An account of Lucy Faithfull’s life is a history of child care in the twentieth century. She was a passionate campaigner for children, Children’s Officer for Oxford, and the first social worker to sit in the House of Lords. In…
Category: Blog
The Women’s History Network blog
Sixteen Days Against Violence Against Women
Today, Thursday, 25th November 2010, sees the launch of 16 Days of Action to Eliminate Violence Against Women. Events are planned worldwide to increase awareness of this pressing problem, which continues to require immediate attention and intervention today. My own…
Legal Aid, Divorce and Lessons from History
This week the UK government has announced a cut of £350 million from the legal budget for England and Wales, leading to the withdrawal of support from all cases but those that involve life and liberty. It effectively means that…
Anna Muncaster 1885-1930
“By casual acquaintances she was regarded as somewhat cold and reserved, but her friends and patients found in her a ready sympathy – devoid of sloppiness – a staunch loyalty and a keen sense of humour.”[1] This is how in…
A Revolutionary Friendship
In 1967, in a meeting room of leftists and radicals at the University of Kent, Di Parkin met her future life-long friend and comrade Lorraine Hewitt. The political connection that drew the two young women together was immediate: Di had…
Black History Month: Mary Prince
In September 1831 the Anti-Slavery Society in London published The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave. Related by herself. Prince, who was illiterate, had dictated her story, at her own suggestion, to a young abolitionist named Susanna Strickland…
Black History Month: Hart Sisters
In September 1809 Anne Hart Gilbert and her sister Elizabeth opened a Methodist Sunday school (the first in the West Indies) at the naval centre of English Harbour, Antigua, which was willing to teach both slave and free children. Anne…
Black History Month: On the margins? British Caribbean and British Asian Women: A Brief History, Part 2.
Continued from Part 1. By the mid 1980s more British Asian women worked outside the home in Britain than was assumed by the white population and many such women, particularly those of Hindu and Sikh backgrounds, were moving into the…
Black History Month: On the margins? British Caribbean and British Asian Women: A Brief History, Part 1.
Handsworth, 1971(George Hallett): Source: http://birminghamblackhistory.com/external/gallery.html Black History Month, 2010, provides an opportunity to focus on the lives of British Caribbean and British Asian women – their histories and the factors that have influenced, and continue to influence, their lives. In…