IAS Gender and Feminism Network Seminar: Fifty Years After 'Women: The Longest Revolution'

Fifty years ago, in 1966, Juliet Mitchell published 'Women: the Longest Revolution' in the New Left Review. Ranging from Marx and Bebel to de Beauvoir and Millet, and critiquing both radical feminism and 'abstract' socialism for misunderstanding the causes of women's oppression, the text became one of the key works of socialist feminism of the '60s. Weaving together analysis of women's roles in production, reproduction, sexuality and the socialisation of children, the text was highly influential in both activist and scholarly arenas.

At this commemorative forum, Juliet Mitchell will speak on both the text and the context in which she wrote it, reflecting on fifty years of reception and (re)interpretation. This will be followed by the reflections of a number of fellow feminist scholars (Nina Power, Roehampton, Catherine Grant, Goldsmiths and Catherine Hall, UCL) who will reflect on what the work means to them today.

Professor Juliet Mitchell is a Professorial Research Associate and Founder Director of the MPhil/PhD Programme in Psychoanalytic Studies at UCL Psychoanalysis Unit. She is also the Founder Director of the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge, a Research Fellow at the Department of Human Geography, University of Cambridge and Fellow Emeritus of Jesus College, University of Cambridge. She is a Fellow of the British and International Psychoanalytical Societies and a Fellow of the British Academy.

Respondents:

• Dr Nina Power (Senior Lecturer, Department of Humanities, University of Roehampton)
• Dr Catherine Grant (Lecturer, Critical Studies, Department of Fine Art, Goldsmiths, University of London)
• Professor Catherine Hall (Chair Emerita, Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership, Department of History, UCL)