Vegan Feminism Then and Now: Women's Resistance to Legalised Speciesism across Three Waves of Activism

The centuries-old campaign to liberate other animals has been buoyed by the ingenuity of several generations of dedicated women, often with explicit recognition that women and other animals share many interlocking injustices. With nonhuman animals used and abused in a variety of completely legal institutions and nonhumans themselves rendered legal property, many of the women advocating on their behalf necessarily interrogated the legality of speciesism through extra-institutional protest. At times, activists intentionally flouted the criminal justice system, developing tactics that disrupted the peace, interfered with industrial practices, inflamed civic tensions, antagonised police officers and invited arrest. This chapter will examine the history of women’s activism in solidarity with other animals by spotlighting the efforts of three women across the three waves of vegan feminism in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States: Irish nationalist Charlotte Despard, who led one of Britain’s largest protests against vivisection up to that date; Australian founder of Animal Liberation Victoria, Patty Mark, who developed the popular tactic of open rescue; and Korean American charity organiser and restauranteur, Sarah K. Woodcock (now Kistle), who advanced intersectionality theory and praxis through her alliance with Black Lives Matter and food justice movements.