We are delighted to announce the winner of the Undergraduate Dissertation Prize 2025-2026 is Esther Hughes for “Exploring the materiality of the medieval noblewoman’s home: a comparison of the inventories of Alice Chaucer and Margery de la Beche”. The judges…
Category: Blog and News
News items of interest to WHN Members
WHN AGM September 2026
The Annual General Meeting for the Women’s History Network will take place during the 2026 annual conference. Please find the full agenda for this year’s AGM here.
Mary Theresa Whitby: Landowner, Silkworm Expert, Silk Producer and Correspondent of Charles Darwin – Elizabeth Strange
Early Life Mary Anne Theresa Whitby was born in 1783. She was the daughter of a naval officer named Thomas Symonds and had seven siblings. Marriage and Meeting Admiral Cornwallis In 1802, Mary married a naval officer named John Whitby…
Sign up for our final Summer Seminar, ‘The Miracle of the Nuclear Age’ and the Electrical Association for Women, with Dr Eleanor Peters
Our Summer Seminar Series draws to a close soon, but we are delighted to end what has been wonderful, insightful and stimulating series with a fascinating paper by Dr Eleanor Peters, titled: ‘The Miracle of the Nuclear Age’ and the…
Rewarding Motherhood: A Short History of the French Medal of Childhood and Families – Eli Jeannin
This blog is also available in French. Read the French translation below the English version. On the 29th of May 2026, I was at the City Hall in Vannes, a city one hour from Rennes, in the Northwest of France,…
Sign up for our next seminar, ‘Mammy’s Tricks: Maids & Madames, Buckling Hierarchies, and the Badger Thief ‘Panic’ in Urban Brazil, 1948 – 1954’
Sign up to our next seminar, ‘Mammy’s Tricks: Maids & Madames, Buckling Hierarchies, and the Badger Thief ‘Panic’ in Urban Brazil, 1948-1954′ where we will be joined by the brilliant Dr Cassie Osei. The seminar will take place on Tuesday…
Rulebreakers and Ghost Runners – the British women who asserted their right to run
Did you know that until April 1975 women in the UK were banned from marathons and all races longer than four miles? Back in the 1960s, women started to break the rules and ‘crash’ men’s road races, challenging discrimination and…
The Manchester and Salford College for Women (1877-1883): From the Darkness Comes the Light – Tom Trafford
In April 1877, Owens College’s Court, the governing body of the only higher education establishment in Manchester, and the only incorporated college of Victoria University (Manchester), announced its decision not to accept women students. Its members believed that doing so…
Kitchens, Cleanliness, and the Making of Modern Food Safety: Sarah Tyson Rorer and Domestic Expertise in the Early Twentieth Century – Eric Schubert
In 1902, readers opening Sarah Tyson Rorer’s New Cook Book were instructed to wash vegetables carefully, keep utensils clean, and avoid serving spoiled milk. [i] To a modern audience, these directions feel routine, even obvious. At the turn of the…