Cynthia Kay Cockburn (née Ellis; 24 July 1934 – 12 September 2019) was a British academic, feminist, and peace activist.

Early life

Cynthia Kay Ellis was born in Barrow upon Soar, a village in rural Leicestershire, to father Shirley Ellis and mother Constance (née King). She attended Malvern St James Girls School.

Career

Cockburn was a researcher in the fields of gender, war and peace-making, labour processes and trade unionism, and refugees. She was active in the international women's peace movement. Cockburn was a visiting professor in the Department of Sociology at

City University London City, University of London was a public university from 1966 to 2024 in London, England. It merged with St George's, University of London to form City St George's, University of London in August 2024. The names "City, University of London" and ...

and honorary professor in the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender at the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

. An active antimilitarist, she was involved in a number of peace and

anti-war An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conf ...

organisations. She visited the

Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp was a series of protest camps established to protest against nuclear weapons being placed at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. The camp began on 5 September 1981 after a Welsh group, Women for Life ...

between 1981 and 2000. In 1981, she was part of a group of women who founded Women Against War in the Gulf, and in response to the Bosnian Yugoslav wars, the group evolved to become Women Against War Crime. From 1993, they began calling the group Women in Black in support of other international

peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world pe ...

efforts, specifically those taking place in Israel, Italy, and Yugoslavia. She was also involved with ''Women Against Fundamentalism'', the ''European Forum of Socialist Feminists'', and was a member of the '' Women's International League for Peace & Freedom''. As both an academic and activist, Cockburn presented talks at a number of conferences. In May 2017, she was honoured at the Gender and Peace Conference in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, and presented the keynote address. Cockburn was selected to be featured in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

project, 'Sisterhood and After', an oral history archive of feminists active in the 1970–1980s. On 14 October 2017, the journal ''

Feminist Review ''Feminist Review'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal with a focus on exploring gender in its multiple forms and interrelationships. The journal was established in 1979. It is published by SAGE Publishing and is edited by a collective. ...

'' celebrated Cockburn's contribution to feminist scholarship by co-hosting an event with the

SOAS The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

Centre for Gender Studies and provided free access to a number of her published articles. Cockburn was widely published in academic journals, including in ''

,'' '' Gender & Development,' Journal of Classical Sociology'', '' Peace in Process.'' She also wrote for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', '' Red Pepper'', '' Peace News'', IndyMedia UK, and

OpenDemocracy openDemocracy is an independent media platform and news website based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2001, openDemocracy states that through reporting and analysis of social and political issues, they seek to "challenge power and encourage d ...

Publications

Cockburn published a number of academic books including: * ''The Local State: Management of Cities and People'' (1977, Pluto Press) * ''In and Against the State'' (1981, Pluto Press) * ''Brothers: Male Dominance and Technical Change'' (1983, Pluto Press) * ''Machinery of Dominance: Women, Men and Technical Know-how'' (1985, Pluto Press) * ''Two-Track Training: Sex Inequalities and the Youth Training Scheme'' (1987, Macmillan) * ''In the Way of Women: Men's Resistance to Sex Equality in Organizations'' (1991, Macmillan) * ''Gender and Technology in the Making'' (1993, Sage Publications, with Susan Ormrod) * ''Bringing Technology Home: Gender and Technology in a Changing Europe'' (1994, Oxford University Press, with Ruza Furst-Dilic) * ''Women in the Europeanizing of Industrial Relations: A Study in Five Member States'' (1994, European Commission, with Maria Carmen Alemany Gomez, Myriam Bergamaschi, Hildegard Maria Nickel, and Chantal Rogerat) * ''The Space Between Us: Negotiating Gender and National Identities in Conflict'' (1998, Zed Books) * ''The Postwar Moment: Militaries, Masculinities and International Peacekeeping'' (2002, Lawrence and Wishar, with Dubravka Zarkov) * ''The Line: Women, Partition and the Gender Order in Cyprus'' (2004, Zed Books) * ''From Where We Stand: War, Women’s Activism and Feminist Analysis'' (2007, Zed Books) * ''Antimilitarism: Political and Gender Dynamics of Peace Movements'' (2012, Palgrave Macmillan) * ''Looking to London: Stories of War, Escape and Asylum'' (2017, Pluto Press) Publications by Cockburn have been translated into German, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Georgian, Bosnian, Serbo-Croat, Bulgarian, Greek, Spanish, Korean, and Catalan.

References

External links

Personal website

Women in Black - London
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cockburn, Cynthia 1934 births 2019 deaths Academics of the University of Warwick Academics of City, University of London Anti-militarism British anti-war activists British feminist writers British women's rights activists People from Barrow upon Soar

Early life

Career

Publications

References

Further reading

External links