‘the only black-out is the black-out in my soul’
British women’s poetry of the Second World War by Anne Powell … experiences connected with the blitz, the shopping queues, the home front, deserted wives, deceived husbands, broken homes, dull jobs, bad More »
Women’s History Walk around Radical Manchester
By Michael Herbert. Manchester was the world’s first great industrial city—‘Cottonopolis’—its privilege and poverty both dazzled and appalled by turn. It played a significant role in the formation of radical movements that More »
Women and Madness
By Claire Jones. The association of madness with 19C femininity has generated much research by historians of women’s history. Although this association can be traced back to medieval times, to woman mystics More »
Sylvia Pankhurst: Activist with Attitude
As a little girl growing up in Woodford Green, on the fringe of Epping Forest, just before World War Two, I was warned by my very conventional Conservative parents to walk on More »
What is women’s history?
History is all too often exactly that - His Story. Typically the narratives told are the stories of men, with major events interpreted according to their impact on the masculine sex, to More »
Davies and Davison
Is commemoration a matter of deeds versus words? The famous tragic incident when suffragette Emily Davison fatally threw herself in front of the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby, 1913, remains engraved on the public’s memory. Indeed, many of you
Cleopatra: A Biography
by Duane W. Roller (Oxford University Press, 2010) hardback, rrp £14.99 Reviewed by Christina Riggs Mother of four. Sailor. Author. Medical student. Not exactly the sexpot of Shakespearean lore and Hollywood legend. But history suggests that there was much more
Beautiful For Ever
Madame Rachel of Bond Street – Cosmetician, Con-Artist and Blackmailer by Helen Rappaport (Long Barn Books, 2011) paperback, rrp £8.99 Reviewed by Issy Shannon. How could any woman resist the blandishments of a shop promising eternal beauty? In 1863, at
Jane Whorwood, 1612-1684
Secret Agent and confidante of Charles I who played a key role in the English Civil War By John Fox Early life No portrait of Jane Whorwood has been found. She was born in 1612 to a Scots official of
Suffragists and Suffragettes
An overview of the Votes for Women campaign By Claire Jones Introduction Before the 1832 Reform Act most men and all women did not have the vote. This act created a wider franchise but used the term ‘male person’, specifically
Women in Hospital Service in World War One
A brief overview by Anne Powell, author of Women in the War Zone : Hospital Service in the First World War A researcher’s story Between 1975-1977 and 1982-1985 I lived in Mons, Belgium, where my husband had two appointments on
Mary Somerville (1780-1872)
Mathematician, astronomer, translator By Claire Jones Context It was difficult for a woman to reconcile the conflicting identities of ‘woman’ and ‘scientist’ in the nineteenth century. Theories of sexual difference of the time constructed women as less capable of abstract
Augusta Ada Lady Lovelace (1815 – 1852)
Mathematician and collaborator with Charles Babbage on the development of the forerunner to the computer. By Claire Jones Early Life There are conflicting accounts of Ada’s life—and even some mythologizing (probably due to her association with her celebrated father, the
Women’s History Walk around Radical Manchester
By Michael Herbert. Manchester was the world’s first great industrial city—‘Cottonopolis’—its privilege and poverty both dazzled and appalled by turn. It played a significant role in the formation of radical movements that challenged the status quo including trade unionism, co-operation,
Women and Madness
By Claire Jones. The association of madness with 19C femininity has generated much research by historians of women’s history. Although this association can be traced back to medieval times, to woman mystics such as Julian of Norwich for example, it
