‘Feminists need to push back’: how did the women’s movement become so divided – and how can it reunite?

Rebuilding Sisterhood: Can the Women’s Movement Heal Its Divisions?

Wanderstayfinder.com – The women’s movement stands at a crossroads. What was once characterized by broad solidarity now faces deep fractures that leave many activists feeling exhausted and uncertain. Yet beneath the surface of public disagreements, quiet work continues to rebuild connections between women across different backgrounds and causes.

A Moment of Hope at Yarl’s Wood

On a particular June morning in 2015, hundreds of women gathered outside Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre near Bedford. Inside the facility, detained women sang together while graffiti on the walls declared “Set her free” and “Shut it down.” This gathering felt different from previous visits—less despairing, more hopeful.

The crowd included refugees, campaigners, lawyers, members of parliament, actors, and writers, all united in demanding freedom for women locked inside. This moment reflected something larger: a period when feminist confidence in the UK was part of a worldwide phenomenon. Women across the globe were building new connections and making demands for change.

During the 2010s, protests erupted over abortion rights in Ireland, the right to drive in Saudi Arabia, digital sex crimes in South Korea, and sexual violence and femicide in India, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, and Turkey. While not perfect, this era carried a brightness about feminist work—a sense that connections could be forged and changes made.

The Weight of Division

Today, however, division appears everywhere in women’s movements. Historically, disagreements have always existed between suffragists and suffragettes, colonisers and the colonised, working-class and middle-class women, and those with opposing views on pornography. But recent fractures feel particularly depleting.

A Black woman in her sixties who co-founded an organisation for migrant female survivors of violence recently expressed this sentiment to me: “We’ve lost our way. There used to be a vision that brought women together. It wasn’t just about personal advancement or separate communities. I don’t know if that still exists.”

What troubles many is how casually feminists sometimes dismiss the struggles of women unlike themselves. This dismissal emerges from all sides of polarised debates. On the left, questions arise about why some should empathise with Ann Widdecombe facing her attacker in her kitchen. On the right, concerns emerge about why attention should extend to women fleeing oppression globally.

Further challenges include opening hearts to both Palestinian and Israeli women targeted by armed men, and taking seriously the experiences of girls abused by grooming gangs alongside women beaten by men protesting outside asylum hotels.

Online Outrage and Offline Alliance-Building

Social media bears significant responsibility for widening divisions. Feminists, like everyone else, discover that anger receives more rewards online. Intransigence generates greater attention, more clicks, and additional followers. Debates surrounding transgender women’s place in feminism grew particularly wounding due to social media’s outrage spiral.

Once women sparred within this polarised digital environment, reuniting for campaigns—even for crucial objectives—became increasingly difficult. Nevertheless, offline alliance-building persists. These connections may lack immediate visibility to outside observers, but they continue growing steadily.

“We’ve lost the ‘village’. Women are lonely. That’s what we’ve heard over and over again. We need to rebuild the spaces in which women can come together.”

Jessie Brinton, a former journalist, founded Mothership, a project bringing women across Britain together for in-person “kitchen table conversations” about what matters most to them. She observes a profound hunger among women simply to meet and talk with one another.

Looking Forward

The path toward reunion requires acknowledging both the validity of different perspectives and the shared foundation of women’s experiences. It demands moving beyond performative disagreement toward genuine understanding. The work continues brick by brick, conversation by conversation, in spaces both digital and physical.

As one activist noted, the goal isn’t uniformity but rather creating conditions where diverse women can find common ground while honouring their distinct experiences. The women’s movement’s future depends on this balance—between holding firm to principles and remaining open to connection.