In Blues Legacies and Black Feminism (1998), philosopher Angela Davis considers the “ideological implications of the blues,” asking “What can we learn from blueswomen like Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday…?” Though the music of artists like Bessie…
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9th February 2022: LGBT History Month – Women and Gay Liberation
Don’t miss out on our special seminar for LGBT History Month, featuring Steven Dryden from the British Library speaking on women involved in Gay Liberation Front during the 1970s and 80s! Wednesday, 9th February 2022, 4pm GMT Register on Zoom…
Devon Women in Public and Professional Life, 1900-1950: Votes, Voices and Vocations – Julia Neville and Mitzi Auchterlonie
Devon Women in Public and Professional Life, 1900-1950: Votes, Voices and Vocations by Julia Neville, Mitzi Auchterlonie, Paul Auchterlonie, Ann Roberts, Helen Turnbull Written by a group of Devon History Society colleagues keen to demonstrate the role of local histories…
Marisa Mori and the Futurists – Jennifer S. Griffiths
Fifty years have now passed since Linda Nochlin launched a feminist art history by asking, ‘Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?’ (1971).[1] Since then, several art historians have made cases for the greatness of certain women including Artemisia…
26th January 2022 ‘Heterosexuality and the “Happy Family”: Desire, Development, and Population Control in India, 1930s-1970s’
Join us for the second seminar of our Spring Series, featuring Dr Mytheli Sreenivas, with the paper titled: ‘Heterosexuality and the “Happy Family”: Desire, Development, and Population Control in India, 1930s-1970s’ Wednesday 26th January 2022 at 4pm GMT Register for…
Women’s History Network Annual Conference: ‘Addressing the Nation’ 2 & 3 September 2022
Women’s History Network Annual Conference: ‘Addressing the Nation’ 2 & 3 September 2022 (Online via Zoom, Free to attend) Autumn 2022 marks the centenary of the BBC. From almost the very start, women worked in many capacities including behind the…
With thanks to the woman who did the typing – Lucienne Boyce
In 1938 Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, one of the leaders of the Women’s Social & Political Union (WSPU), published her autobiography, My Part in a Changing World. In it she noted, “My thanks are due also to my secretaries, Miss Esther Knowles…
Friends of The Women’s Library: Talks Programme
The talks programme of the Friends of The Women’s Library recommences next Wednesday 12 January at 2.30 p.m. We’ll be returning to our theme of regional differences within the suffrage movement, with Clare Wichbold MBE speaking about her research…
Hurrem Sultan as the first haseki of the Ottoman Empire by Zhara Adal
During the sixteenth to seventeenth century, the Ottoman Empire saw a change in its political dynamic as Imperial women began to influence the decisions of the Imperial court.[1] 1534-1683 is known as the ‘Sultanate of Women’ as Imperial women within…





