Feminists have long borne the brunt of satire in the media. In the early years of the last century, women who fought for the right to vote were depicted as bad-humoured harridans with sour faces and stringy hair. ‘Women’s Libbers’…
Category: Blog
The Women’s History Network blog
Young Women against Apartheid: Gender, Youth and South Africa’s Liberation Struggle by Dr Emily Bridger
On a night in 1983, the apartheid police came knocking on the door of a family home in the township of Soweto, located just outside Johannesburg. They were looking for ‘Vicky’ – a seventeen-year-old school student who, according to their…
‘Almost an Equal Example’: Justice during the American Civil War by Elizabeth M. Barnes
On May 17th, 1864, Jennie Green and her friend, Nellie Wyatt, arrived with the 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry at City Point, Virginia. The two girls had recently escaped slavery in Sussex County, seizing the opportunity the war had presented to carve…
Online seminar series: Womandla! Feminism and Social Movements in the Global South
We are pleased to share the first installments of the schedule the schedule for the Womandla! Online Seminar Series, beginning with Panel 1 on Friday 9 April 2021. Keep up to date with the developing schedule here. Please note that…
Old Round Court and Gold Lace: Ann Renney’s Shop on the Strand by Dr Sarah Birt
What was the occupational structure of the Strand? How many businesses were run by women and what was the nature of their trade? Having studied women in business in seventeenth and eighteenth-century London before, my new project focuses on the…
Sharing Stories of Women in War: Bettie’s Story by Judith Hewitt, Manager of The Devil’s Porridge Museum
“To be honest, it is one of the most inspirational things I’ve ever done” said 17 year old Josie of her experience meeting and interviewing 94 year old Bettie Baird. Bettie and Josie both come from Carlisle and the former…
The Hidden Heritage of a Naval Town: Women’s community activism in Portsmouth since 1960 by Dr Laurel Foster
The main aim of this project was to document the activism of women in the Portsmouth area by interviewing women from a range of backgrounds and with different interests in community issues. The project, initiated and co-lead by Dr Sue…
Feminisms: A Global History by Dr Lucy Delap
When I was asked to contribute to Penguin’s Pelican series, I was determined to write an accessible account of feminist history that would place it in global perspective. This ambitious framing was certainly taxing, and I must confess, at times…
Recovering female small business owners in early twentieth-century Bath by Diana Russell
Many histories of Bath have focused on its rise to become Britain’s premier spa in the late eighteenth century before it slipped into staid respectability after its heyday.[i] The prevalent narrative suggests that ‘nothing much happened’ in the first quarter…