‘Women, Oberführerin,belong in the kitchen and in bed.’[1]Oberleutnant Wagner’s scathing dismissal of women at war epitomises the gender challenges faced by Oberführerin Hanna Helmke and her female air signals assistants in “Blitzmädels an die Front” (‘Lightning Girls on the Front’). Released on…
Category: Blog and News
News items of interest to WHN Members
Research in Progress Postgraduate Workshop – Histories of Gender, University of Reading, 24 October 2018
A report from the post-graduates students who were awarded a grant by the WHN in 2018. The University of Reading’s History Department hosted its inaugural postgraduate workshop under the recently launched Gender and Sexuality Research Cluster. The theme of the…
‘There is a good deal of uncertainty as to how the women will vote’: The 1918 General Election in Birmingham
100 years ago, on 14 December 1918, women in Britain went to the polls to vote in a General Election for the first time. Just ten months after the Representation of the People Act had awarded the franchise to some…
The Enigma of Ellen Terry (1847-1928) – Dr. Veronica Isaac
Ellen Terry (1847-1928) ‘Of Ellen Terry, the actress, Our Lady of the Lyceum as Oscar Wilde used to style her, what a series of wonderful pictures live in the memory”[i] A leading late nineteenth century actress, Dame Ellen Terry’s lifestyle…
Why we should remember the housewives of the First World War, by Professor Karen Hunt
As our high streets become covered in poppies, we should ask ourselves who we are being asked to commemorate. Despite four years of television programmes, exhibitions, art installations and local history projects, we still seem to find it easier to…
War Widows and the controversy over Remembrance Sunday services at the Cenotaph (1972-1982), by Dr Janis Lomas
Remembrance Sunday has a particular significance this year as it marks the centenary of the First World War armistice, yet few remember the First and Second World War widows who following the foundation of the War Widows’ Association (WWA) in…
Women in the Service Industries in Southern Africa since 1900 – Dr Andrew Cohen & Dr Rory Pilossof
Women in the Service Industries in Southern Africa since 1900. Andrew Cohen (University of Kent) and Rory Pilossof (University of the Free State) There is a rich and well-developed historiography on work and labour in southern Africa. The colonial occupation…
Songs of Suffrage: a concert of music and readings, 1900-1930
‘Songs of Suffrage: a concert of music and readings, 1900-1930’ A concert featuring women composers active during the suffrage campaign, 7pm, Thursday 1 November 2018, Chancellor’s Hall, Senate House, University of London. Come and hear ‘Songs of Suffrage: an evening…
‘No Liberation Without Black Women’: Gender in the Black Liberation Front, by Amelia Francis
Black Power groups began to erupt throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s in Britain as young people of African, Caribbean and Asian descent unified under the term ‘Black’.[1] Furthermore, the Black Power era manifested in international solidarity between various…