In April 1818, Catherine Macknally, described in the parish records of St Andrew, Plymouth, as a ‘common prostitute’, was apprehended while wandering and begging with her two illegitimate children—both under two years of age.[1] Examined before two justices of the…
We are delighted to announce that the WHN has teamed up with the Women’s History Association of Ireland to offer a joint annual book prize which awards £500 for an author’s first single-authored monograph in women’s or gender history. Entries…
I first learned of Katherine Walker Lindsay in early 2025 when I was examining the letter books of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Society for Women’s Suffrage (GWSSWS), a branch of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS),…
The penultimate session of our Spring Seminar Series will take place on Tuesday, 7 April at 7pm GMT. Our speaker for the session is Dr Samuel Beckton, who will be talking about his research on ‘A minority within a minority:…
We are thrilled to welcome Dr Ellen Hope Durban on Tuesday, 24 March 2026 at 4pm UK time to talk about ‘Activism for Married Lesbian Mothers in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s’. Married to men in seemingly conventional marriages,…
*** UPDATED ENTRY CRITERIA *** We are pleased to announce the new joint annual Women’s History Network/Women’s History Association of Ireland book prize which awards £500 for an author’s first single-authored monograph in women’s or gender history. Entries close on 31 July 2026. Criteria…
We are delighted to announce the winner of the WHN Book Prize for 2023 and 2024 (the two years were amalgamated). The judges chose Charmian Mansell’s book Female Servants in Early Modern England published by Liverpool University Press which wins the…
Women’s participation in Indian science since the mid-twentieth century is often framed through celebratory narratives of progress, characterised by increased educational access, rising numbers of women pursuing STEM degrees and gradual inclusion in scientific institutions. Such unequivocal narratives of success,…