The Business of Feminism

What happens when feminism and publishing meet? Women in London have been answering this question in exciting and important ways. London supports a remarkable community of feminist presses, now in its second decade. These presses-Virago, the Women's Press, Pandora, Sheba, and Onlywomen -offer a fascinating example of the of feminism, in all the suggestive meanings of this phrase. First, how did feminism get into the business of publishing in London? How does it function as a business? And will it manage to stay in business? To be more specific, how has London come to support this feminist publishing community, in the midst of a conservative political climate and a competitive publishing industry? After a brief description of each of London's five feminist presses, I'll begin to answer my own questions by situating this feminist community in two of its institutional contexts, academia and the mainstream publishing industry. I'll argue that, while the publishing world has afforded feminist presses a congenial and fruitful business niche, the threats of mainstream cooptation and corporate paternalism continue to hover, and institutional survival for these presses remains a challenge. Second, how does a successful feminist community go about its business? Is the business of radical politics in tune with the business of the marketplace-or, if we look closely, do we see that the political price of business success is too high? Here, I'll look at the internal dynamics of the feminist publishing community, focusing both on its exciting, diverse strengths, and on some underlying tensions within it. Why am I making the business of feminist publishing my business in this essay? What follows draws on a year of fulltime research, from mid-1986 to mid-1987, into feminist publishing in London. During this time, I worked part time for two feminist presses in London and interviewed feminist presses elsewhere in the United Kingdom, in Ireland, and in Europe. In tackling the issues I've set out above, I'm aware that I have only one particular outsider's perspective on a complex situation. My aim throughout is to offer a sympathetic critique of these presses, showing what emerges when feminism puts itself in action, in writing, and in the money

Feminism · Media studies · Political science · Publishing · Sociology · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Irish and British Studies · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US

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