This paper examines the Scottish independence referendum campaign and its aftermath in order to assess the role played by leftist and feminist ideas and identities. The nationalist dimensions of the independence struggle, under the rubric of the Scottish National Party, have received significant attention over the years; similarly, it has been widely remarked that the pre-referendum campaigns were gendered, in terms of their language and symbolism, the dominance of men, the targeting of women voters in response to the ‘gender gap’ in voting intentions, and the rise of women’s organisations, most notably Women for Independence on the Yes side. The question of in what ways and to what extent the campaigns were left-wing and/or feminist has received less attention. Drawing partly on interviews with members of Women for Independence, this paper sets out to make four arguments in this regard. First, that rival referendum campaigns were, to a significant degree, a battle of and for the left in Scotland. Second, that feminist ideas and identities were mobilised by the Yes campaign, if more unevenly, particularly by Women for Independence. Third, that it was specifically socialist-feminist ideas and identities that were mobilised and, fourth, that all this signalled the emergence of an inclusive political discourse in which the aspiration for national self-determination was contextualised in a range of aspirations for equality. In this way, feminist and left ideas and identities were brought together discursively, if not organisationally. The paper concludes by speculating on the future of this discursive fusion, and of feminist and left ideas and identities in Scotland, in the wake of the referendum and the defeat of the Yes campaign.
