The Political Ecology of the ‘New’ Feminism in Late‐1990s Britain

Abstract

The 1990s were a vexed time for feminists in Britain. Cultural commentators declared that feminism's key battles had been won, and that given women's ascendency across various political and cultural barometers of success, the country was entering a newly ‘postfeminist’ era. At the same time, feminist groups identified sites of resurgence and growth in the wake of the fragmentation of the movement's ‘second wave’. Towards the end of the decade, momentum gathered around the concept of a ‘New Feminism’ – one that was popular, mainstream, focused on the material rather than the personal, and that was unshackled from feminism's recent past. This feminism, advanced by prominent advocates like 30‐year‐old Natasha Walter, reflected the rhetorical and policy posture of the New Labour government. Like New Labour, the ‘new feminism’ sought to chart a centrist route through the political waters and disavowed its radical history in service of what it hailed as a defiantly pragmatic future. This article interrogates the trajectory of the ‘new feminism’ in 1990s Britain, examining its place within wider feminist conversations, political discourses and positioning it in relation to growing anxieties about masculinity, men and boys.