“Housewives! Please finish travelling by 4 o’clock”. This poster was issued by the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Labour and National Service c.1940. The TUC Library Collections have a large research collection relating to women living and working…
Tag: women’s work
Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) Suffragette Leader and Single Parent in Edwardian Britain
As we celebrate Mother’s Day in April 2011, it is salutary to remember women in the past who were single mums struggling to support their children while engaged in public work. Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the suffragette movement in…
Women’s History Month: from the TUC Library Collections
A Soviet Union trade union delegation visited Britain 30 December 1941 -9 February 1942, touring factories and other workplaces around the country. This photograph shows their visit to a cotton mill in Lancashire. In London, the delegation met the Prime Minister…
Women’s History Month: from the TUC Library Collections
Boatwomen Training Scheme, 1943. In 1941, Frances Marian ‘Molly’ Traill approached the Ministry of War Transport with a scheme to train women boat crews to help the country with its shortage of manpower on the canals. The Ministry was impressed…
Women’s History Month: Caroline Herschel
On 5 March 1777 Caroline Herschel made her first appearance as a professional singer (her brother William conducting), at the Upper Assembly Rooms at Bath in Handel’s oratorio Judas Maccabeus.This information comes from Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles…
Black History Month: On the margins? British Caribbean and British Asian Women: A Brief History, Part 2.
Continued from Part 1. By the mid 1980s more British Asian women worked outside the home in Britain than was assumed by the white population and many such women, particularly those of Hindu and Sikh backgrounds, were moving into the…
Women’s Work, Yesterday and Today, part three.
This is the final part of my interview with the University of Warwick’s knowledge portal, promoting the WHN conference, ‘Performing the self: women’s lives in historical perspective’. You can also read parts one and two. What do you think are the key factors…
Women’s Work, Yesterday and Today, part two.
This is part two of my interview promoting the WHN conference, ‘Performing the Self: Women’s Lives in Historical Perspective’. You can read part one here. What, if any, are the common misconceptions about women and work in history (I realise this…
Women’s Work, Yesterday and Today, part one.
A few weeks ago, I was interviewed for the University of Warwick knowledge portal about the Women’s History Networks forthcoming conference, ‘Performing the Self: Women’s Lives in Historical Perspective’. You can read the outcome of the interview here, but I…