Women served with the British Royal Navy since 1917. But their motto – perhaps said through gritted teeth – was ‘Never at Sea.’ Officially, members of the Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens) were only allowed to help the war effort…
Category: Blog and News
News items of interest to WHN Members
Women’s History Month: Before there was internet, part 1: viagra
Fed up receiving emails advertising viagra and other sexual remedies? Well, your ancestors may have felt similarly. Nineteenth century newspapers were full of advertisements promising sexual remedies, from treatments for syphilis to cures for impotency. A selection from Irish newspapers…
Women’s History Month: International Women’s Day.
International Women’s Day celebrates the achievements of women-past, present and future. It was first celebrated in 1911 and the day has often been commemorated for the last century by feminists on the streets, fighting for their social, economic and political…
Women’s History Month: The International Year of the Nurse.
This year marks the centenary of the death of Florence Nightingale, and in the world of nursing and nursing history this is a reason for celebration of a woman who is regarded by many as the founder of modern nursing.…
Women’s History Month: The Governess- Widow.
Women’s opportunities to realize themselves were limited in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For middle-class girls, marriage was the most suitable role in life. But as widows, women had to count on the money, usually a scarce sum…
Women’s History Month: Persistence pays off, as women are finally elected to the London County Council.
Today is special for those who know women can be fantastic local councillors. Women came to that role through a struggle that hasn’t ended. About 30% of councillors are women now, and it has stuck around that level for the…
Women’s History Month: From the Women’s Library.
On this day, 4 Mar 1912, ‘For Valour Hunger Strike’ A Women’s Social & Political Union hunger strike medal was awarded to Gertrude Wilkinson ‘Fed By Force 4/3/12 Gertrude Wilkinson’, with presentation box, produced by the WSPU and presented to Gertrude…
Women’s History Month: Career Novels in the 1950s.
The 1950s are often imagined by the public- and most recently politicians- as an era where women’s goal in life was to marry and have children. Yet, while it was a period when most women would marry, and many would…
Women’s History Month: Anne Halkett
On the 2 March 1652, the seventeenth-century diarist we know as Anne Halkett acquired that name when she married Sir James Halkett. She was thirty-three, and a serious Anglican who consulted a clergyman before entering into wedlock with a Presbyterian.…