Disabled expertise and feminist activism in 1980s Britain

Disabled women were an active, but largely overlooked, presence within struggles for disability, gender, and LGBTQ+ equality in late-twentieth-century Britain. Despite their importance to these campaigns, little attention has been paid to the specific characteristics of their organising and the scope and variation in what it set out to achieve. This article begins to address this by examining the purpose, methods, and impact of disabled women’s organising during the 1980s. It discusses the ingenuity with which they used three methods of feminist activism, and how this enabled them to establish and assert expertise both within and beyond their immediate communities. This article provides the first historical analysis of how disabled women articulated personal and political expertise to champion self-determination and advocate for rights. In doing so, it makes a significant contribution to a growing body of scholarship that is beginning to diversify and expand histories of activism in modern Britain.