History of women in the United Kingdom
Gender Inequality Index[1] | |
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Value | 0.098 (2021) |
Rank | 27th out of 191 |
Global Gender Gap Index[2] | |
Value | 0.775 (2021) |
Rank | 23rd |
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History of women in the United Kingdom covers the social, cultural and political roles of women in Britain over the last two millennia.
Medieval
Medieval England was a patriarchal society and the lives of women were heavily influenced by contemporary beliefs about gender and authority.[3][4] However, the position of women varied according to factors including their social class; whether they were unmarried, married, widowed or remarried; and in which part of the country they lived.[5] Henrietta Leyser argues that women had much informal power in their homes and communities, although they were of officially subordinate to men. She identifies a deterioration the status of women in the Middle Ages, although they retained strong roles in culture and spirituality.[6]
Significant gender inequities persisted throughout the period, as women typically had more limited life-choices, access to employment and trade, and legal rights than men. After the Norman invasion, the position of women in society changed. The rights and roles of women became more sharply defined, in part as a result of the development of the feudal system and the expansion of the English legal system; some women benefited from this, while others lost out. The rights of widows were formally laid down in law by the end of the twelfth century, clarifying the right of free women to own property, but this did not necessarily prevent women from being
In medieval times, women had responsibility for brewing and selling the ale that men all drank. By 1600, men had taken over that role. The reasons include commercial growth, gild formation, changing technologies, new regulations, and widespread prejudices that associated female brewsters with drunkenness and disorder. The taverns still use women to serve it, a low-status, low-skilled, and poorly remunerated tasks.[9]
Early modern period
Tudor era
While the Tudor era presents an abundance of material on the women of the nobility—especially royal wives and queens—historians have recovered scant documentation about the average lives of women. There has, however, been extensive statistical analysis of demographic and population data which includes women, especially in their childbearing roles.[10][11]
The role of women in society was, for the historical era, relatively unconstrained; Spanish and Italian visitors to England commented regularly, and sometimes caustically, on the freedom that women enjoyed in England, in contrast to their home cultures. England had more well-educated upper-class women than was common anywhere in Europe.[12][13]
The Queen's
In contrast to her father's emphasis on masculinity and physical prowess, Elizabeth emphasised the maternalism theme, saying often that she was married to her kingdom and subjects. She explained "I keep the good will of all my husbands — my good people — for if they did not rest assured of some special love towards them, they would not readily yield me such good obedience,"[17] and promised in 1563 they would never have a more natural mother than she.[18] Coch (1996) argues that her figurative motherhood played a central role in her complex self-representation, shaping and legitimating the personal rule of a divinely appointed female prince.[19]
Medical care
Although medical men did not approve, women healers played a significant role in the medical care of Londoners from cradle to grave during the Elizabethan era. They were hired by parishes and hospitals, as well as by private families. They played central roles in the delivery of nursing care as well as medical, pharmaceutical, and surgical services throughout the city as part of organised systems of health care.[20] Women's medical roles continue to expand in the 17th century, especially regarding care of paupers. They operated nursing homes for the homeless and sick poor, and also looked after abandoned and orphaned children, pregnant women, and lunatics. After 1700, the workhouse movement undermined many of these roles and the parish nurse became restricted largely to the rearing and nursing of children and infants.[21]
Marriage
Over ninety per cent of English women (and adults, in general) entered marriage in this era at an average age of about 25–26 years for the bride and 27–28 years for the groom.[22] Among the nobility and gentry, the average was around 19-21 for brides and 24-26 for grooms.[23] Many city and townswomen married for the first time in their thirties and forties and it was not unusual for orphaned young women to delay marriage until the late twenties or early thirties to help support their younger siblings,[24] and roughly a fourth of all English brides were pregnant at their weddings.[25]
Witchcraft
In England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland there was a succession of
In Wales, fear of witchcraft mounted around the year 1500. There was a growing alarm of women's magic as a weapon aimed against the state and church. The Church made greater efforts to enforce the canon law of marriage, especially in Wales where tradition allowed a wider range of sexual partnerships. There was a political dimension as well, as accusations of witchcraft were levied against the enemies of Henry VII, who was exerting more and more control over Wales.[26]
