Online Members’ Socials!

We are excited to welcome all of our members to our Online Members’ Socials!

We are delighted to announce our new programme for the monthly WHS online socials after the summer break. Our WHS online socials are a fantastic way to connect with other members in a relaxed environment. We share research, rabbit holes, and much more! The refreshed format will allow an hour for an ‘activity’ followed by thirty minutes of informal catching up. All members, new and old, are very welcome. See more about our upcoming programme here.

If you are a WHS member, we will send a reminder email about the socials before they happen with an Eventbrite link to sign up (we want to ensure this is a safe environment for all). We’ll send you the zoom link on the morning of the event. 

If you have any questions, queries or suggestions please get in touch

Find out more about how to join WHS here


Details of previous socials:

September 2023 ‘Summer Reading/ Book Group’

October 2023 ‘Show Us Your Sources’

In this social, art and textile historian Dr Sheilagh Quaile shared her research methodology. Dr Sheilagh Quaile is a previous WHS bursary winner — you can read her Bursary Winner Report here. If you would like to ‘Show Us Your Sources’ in a future social, please get in touch to discuss!

November 2023 ‘Film Club’

For this social, we discussed the documentary ‘Sitting Tight: The Story of the Lee Jeans Sit-In‘. Funded by the National Lottery Fund, this documentary gathers stories from workers (the majority were female), their families and local historians to reconstruct the sit-in events and negotiations at the Greenock plant. Access to the documentary can be found here.

December 2023 ‘Christmas Party and Quiz’

March 2021 – We all introduced ourselves and discussed what we’d been up to and what plans we have for the future in terms of women’s and gender history. We also discussed what sort of themes we were interested in discussing and what we collectively wanted from these socials.

April 2021 – Karen Shaw gave us a talk about her research on the Scottish Women’s Hospitals and women in the North East of Scotland. As predicted there were lots of questions and interest from the other members attending. We then had an enjoyable discussion about Historic Environment Scotland’s new ‘The Women of Scotland‘ online exhibition.

May 2021 – Esther Breitenbach and Caroline Lewis told us about their own research and experience in organising a conference on the theme of gender and empire for Women’s History Scotland. We had a great discussion of what the legacy of this conference has been and what lessons can be learned from their experience.

June 2021 – Ruth Boreham gave us an excellent presentation on her research into the 1911 census and how to find evidence of suffrage related protest. Ruth shared lots of interesting examples with us and was very generous with her expertise. We all had lots of questions!

August 2021 – We had a great time participating in a focus group for Esther Draycott’s doctoral research “Depth and surface: women’s style as memorial, resistance and reverie in late 1970s and early 1980s Glasgow”. We all enjoyed hearing about what everyone used to wear in the late 70s and early 80s – we even shared some photos.

September 2021 – Yvonne McFadden gave us a brilliant presentation on her project ‘The Lost Villages of Ayrshire’. There was lots of questions and discussion about the aims and objectives of the project as well as what Yvonne is finding in her research. We also discussed the methodologies employed in the project in terms of it being funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund Scotland and Historic Environment Scotland, and being part of the Coalfield Communities Landscape Partnership (East Ayrshire Council).

October 2021 – Eleanor Peters’ gave us an excellent presentation about her PhD research on ”The Interpreter Between the Manufacturer and the Housewife’: Female Scottish Electricity Mediators 1919-1949.’ There were lots of questions for Eleanor about her research.

December 2021 – We had a catch up reflecting back on the year and thinking about how we want to use our socials in the new year.

January 2022 – We had some new members this month, so spent the time introducing ourselves and talking generally about our research and interests in women’s and gender history. It was great to hear what everyone is up to and how we can help each other with our research.