I understood Miranda Seymour’s lovely description of being at Shelley’s house on Skinner Street, where she found herself “walking the streets of London in a daze. There are no paving stones beneath your feet, no cars, no office blocks. You hear the clatter of iron wheels, smell the horse dung, see, in a sudden swish of black silk and the glimpse of a shawl, Mary and Claire hurrying down a narrow street towards the carriage where Shelly is waiting in 1814, to lead them to adventures such as these two impatient, headstrong young women have only read about in novels.” So walking around, A-Z in hand, locating the Skinner Street house and Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft’s place of marriage and burial, opened London up to me in a new and wonderful way and I realised the historical wealth of women’s lives that were quietly contained in this great city.
Category: Blog
The Women’s History Network blog
Women, Politics, Parliaments – Bringing about Democracy
Just as men do not accept that the right to vote is sufficient – Parliamentary representation must be possible for all men, or at least all men are entitled to seek parliamentary places – neither do women accept that the vote is enough. Democracy means that women and men must have the right to vote for women or men as members of Parliament. Democracy means that women and men must have the right to stand for Parliament.
Searching for the ‘Invisible Woman’: Working with (and subverting) the archives
What problems do archives raise in trying to reconstruct the lives of women who leave no written record? My first contact with these problems relating to sources can be traced back nearly 40 years ago to my post-graduate studies at…
‘The Good & The Bad’ – WILPF on CSW 57
Background Many women and women’s organisations participated in CSW 57 – as official delegates ‘inside’ the UN and as members of NGOs in side events and (sometimes) observers at the official discussion and debate on ‘Ending Violence against Women &…
CSW 57 – UN Women on Draft Agreed Conclusions
By adopting this document, governments have made clear that discrimination and violence against women and girls has no place in the 21st century. They have reaffirmed their commitment and responsibility to undertake concrete action to end violence against women and girls and promote and protect women?s human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Arab Women’s Caucus, UN Commission on the Status of Women – CSW 57
We, as non-governmental organizations, struggle on a daily basis to provide sexual and reproductive health services, reform laws that discriminate or violate human rights, including sexual and reproductive rights, provide comprehensive sexuality education, combat violence against women and girls, including marital rape and sexual abuse, reach out to and protect groups who have been marginalized and minoritised on the basis of their ethnicity, religious sect/and or sexual orientation and gender identity, and break the cultural and societal taboos associated with sexuality.
CSW 57 African Women’s Caucus Statement
Women’s Human Rights are non-negotiable and in this regard, we reaffirm the commitments made by UN Member states in the Beijing Platform for Action; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the United Nations General Assembly Resolution to Ban Female Genital Mutilation; United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security and its supporting resolutions; and those reflected in African regional instruments such as the Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa.
Abigail Chew – The Wartime Letters
The distance could be frustrating … With no sure way to deliver letters rapidly, if indeed they ever reached their destination at all, weeks could pass before news arrived home. In a half-scolding, half-teasing way, Abigail expressed her frustrations at visiting the post office, only to find there were no letters waiting for her: “What must I think of your uncommon silence – neglect, I will not think it – you have never before given me cause to complain so justly- 3 weeks on Tuesday since you left & only one short letter of etiquette – surely I have not become less dear to you since your return from the Harbour – no my dear husband, I think too well of myself, to suppose your affection will cool easily- I must still think there is a detention of the mails & hope tomorrow will be more propitious.” The hoped for letters came a few days later …
Virginia Hall – Spy as Hero
… refusing to give up her dreams, and despite a number of obstacles, Virginia Hall persevered, eventually putting herself in a place to change history. She wanted more than anything to serve her country by stopping the German war machine as it made its way through Europe. Her applications to be in the Foreign Service were turned down over and over. Consistently rejected because of her disability and her gender, Virginia was not a woman who took no for an answer. A “no” for Virginia really meant “look for another way.”