The records of the Courts of Great Sessions for Wales, 1536-1736 show that Welsh custom was more important than English law. Custom provided a framework of responding to witches and witchcraft in such a way that interpersonal and communal harmony was maintained, Showing to regard to the importance of honour, social place and cultural status. Even when found guilty, execution did not occur.[27]
Becoming king in 1603,
Enlightenment attitudes after 1700 made a mockery of beliefs in witches. The
Historians Keith Thomas and his student Alan Macfarlane revolutionised the study of witchcraft by combining historical research with concepts drawn from anthropology.[30][31][32] They argued that English witchcraft, like African witchcraft, was endemic rather than epidemic. Older women were the favorite targets because they were marginal, dependent members of the community and therefore more likely to arouse feelings of both hostility and guilt, and less likely to have defenders of importance inside the community. Witchcraft accusations were the village's reaction to the breakdown of its internal community, coupled with the emergence of a newer set of values that was generating psychic stress.[33]
Reformation
The Reformation closed the convents and monasteries, and called on former monks and nuns to marry. Lay women shared in the religiosity of the Reformation.[34] In Scotland the egalitarian and emotional aspects of Calvinism appealed to men and women alike. Historian Alasdair Raffe finds that, "Men and women were thought equally likely to be among the elect....Godly men valued the prayers and conversation of their female co-religionists, and this reciprocity made for loving marriages and close friendships between men and women." Furthermore, there was an increasingly intense relationship In the pious bonds between minister and his women parishioners. For the first time, laywomen gained numerous new religious roles, and took a prominent place in prayer societies.[35]
Industrial Revolution
Women's historians have debated the impact of the
19th century
Fertility
In the Victorian era, fertility rates increased in every decade until 1901, when the rates started evening out.[42] There are several reasons for the increase in birth rates. One is biological: with improving living standards, the percentage of women who were able to have children increased. Another possible explanation is social. In the 19th century, the marriage rate increased, and people were getting married at a very young age until the end of the century, when the average age of marriage started to increase again slowly. The reasons why people got married younger and more frequently are uncertain. One theory is that greater prosperity allowed people to finance marriage and new households earlier than previously possible. With more births within marriage, it seems inevitable that marriage rates and birth rates would rise together.[43]
The evening out of fertility rates at the beginning of the 20th century was mainly the result of a few big changes: availability of forms of birth control, and changes in people's attitude towards sex.[44]
Morality and religion
The Victorian era is famous for the Victorian standards of personal morality. Historians generally agree that the middle classes held high personal moral standards (and usually followed them), but have debated whether the working classes followed suit. Moralists in the late 19th century such as Henry Mayhew decried the slums for their supposed high levels of cohabitation without marriage and illegitimate births. However, new research using computerised matching of data files shows that the rates of cohabitation were quite low—under 5%—for the working class and the poor. By contrast in 21st century Britain, nearly half of all children are born outside marriage, and nine in ten newlyweds have been cohabitating.[45][46]
Historians have begun to analyse the agency of women in overseas missions. At first, missionary societies officially enrolled only men, but women increasingly insisted on playing a variety of roles. Single women typically worked as educators. Wives assisted their missionary husbands in most of his roles. Advocates stopped short of calling for the end of specified gender roles, but they stressed the interconnectedness of the public and private spheres and spoke out against perceptions of women as weak and house-bound.[47]
The middle-class
The middle class typically had one or more servants to handle cooking, cleaning and child care, Industrialisation brought with it a rapidly growing middle class whose increase in numbers had a significant effect on the social strata itself: cultural norms, lifestyle, values and morality. Identifiable characteristics came to define the middle-class home and lifestyle. Previously, in town and city, residential space was adjacent to or incorporated into the work site, virtually occupying the same geographical space. The difference between private life and commerce was a fluid one distinguished by an informal demarcation of function. In the Victorian era, English family life increasingly became compartmentalised, the home a self-contained structure housing a nuclear family extended according to need and circumstance to include blood relations. The concept of "privacy" became a hallmark of the middle class life.
