaid labour as housewives.

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A life-changing event

The 1970s

Then and now

Miss World

The protesters

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