M/F (journal)

m/f a feminist journal was a British feminist periodical published from 1978 until 1986. The journal published theoretical and political reviews, discussions, and articles about the Women’s Movement, particularly in relation to socialist and feminist politics.
Background and Content
Following the “Patriarchy Conference” in London in May 1976, some individuals, who would later become a part of the m/f’s editorial group, felt the need to provide a space for theoretical debates and discussions within the Women’s Movement. Its earliest editors included Parveen Adams, Rosalind Coward and Elizabeth Cowie. They were later joined by Beverley Brown.
The journal’s title has primarily been understood to mean masculine/feminine. However, it has also been questioned if m/f stands for Marxism/Feminism or Mother/Father. Some readers have also speculated that the title is a coded reference to Michael Foucault.
The journal took multidisciplinary approaches and various perspectives: legal, social, psychoanalytical, economic as well as artistic. m/f primarily aligned itself with feminist socialism while also recognizing the limitations and risks of essentialism. Publishing a total of twelve issues, m/f was an academically dense project that explored the complexity of the theoretical and political considerations of women. Though short-lived, many scholars and readers have regarded the contributions of m/f in feminist discourse, both its successes and shortcomings.
In 1990 MIT Press published The Woman In Question (), described as "some of the most memorable and important essays and editorials from m/f, the British journal that staked out new directions for feminist theory and politics from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s".

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