The English home closed up and darkened over the decade (1850s), the cult of domesticity matched by a cult of privacy. Bourgeois existence was a world of interior space, heavily curtained off and wary of intrusion, and opened only by invitation for viewing on occasions such as parties or teas. "The essential, unknowability of each individual, and society's collaboration in the maintenance of a façade behind which lurked innumerable mysteries, were the themes which preoccupied many mid-century novelists."[48]
— Kate Summerscale quoting historian Anthony S. Wohl
Working class families
Domestic life for a working-class family meant the housewife had to handle the chores servants did in wealthier families. A working-class wife was responsible for keeping her family as clean, warm, and dry as possible in housing stock that was often literally rotting around them. In London, overcrowding was endemic in the slums; a family living in one room was common.[49] Rents were high in London; half of working-class households paid one-quarter to one-half of their income on rent.
Domestic chores for women without servants meant a great deal of washing and cleaning. Coal-dust from home stoves and factories filled the city air, coating windows, clothing, furniture and rugs. Washing clothing and linens meant scrubbing by hand in a large zinc or copper tub. Some water would be heated and added to the wash tub, and perhaps a handful of soda to soften the water. Curtains were taken down and washed every fortnight; they were often so blackened by coal smoke that they had to be soaked in salted water before being washed. Scrubbing the front wooden doorstep of the home every morning was done to maintain respectability.[50]
Leisure
Opportunities for leisure activities increased dramatically as real wages continued to grow and hours of work continued to decline. In urban areas, the nine-hour workday became increasingly the norm; the 1874 Factory Act limited the workweek to 56.5 hours, encouraging the movement toward an eventual eight-hour workday. Helped by the
By the late Victorian era, the leisure industry had emerged in all cities with many women in attendance. It provided scheduled entertainment of suitable length at convenient locales at inexpensive prices. These included sporting events, music halls, and popular theatre. Women were now allowed in some sports, such as archery, tennis, badminton and gymnastics.[53]
Feminism and Reform
The advent of
Property owning women and widows had been allowed to vote in some local elections, but that ended in 1835. The Chartist Movement was a large-scale demand for suffrage—but it meant manhood suffrage. Upper-class women could exert a little backstage political influence in high society. However, in divorce cases, rich women lost control of their children.
Child custody
Before 1839, after divorce rich women lost control of their children as those children would continue in the family unit with the father, as head of the household, and who continued to be responsible for them. Caroline Norton was one such woman, her personal tragedy where she was denied access to her three sons after a divorce, led her to a life of intense campaigning which successfully led to the passing of the Custody of Infants Act 1839 and then introduced the Tender years doctrine for child custody arrangement.[54][55][56][57] The Act gave women, for the first time, a right to their children and gave some discretion to the judge in a child custody cases. Under the doctrine the Act also established a presumption of maternal custody for children under the age of seven years maintaining the responsibility for financial support to the father.[54] In 1873 due to additional pressure from woman, the Parliament extended the presumption of maternal custody until a child reached sixteen.[58][59] The doctrine spread in many states of the world because of the British Empire.[56]
Divorce
Traditionally, poor people used desertion, and (for poor men) even the practice of selling wives in the market, as a substitute for divorce.[60] In Britain before 1857 wives were under the economic and legal control of their husbands, and divorce was almost impossible. It required a very expensive private act of Parliament costing perhaps £200, of the sort only the richest could possibly afford. It was very difficult to secure divorce on the grounds of adultery, desertion, or cruelty. The first key legislative victory came with the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857. It passed over the strenuous opposition of the highly traditional Church of England. The new law made divorce a civil affair of the courts, rather than a Church matter, with a new civil court in London handling all cases. The process was still quite expensive, at about £40, but now became feasible for the middle class. A woman who obtained a judicial separation took the status of a feme sole, with full control of her own civil rights. Additional amendments came in 1878, which allowed for separations handled by local justices of the peace. The Church of England blocked further reforms until the final breakthrough came with the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973.[61][62]
