The Women’s History Network blog
Late Imperial China is often described as a society structured by strict gender hierarchies. Elite women were expected to remain within the domestic inner quarters, devoted to family duty, moral virtue, and household management, while public life and most forms…
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…
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),…
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,…
Dear friends, We are thrilled to share the programme for our Spring Seminar Series 2026. We are really excited about this one and hope you are looking forward to hearing from the fantastic speakers we have lined up. The sign-up…
During a seven-week internship at the University of Oxford, undergraduates Harvey Bone and Tabatha Burden worked on a project researching and assessing data from the 1959 and February 1974 elections, feeding into ongoing work being done by Dr. Lyndsey Jenkins…
The Women’s History Network 34th Annual Conference Celebrating the Centenary of the Women’s Library and 100 Years of Women’s History (1926-2026) 3-4 September 2026, LSE Library & Friends House (Euston Road) Our 34th annual conference…
I’d been in the Women’s Library at LSE for hours, going through oral history transcripts in the Women Against Pit Closures collection. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say I felt close to tears. These women’s lives had been transformed.…
Women Don’t Get Aids They Just Die from It was the headline of an advertisement designed by Gran Fury, which ran in inner city bus stops of Manhattan and in low-income suburban neighbourhoods in Los Angeles in 1991.[i] Gran Fury…