Historical scholarship on the women's liberation movement (WLM) across the UK is as yet underdeveloped. This article argues against the commonly held assumption that London socialistfeminist accounts speak for England as a whole. This article examines the history of the WLM in England as refracted through a range of different English urban localities, specifically Bristol, Brighton, Norwich, Bolton and Leeds/Bradford. It attempts to show the importance of local studies to appreciate the diversity of the English women's liberation movement. The movement had very many unifying characteristics, but how they played out across the country differed according to local contexts.

Women's liberation, also now known as 'second wave feminism', is commonly taken to be the upsurge in feminist activism and other feminist practices, agency and organisation in Europe, North America and many other developed countries between the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s. The economic and social context for the women's liberation movement (WLM) was post war affluence, rising living standards and increased educational opportunities. The WLM arose from, and was very much part of,

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