Blog

Mara Dougall: Bursary Winner Report – Rebels with a cause

It’s not everyone who is fascinated by the transportation problems of early twentieth century highland nurses. It doesn’t immediately sound like a particularly glamorous or exciting topic, but you’d be surprised how many ears prick up when they learn of the solution these women were presented with; a vehicle long associated in popular culture with the …

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‘The Rise and Fall of Timex Dundee’ BBC Scotland – 15 October 2019

Tuesday 15th of October was good for women’s history in Scotland. After returning from seeing ‘Her Century’ at the cinema I watched ‘The Rise and Fall of Timex Dundee’ on BBC Scotland. You can watch the trailer here: “They sum up Dundee women… don’t mess with us!” The Rise and Fall of Timex Dundee is now …

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Guest blog: Anne Pettigrew ‘Advancing women- Opportunity and respect in careers’

In this guest post author and former GP Anne Pettigrew follows the opportunities for autonomy experienced by the last four generations of women in her family. As she suggests ‘We accepted the norm of chauvinism and #MeToo at work. This generation must not’. Self-determination, education, opportunity and respect are all essential for the advancement of women. But …

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Guest blog: Lisa Doyle ‘‘Doing My Bit for Ireland’: A Scottish woman’s first-hand account of the Easter Rising’

In this guest post Lisa Doyle discusses Margaret Skinnider’s first-hand account of her political activism in Ireland during the Easter Rising.  The Easter Rising was a landmark event in Irish history, and the women who took part, although forming a small fraction of the rebels, played an integral role. It is estimated that one hundred women, out …

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Guest blog: Sue Bard ‘Review of Madame Scotia, Madame Scrap by Hélène Witcher’

Madame Scotia, Madame Scrap is the story of Héloïse Russell-Fergusson, a clarsach player and composer of great originality and breadth of vision, an intrepid traveller and seeker-out of world music long before the term was invented and a serious scholar. Her scholarly work included the 19 volume Russell-Fergusson Collection of Harps that now resides in the …

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Guest blog: Liz Smith ‘Margaret Sharp Peace – Greenock Poet’

In this guest post Liz Smith argues that Margaret Sharp Peace a local Greenock poet born in 1822 was a remarkable woman with the confidence to publish her own poems which related family life and who deserves to be better known in her home town, in Scotland and beyond. This post first featured on Liz’s blog ‘The Greenockian’ …

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Guest blog: Kirsty Mcgrory ‘The Subversive Fantasy of Isobel Gowdie’

In this guest post Kirsty McGrory analyses the testimony of Isobel Gowdie, who was put on trail in 1660 in Scotland for witchcraft. She argues that Gowdie’s testimony was a calculated and empowering feminist counter-narrative for an utterly disenfranchised existence. Denied power in the material world, Gowdie created an empowered and subversive identity for herself in the imaginative realm.  This article …

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Listening to Women’s Voices: Dundee Women’s Festival 16 March 2019

It was a snowy, windy Spring day, but we made it to Dundee for our Oral History Workshop on Saturday 16th  March as part of the Dundee Women’s Festival. A good number of hardy souls braved the weather to join us on the HMS Unicorn where we set up in in the beautiful Captain’s Room. The voices …

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Guest blog: Bernadette Cahill ‘After the Suffrage Victory: A Forgotten Suffragist from Clydebank’

We are delighted to have this guest blog from Bernadette Cahill about her mother Margaret McCann, a working-class campaigner for women’s equality from Clydebank:    “There are two million surplus women. How can these women have homes if the only home a woman is supposed to have is her husband’s and there are two million …

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Opening the Door to Westminster: Remembering Eunice Guthrie Murray, Scotland’s First Female Parliamentary Candidate

One hundred years ago today, some women in Scotland went to the polling stations for the first time to have their say in the parliamentary elections. Throughout 2018, across Scotland we have been celebrating 100 years since the Representation of the People Act (1918) came into being. As we should all know by now, this …

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