Protection
A series of four laws called the Married Women's Property Act passed Parliament from 1870 to 1882 that effectively removed the restrictions that kept wealthy married women from controlling their own property. They now had practically equal status with their husbands, and a status superior to women anywhere else in Europe.[63][64][65] Working-class women were protected by a series of laws passed on the assumption that they (like children) did not have full bargaining power and needed protection by the government.[66]
Prostitution
Bullough argues that prostitution in 18th-century Britain was a convenience to men of all social statuses, and economic necessity for many poor women, and was tolerated by society. The evangelical movement of the nineteenth century denounced the prostitutes and their clients as sinners, and denounced society for tolerating it.[67] Prostitution, according to the values of the Victorian middle-class, was a horrible evil, for the young women, for the men, and for all of society. Parliament in the 1860s in the Contagious Diseases Acts ("CD") adopted the French system of licensed prostitution. The "regulationist policy" was to isolate, segregate, and control prostitution. The main goal was to protect working men, soldiers and sailors near ports and army bases from catching venereal disease. Young women officially became prostitutes and were trapped for life in the system. After a nationwide crusade led by Josephine Butler and the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, Parliament repealed the acts and ended legalised prostitution. Butler became a sort of saviour to the girls she helped free. The age of consent for young women was raised from 12 to 16, undercutting the supply of young prostitutes who were in highest demand. The new moral code meant that respectable men dared not be caught.[68][69][70][71]
Work opportunities
The rapid growth of factories opened jobbed opportunities for unskilled and semiskilled women and light industries, such as textiles, clothing, and food production. There was an enormous popular and literary interest, as well as scientific interest, in the new status of women workers.[72] In Scotland St Andrews University pioneered the admission of women to universities, creating the Lady Licentiate in Arts (LLA), which proved highly popular. From 1892 Scottish universities could admit and graduate women and the numbers of women at Scottish universities steadily increased until the early 20th century.[73]
Middle-class careers
Ambitious middle-class women faced enormous challenges and the goals of entering suitable careers, such as nursing, teaching, law and medicine. The loftier their ambition, the greater the challenge. Physicians kept tightly shut the door to medicine; there were a few places for woman as lawyers, but none as clerics.[74]
In the 1870s a new employment role opened for women in libraries; it was said that the tasks were "Eminently Suited to Girls and Women." By 1920, women and men were equally numerous in the library profession, but women pulled ahead by 1930 and comprised 80% by 1960.[75] The factors accounting for the transition included the demographic losses of the First World War, the provisions of the Public Libraries Act of 1919, the library-building activity of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, and the library employment advocacy of the Central Bureau for the Employment of Women.[76]
Teaching
Teaching was not quite as easy to break into, but the low salaries were less of the barrier to the single woman then to the married man. By the late 1860s a number of schools were preparing women for careers as governesses or teachers. The census reported in 1851 that 70,000 women in England and Wales were teachers, compared to the 170,000 who comprised three-fourths of all teachers in 1901.[77][78] The great majority came from lower middle class origins.[79] The National Union of Women Teachers (NUWT) originated in the early 20th century inside the male-controlled National Union of Teachers (NUT). It demanded equal pay with male teachers, and eventually broke away.[80] Oxford and Cambridge minimised the role of women, allowing small all-female colleges operate. However the new redbrick universities and the other major cities were open to women.[81]
Nursing and Medicine
Florence Nightingale demonstrated the necessity of professional nursing in modern warfare, and set up an educational system that tracked women into that field in the second half of the nineteenth century. Nursing by 1900 was a highly attractive field for middle-class women.[82][83]
Medicine was very well organised by men, and posed an almost insurmountable challenge for women, with the most systematic resistance by the physicians, and the fewest women breaking through. One route to entry was to go to the United States where there were suitable schools for women as early as 1850. Britain was the last major country to train women physicians, so 80 to 90% of the British women came to America for their medical degrees. Edinburgh University admitted a few women in 1869, then reversed itself in 1873, leaving a strong negative reaction among British medical educators. The first separate school for women physicians opened in London in 1874 to a handful of students. In 1877, the King and Queen's College of Physicians in Ireland became the first institution to take advantage of the Enabling Act of 1876 and admit women to take its medical licences. In all cases, coeducation had to wait until the World War.[84][85]
