Sasha Roseneil: Disarming Patriarchy, Feminism and Political Action at Greenham

This event focuses on the achievements of the Women’s Peace Camp and associated network, its political, social and cultural impact and their legacy. 

The camp set out to publicise, and to combat, the installation and exercise of US nuclear cruise missiles at Greenham Common, using a repertoire of actions which were imaginative, theatrical, parodic, and non-violent.

The session will focus on the ethos of Greenham, its approach to organisation and strategy, and its modes of action. It will be introduced by Sasha Roseneil, author of Disarming Patriarchy: Feminism and Political Action at Greenham. Sasha first visited Greenham in 1982, and in 1984, aged 17, she went to live there, later carrying out research on Greenham for her PhD. 

This evening aims to embody feminist practice, welcoming and encouraging many voices, listening well, time and space for group discussion. It is led by Sabrina Fuller, and organised in dialogue with FDRG participants including Beth Bramich, Katrin Lock and Helena Reckitt. 

Disarming Patriarchy

We will read from Chapter 8 of Sasha Roseneil’s 1995 book Disarming Patriarchy: Feminism and Political Action at Greenham. This chapter focuses on the subjective and cognitive outcomes of feminist political action: how dominant modes of thinking and hegemonic gender roles can be transgressed and transformed in order to challenge patriarchy. 

There is no need to read in advance, as we read out loud, together, on the evening. 

Link to Reading

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17-X343GwYkPijUSLlRPgbELZr5KyqNxX/view?usp=sharing

Please bring a copy of the reading with you on the evening.

Sasha Roseneil

Sasha is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences and Professor of Interdisciplinary Social Science in the Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London. She is a sociologist and gender studies researcher, and a group analyst and psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Her research interests include how gender, sexuality, subjectivity and intimate life are changing, and on the role played by social movements and collective action in bringing about social, cultural and political change.

Feminist Duration 

This event is part of the Feminist Duration series which explores under-known texts, ideas, and movements associated with earlier periods of feminist activity in the UK. Part of a year-long residency at the South London Gallery, it juxtaposes earlier moments of feminist with current urgencies and struggles. 

By restoring material texture to overlooked political and cultural movements, it seeks to resist versions of the past that reduce feminist struggle to one-dimensional stereotypes. Looking to the past to activate its nascent potential, the programme aims to identify tools that can inspire and enrich further collective action, promoting the intergenerational exchange of knowledge and experience. While honouring earlier feminisms, the series also highlights how collaboration, difference, and dissent have characterised previous feminist movements, and how feminists have both negotiated, and failed to significantly attend to, differences between themselves.

Feminist Duration is generously supported by the CHASE Doctoral Training Partnership.