During the 1980s, a boom in women’s magazines expanded and reshaped the market. The magazines provided a space for women to explore ideas and concerns about their bodies within a community of others with similar worries searching for the same…
Category: Blog
The Women’s History Network blog
Women’s Activism in Twentieth Century Britain – Paula Bartley
In 1906, the Anglo-Indian journalist Olive Malvery published The Soul Market, a book about women at the sharp end of exploitation. In her chapter about dress-makers, she wrote of a ‘large and fashionable establishment with a ground floor show-room and…
Painting Our Own Portraits – Olivia Wyatt
My grandmother has lived in Britain for sixty five years, but occasionally she transports us back to St Kitts. We listen in awe as she recalls defeating my grandfather in horse races, diving into the sea in search of discarded…
Book Review: Remarkable Women of the Second World War: A Collection of Untold Stories
Kat Perry I was recently lucky enough to be sent a copy of Remarkable Women of the Second World War: A Collection of Untold Stories by Victoria Panton Bacon to review. Split into two sections of ‘British Memories’ and ‘Stories…
Risky Pleasures: Female experiences of the 1990s rave scene – Elissa Stoddart
During the UK’s second national lockdown I underwent the process of researching and writing my dissertation from the comfort of my damp ridden university bedroom. During this period of restriction and, what at times felt like voluntary home arrest, I…
Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy comes home to Congleton – Maureen Wright
The sun shone down on the town of Congleton, Cheshire, on International Women’s Day, 2022. That was the date chosen by Elizabeth’s Group, of which I am Patron, to unveil the magnificent life-size statue of Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy (1833-1918), Victorian…
Sarah Sophia Banks’ tokens and collecting as a methodology – Kerry Love
I study late Georgian (early nineteenth century) material culture that is broadly ‘political’ in nature: referencing an event, campaign, or political person and looking at how individuals used them to engage with political ideas. One group of sources that I…
Kathlyn Oliver: Sexual Identities, Loneliness and The Link – Iona Tytler
Kathlyn Oliver is best known for her suffrage activism and advocacy for the rights of domestic workers. Oliver originally came from a middle-class background, with a father in the civil service.[1] However, after his death Oliver entered employment as a…
First, we Eat a Bagel, then, we Smash the Patriarchy: Queer Jewish Women in Late Twentieth Century Britain – Mie Jensen
In my work on non-heterosexual Jewish women’s lived experiences and practices in contemporary England and Israel, I have been struck by the many stories that have referenced involvement with NGOs and activism (especially feminist, LGBTQ+, and climate change groups). To…