Poverty among working class women
The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 defined who could receive monetary relief. The act reflected and perpetuated prevailing gender conditions. In Edwardian society, men were the source of wealth. The law restricted relief for unemployed, able-bodied male workers, due to the prevailing view that they would find work in the absence of financial assistance. However, women were treated differently. After the Poor Law was passed, women and children received most of the aid. The law did not recognise single independent women, and lumped women and children into the same category.[86] If a man was physically disabled, his wife was also treated as disabled under the law.[86] Unmarried mothers were sent to the workhouse, receiving unfair social treatment such as being restricted from attending church on Sundays.[86] During marriage disputes women often lost the rights to their children, even if their husbands were abusive.[86]
At the time, single mothers were the poorest sector in society, disadvantaged for at least four reasons. First, women had longer lifespans, often leaving them widowed with children. Second, women's work opportunities were few, and when they did find work, their wages were lower than male workers' wages. Third, women were often less likely to remarry after being widowed, leaving them as the main providers for the remaining family members.[86] Finally, poor women had deficient diets, because their husbands and children received disproportionately large shares of food. Many women were malnourished and had limited access to health care.[86]
20th century
Women in the Edwardian Era
The Edwardian era, from the 1890s to the First World War saw middle-class women breaking out of the Victorian limitations. Women had more employment opportunities and were more active. Many served worldwide in the British Empire or in Protestant missionary societies.
Housewives
For housewives, sewing machines enabled the production of ready made clothing and made it easier for women to sew their own clothes; more generally, argues Barbara Burman, "home dressmaking was sustained as an important aid for women negotiating wider social shifts and tensions in their lives."[87] An increased literacy in the middle class gave women wider access to information and ideas. Numerous new magazines appealed to her tastes and help define femininity.[88]
White-collar careers
The inventions of the typewriter, telephone, and new filing systems offered middle-class women increased employment opportunities.[89][90] So too did the rapid expansion of the school system,[91] and the emergence of the new profession of nursing. Education and status led to demands for female roles in the rapidly expanding world of sports.[92]
Women's suffrage
As middle-class women rose in status they increasingly supported demands for a political voice.[93]
In 1903,
The radical protests steadily became more violent, and included heckling, banging on doors, smashing shop windows, burning mailboxes, and arson of unoccupied buildings.
In Wales, women's participation in politics grew steadily from the start of the suffrage movement in 1907. By 2003, half the members elected to the National Assembly were women.[98]
Birth control
Although abortion was illegal, it was nevertheless the most widespread form of birth control in use.
Female servants
Edwardian Britain had large numbers of male and female
Fashion
The upper classes embraced leisure sports, which resulted in rapid developments in fashion, as more mobile and flexible clothing styles were needed.[104][105] During the Edwardian era, women wore a very tight corset, or bodice, and dressed in long skirts. The Edwardian era was the last time women wore corsets in everyday life. According to Arthur Marwick, the most striking change of all the developments that occurred during the Great War was the modification in women's dress, "for, however far politicians were to put the clocks back in other steeples in the years after the war, no one ever put the lost inches back on the hems of women's skirts".[106]
The Edwardians developed new styles in clothing design.[107] The bustle and heavy fabrics of the previous century disappeared. A new concept of tight fitting skirts and dresses made of lightweight fabrics were introduced for a more active lifestyle.[108]
- The 2 pieces dress came into vogue. Skirts hung tight at the hips and flared at the hem, creating a trumpet of lily-like shape.
- Skirts in 1901 had decorated hems with ruffles of fabric and lace.
- Some dresses and skirts featured trains.
- Tailored jackets, first introduced in 1880, increased in popularity and by 1900, tailored suits became popular.[109]
- By 1904, skirts became fuller and less clingy.
