The object of this article is to analyse how feminist activists became the standard-bearers in the emergence of the issue of child abuse in Europe during the 1980s. While waging a widespread campaign against the rape of women, they came alive to the prevalence of sexual violence against children and managed to put this issue on the policymaking agenda. They did so by launching a wide range of political campaigns and by working hand in hand with professionals in the field and women ministers. Furthermore, the crucial role played by feminist activists points up the link between voice (involving a specific definition of child sexual abuse as incest and evidence of patriarchal violence inside the family) and empowerment (the feminist monopoly on the emergence of the issue and on agenda-setting in the ’80s). This feminist reading didn’t last long, though, for – after “incest” – “paedophilia” was to emerge on the European political agendas ten years later.