[i]My life-long fascination with the role of gender in shaping women’s working lives began when, at the age of six, a doctor asked me if I wanted to be a nurse when I grew up. When I answered that I…
Category: Blog
The Women’s History Network blog
Bringing Ourselves Along with Us: The Realities of Historical Writing
I am a minoritized scholar – something that is usually clear by looking at me – working with disenfranchised communities: Black women in nineteenth century France. But I state it clearly when I speak to classes or do more formalized…
Female Petitioning to Monarchs and the Criminal Process in England, 1660-1702 by Emily Rhodes
In browsing the English State Papers in the National Archives at Kew or the State Papers Online database, one of the most common types of documents you will encounter are petitions to the crown. Within this subset of records, there…
The bizarre 1858 ‘Princes Park Crinoline Case’: 13-year-old girl is key witness in Liverpool’s highest-attendance trial by Tony Whittaker
Pleasant autumn weather on Monday 1 November 1858 prompted governess Jane Marsh (20) to give her two charges, Mary Hayes (13½) and sister Alice (12), a break from studies. After an early lunch, they bid farewell to two younger sisters…
The Decriminalisation of Abortion in The Maritime Provinces of Canada and Scotland by Amy Joyce
The Maritime Provinces of Canada and Scotland have strong historical ties that link the areas closely. In both places, the decriminalisation of abortion in the late 1960s was a milestone in women’s history but sparked fierce pro-choice and pro-life debates…
The Vixen and the Lioness: Caterina Sforza and Machiavelli by Megan Chance
Machiavellian theory is often assumed to purport a rigid distinction between masculinity and femininity resulting from the theoretical understanding of ‘machismo’ and ‘effeminato’. Hannah Pitkin and Jean Bethke Elshtain have assumed that women are therefore excluded from Machiavellian politics.[1] However,…
The Folk-devilling of Feminism by Professor Carol Dyhouse
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’…
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…