- In 1905, skirts fell in soft folds that curved in, then flared out near the hemlines.
- From 1905 - 1907, waistlines rose.
- In 1901, the hobble skirt was introduced; a tight fitting skirt that restricted a woman's stride.
- Lingerie dresses, or tea gowns made of soft fabrics, festooned with ruffles and lace were worn indoors.[110]
First World War
The First World War advanced the feminist cause, as women's sacrifices and paid employment were much appreciated. Prime Minister David Lloyd George was clear about how important the women were:
It would have been utterly impossible for us to have waged a successful war had it not been for the skill and ardour, enthusiasm and industry which the women of this country have thrown into the war.[111]
The militant suffragette movement was suspended during the war and never resumed. British society credited the new patriotic roles women played as earning them the vote in 1918.
There was a relaxing of clothing restrictions; by 1920 there was negative talk about young women called "
Social reform
The vote did not immediately change social circumstances. With the economic recession, women were the most vulnerable sector of the workforce. Some women who held jobs prior to the war were obliged to forfeit them to returning soldiers, and others were excessed. With limited franchise, the UK
Reproductive rights
Second World War
Britain's total mobilisation during this period proved to be successful in winning the war, by maintaining strong support from public opinion. The war was a "people's war" that enlarged democratic aspirations and produced promises of a postwar welfare state.[126][127]
Historians credit Britain with a highly successful record of mobilising the home front for the war effort, in terms of mobilising the greatest proportion of potential workers, maximising output, assigning the right skills to the right task, and maintaining the morale and spirit of the people.[128] Much of this success was due to the systematic planned mobilisation of women, as workers, soldiers and housewives, enforced after December 1941 by conscription.[129] The women supported the war effort, and made the rationing of consumer goods a success. In some ways, the government over planned, evacuating too many children in the first days of the war, closing cinemas as frivolous then reopening them when the need for cheap entertainment was clear, sacrificing cats and dogs to save a little space on shipping pet food, only to discover an urgent need to keep the rats and mice under control.[130] In the balance between compulsion and voluntarism, the British relied successfully on voluntarism. The success of the government in providing new services, such as hospitals, and school lunches, as well as the equalitarian spirit of the People's war, contributed to widespread support for an enlarged welfare state. Munitions production rose dramatically, and the quality remained high. Food production was emphasised, in large part to open up shipping for munitions. Farmers increased the number of acres under cultivation from 12,000,000 to 18,000,000, and the farm labor force was expanded by a fifth, thanks especially to the Women's Land Army.[131][132]
Parents had much less time for supervision of their children, and the fear of juvenile delinquency was upon the land, especially as older teenagers took jobs and emulated their older siblings in the service. The government responded by requiring all youth over 16 to register, and expanded the number of clubs and organisations available to them.[133]
Rationing
Food, clothing, petrol, leather and other such items were
The rationing system, which had been originally based on a specific basket of goods for each consumer, was much improved by switching to a points system which allowed the housewives to make choices based on their own priorities. Food rationing also permitted the upgrading of the quality of the food available, and housewives approved—except for the absence of white bread and the government's imposition of an unpalatable wheat meal "
1950s
1950s Britain was a bleak period for militant feminism. In the aftermath of World War II, a new emphasis was placed on companionate marriage and the nuclear family as a foundation of the new welfare state.[134][135]
In 1951, the proportion of adult women who were (or had been) married was 75%; more specifically, 84.8% of women between the ages of 45 and 49 were married.[136] At that time: "marriage was more popular than ever before."[137] In 1953, a popular book of advice for women states: "A happy marriage may be seen, not as a holy state or something to which a few may luckily attain, but rather as the best course, the simplest, and the easiest way of life for us all".[138]
While at the end of the war, childcare facilities were closed and assistance for working women became limited, the social reforms implemented by the new welfare state included family allowances meant to subsidise families, that is, to support women in the "capacity as wife and mother."[135] Sue Bruley argues that "the progressive vision of the New Britain of 1945 was flawed by a fundamentally conservative view of women".[139]
Women's commitment to companionate marriage was echoed by the popular media: films, radio and popular
Nevertheless, 1950s Britain saw several strides towards the parity of women, such as
Feminist writers of that period, such as
Political and sexual roles
Women's political roles grew in the 20th century after the first woman entered the House in 1919. The 1945 election trebled their number to twenty-four, but then it plateaued out. The next great leap came in 1997, as 120 female MPs were returned. Women have since comprised around 20 per cent of the Commons. The 2015 election saw a peak of 191 elected.
