In this blog Mari Takayanagi and Elizabeth Hallam Smith preview the story of Kay Midwinter, one of the pioneering women staff in Parliament featured in their new book, Necessary Women: the Untold Story of Parliament’s Working Women. In the public…
Category: Blog and News
News items of interest to WHN Members
Textile Designing for the Festival of Britain 1924-2020 – Esther Dobson
When you hear the term ‘Mid-century design’ it may conjure images of Le Corbusier’s Brutalist architecture, Marcel Breuer’s ‘Wassily’ chair, or George Nelson’s clocks, but why do we often hear less about the women of this period? In stark comparison…
CONFERENCE REPORT: Gender and Political Groups In Britain c.1650-1950 – University of Northampton – 19th May 2023 – Kathrina Perry and Kerry Love
A conference on Gender and Political Groups In Britain c. 1650 -1950 was organised by our Blog Editor, Kathrina Perry along with her PGR colleague, Kerry Love and was held at the University of Northampton on May 19th 2023. The…
Queen Victoria’s Treescapes – Sarah Shields
In 2019 BBC News reported that while on an official engagement in Cambridge, the then 93-year-old Queen Elizabeth II had told onlookers that she was ‘still perfectly capable of planting a tree.[1] The planting of a tree is perhaps one…
Lady Constance Lytton: 1869-1923 – Lyndsey Jenkins
22 May 1923 marks one hundred years since the death of Lady Constance Lytton, militant suffragette. She is most often remembered for the events of January 1910, when she disguised herself as a working-class activist, consciously making herself as ugly…
27th May 2023: Local and Community History Month – Grabbing Back Project
Sign-ups are open for our special seminar in honour of Local and Community History Month in the UK! We’ve invited the Director and Editor of the Grabbing Back Project, Graciela Madrid and Katie Moody, to tell us all about their…
British women and Latin American independence movements 1800-1825
It is well-known that Mary Wollstonecraft travelled to Paris to witness the French Revolution that she had celebrated in A Vindication of the Rights of Men. Less well-known are British women who supported Latin American revolutionaries fighting for liberation from…
Early radio broadcasting for women in the BBC’s Women’s Hour 1923-4 – Kate Murphy
Many readers will know of Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, which has been broadcast on the BBC for more than 75 years. Far less well known is an earlier programme called Women’s Hour, which first appeared 100 years ago, on 2…
Biography’s place in the study of sixteenth century Ottoman imperial women – Zhara Adal
The individual lives of sixteenth century imperial women are neglected in Ottoman studies. Scholars have usually focused on their notable achievements rather than their individual lives and identities. For example, Leslie Pierce’s The Imperial Harem (1993) describes the position of…