The winning entry of the 2012 competition was Katie Barclay’sLove, Intimacy and Power: Marriage and Patriarchy in Scotland, 1650-1850 (Manchester University Press, 2011). Congratulations to Katie for a book that the judges commend as ‘an important and original study’, ‘intellectually ambitious’, ‘impressive in its…
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Suffragettes and Tea Rooms
Even as late as 1911 a woman’s presence still caused consternation in some places of public refreshment. Kate Frye, staying in a hotel in a small Norfolk market town while organizing suffrage meetings, notes in her diary:
22 March 1911 ‘Had my lunch [in the hotel dining room] in company with four motorists. It is funny the way men come in here and, seeing me, shoot out again and I hear whispered conversations outside on the landing with the waitress. Then they come in very subdued and make conversation one to another and try not to look at me. Awfully funny – they might never have seen a woman before – but I suppose it does seem a strange place to find one.’
‘As a Woman I have no Country …’
Why it is that US First Ladies are held in such reverance and high esteem, with a prominance not extended, generally, to ‘political wives’ in other countries – Britain, Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, France, Germany, the USSR (as it was) was not addressed by the presentations, yet it remains an issue for historical and cultural exploration and analysis.
From the Bush, to Sales, to the Airforce – Reflections on the Beginnings of a 20th Century Life
… As a junior, I didn’t serve any customers for almost 12 months, because that was the seniors’ job. Juniors weren’t allowed to speak to a customer. We had to run the messages and tidy up … The seniors at Farmers were trained in what we’d now call customer relations. The juniors were trained too. When I first went there, even though it was only for three weeks, for a sale, I had two days training before beginning in the department. I was paid to be taught where the items were in the store, how to write out dockets, how to speak to people …
ISSUE 69, Summer 2012
Angela Davis on Understandings of ‘home’ in the memoirs of Vera Weizmann, 4-8 Susan McPherson and Angela McPherson on Norah Dacre Fox, a suffragette turned fascist, 9-17 Sheena Evans on Janet Vaughan and Spanish medical aid, 18-25 Karen Flynn on Caribbean nurses in Britain and Canada, 26-35 Book Reviews…
Music & Liberation: Music and Activism in the UK WLM, 1970-1989
… I’ve been handed countless audiotapes of recordings of practices, live performances and demos that have been lurking at the back of cupboards or underneath beds, unheard for decades. Some are the only recordings of the bands in existence, and you will be able to listen to them at the WLMA & Music & Liberation Exhibition …
Not According to the Calendar
One cadet, David Hill went on to become executive producer with Channel 9’s “Wide World of Sports”, then Murdoch took him over to Britain for Sky Channel. Many years later at a party I tapped him on the arm and said: ‘David, do you remember the day I threw you out of my classroom for giving me …’ He recognised me immediately, and took me around the room to meet his children. He told them: ‘This lady taught Daddy.’ The children looked at me as if I were the pyramids.
History, Law & Violence – For Women & Children, 17th Century Notions are Alive, Well & Inexcusable
… during the Roman occupation of Britain, England – like other occupied nations – incorporated the occupiers’ pre-Christian Roman law into their legal system. The Romans had a legal principle that a father or master had absolute dominion over his household, including the power of life and death over his wives, children, servants and slaves …
Porno-Chic and Advertising in Women’s Magazines
Despite the reconfiguration of gender roles experienced in the West over the last half century, advertising has remained anchored within a conservative and sexist frame. On the one hand, advertisers have attempted to devise campaigns addressing a self-sufficient and independent woman, while on the other they have repeatedly argued that society demands from them the display of nude women selling themselves through a pornographic lens.