The 1960s saw dramatic shifts in sexual attitudes and values, led by youth.[146] It was a worldwide phenomenon, in which British rock musicians especially The Beatles played an international role.[147] The generations divided sharply regarding the new sexual freedom demanded by youth who listened to bands like The Rolling Stones.[148]
Sexual morals changed. One notable event was the publication of
21st century
From 2007 to 2015,
See also
Topics
- Abortion in the United Kingdom
- Economic history of the United Kingdom, after 1700
- Feminism in the United Kingdom
- Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp
- Historiography of the British Empire
- Historiography of the United Kingdom
- List of female members of the House of Lords
- Social history of England
- Social history of the United Kingdom (1945–present)
- Suffrage in the United Kingdom
- The Women's Peace Crusade
- Timeline of Female MPs in the House of Commons
- Women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
- Women in the House of Lords
- Women in the Victorian era
- Women in World War I (Great Britain)
- Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom
Scotland
Wales
Categories
- British suffragists
- British women
- English women
- Scottish women
- Welsh women
- Women from Northern Ireland
- Women in Scotland
Organisations
- British Federation of University Women(BFUW), founded in 1907.
- NASUWT, The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, formed 1976
- National Council of Women of Great Britain
- National Union of Women Teachers, formed 1904
- Adelaide Anne Procter (1825–1864) writer on behalf of unemployed women
- Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps, unit in First World War
- Society for Promoting the Employment of Women (SPEW), formed 1859; in 1926 renamed the Society for Promoting the Training of Women (SPTW)
- Townswomen's Guild, formed 1929
- Women's Freedom League
- Women's Institutes
- Scottish Women's Institutes, formed in 1917
- Women's Social and Political Union, suffragists of early 20th century
Individuals
- Margaret Bondfield (1873–1953) women's rights activist
- Edith Balfour Lyttelton(1865–1948) novelist, activist and spiritualist.
- Mary Macarthur (1880–1921) trade unionist and women's rights campaigner.
Notes
- ^ "Human Development Report 2021/2022" (PDF). HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORTS. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
- ^ "The Global Gender Gap Report 2021" (PDF). World Economic Forum. pp. 10–11. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
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- ^ Weinstein, Minna F. (1978). "Reconstructing our past: reflections on Tudor women". International Journal of Women's Studies. 1 (2). Eden Press Women's Publications: 133–158.
- ISBN 9781315846750.
- ^ Shapiro, Susan C. (1977). "Feminists in Elizabethan England". History Today. 27 (11): 703–711.
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- ^ Lolis, Thomas G. (Summer 2008). "The City of Witches: James I, the Unholy Sabbath, and the homosocial refashioning of the witches' community" (PDF). Clio: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History. 37 (3). Indiana University, Purdue University and Fort Wayne: 322–337.
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- )
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- PMID 11621339.
- OCLC 626706770. A publication about birth control. View original copy.
- See also: Langer, William L. (Spring 1975). "The origins of the birth control movement in England in the early nineteenth century". Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 5 (4). PMID 11619426.
- See also: Langer, William L. (Spring 1975). "The origins of the birth control movement in England in the early nineteenth century". Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 5 (4).
- BBC History Magazine.
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- ^ Murray, Janet Horowitz (1984), "Domestic life in poverty", in Murray, Janet Horowitz (ed.), Strong-minded women: and other lost voices from nineteenth-century England, Aylesbury: Penguin Books, pp. 177–179.
- ISBN 9780198207146.
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- ^ ISBN 9781872870571.
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- ^ Katz, Sanford N. (1992). ""That they may thrive" goal of child custody: reflections on the apparent erosion of the tender years presumption and the emergence of the primary caretaker presumptions". Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy. 8 (1). Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America.
- ISBN 9780198226512.
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- S2CID 144723898.
- JSTOR 3827971.
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- Also available as: Bullough, Vera L. (1987), "Prostitution and reform in eighteenth-century England", in Maccubbin, Robert P., ed. (1987). Tis nature's fault: unauthorized sexuality during the Enlightenment. Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 61–74. ISBN 9780521347686.
- Also available as: Bullough, Vera L. (1987), "Prostitution and reform in eighteenth-century England", in Maccubbin, Robert P., ed. (1987). Tis nature's fault: unauthorized sexuality during the Enlightenment. Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 61–74.
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- PMID 11622578.
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- S2CID 145522426.
- S2CID 218688858.
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- ISBN 9780415867528.
- .
- .
- S2CID 144093378.
- ISBN 9780415539746.
- ISBN 9781409423140.
- ISBN 9780674893047.
- S2CID 143467317.
- ^ .
- ISBN 9781859732083.
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- S2CID 29861500.
- ISBN 9780719024009.
- ISBN 9781138008045.
- ^ Parratt, Cartriona M. (1989). "Athletic 'Womanhood': Exploring sources for female sport in Victorian and Edwardian England" (PDF). Journal of Sport History. 16 (2). North American Society for Sport History: 140–157.
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- OCLC 24731395.
- ISBN 9780198207146. Quote pp. 468.
- hdl:10107/1292074.
- ^ PMID 11610301.
- JSTOR 3826710.
- ^
- JSTOR 3786464.
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- ^ "Strand 2: Women's Suffrage Societies (2NSE Records of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship)". twl-calm.library.lse.ac.uk. The Women's Library @ London School of Economics.
- S2CID 144349823.
- ISBN 9780313345814.
- ^ "Strand 5: (5ODC Campaigning Organisations Records of the Open Door Council)". twl-calm.library.lse.ac.uk. The Women's Library @ London School of Economics.
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- ^ Balaram, P. (10 August 2003). "Population". Current Science. 85 (3). Current Science Association (India): 233–234. Archived from the original on 9 August 2016.
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- Cited in Banks, Olive (1981). Faces of feminism: a study of feminism as a social movement. Oxford, England: Martin Robertson. p. 176. ISBN 9780855202606.
- Cited in Banks, Olive (1981). Faces of feminism: a study of feminism as a social movement. Oxford, England: Martin Robertson. p. 176.
- ISBN 9780415032469.
- ^ Luke Blaxill, and Kaspar Beelen. "A feminized language of democracy? The representation of women at Westminster since 1945." Twentieth Century British History 27.3 (2016): 412-449. online
- ^ Kristin Skoog, "Neither worker nor housewife but citizen: BBC’s Woman’s Hour 1946–1955." Women's History Review 26.6 (2017): 953-974. online
- ^ Robbie Duschinsky, "The emergence of sexualization as a social problem: 1981–2010." Social Politics 20.1 (2012): 137-156. online
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- ^ "Harman snatches an empty victory". The Sunday Times. 22 February 2009.
- London Evening Standard. 29 March 2008.
- ^ Tavernor, Rachel (8 March 2013). "Sisterhood and after: first oral history archive of the UK Women's Liberation Movement". REFRAME. School of Media, Film and Music, University of Sussex. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
Further reading
Historiography
- Bingham, Adrian (2004). "'An era of domesticity'? Histories of women and gender in interwar Britain". S2CID 145681847.
- Kanner, Barbara, ed. (1979). "The women of England from Anglo-Saxon times to the present: interpretive bibliographical essays". Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books. ) 12 chronological surveys by scholars.
- Loades, David M. (2003), "Historiography: Feminist and Women's History", in Loades, David M. (ed.), Reader's guide to British history vol. 1: A to L, New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, pp. 640–642, ISBN 9781579584269.
- Loades, David M. (2003), "Women and Employment: (20th Century)", in Loades, David M. (ed.), Reader's guide to British history vol. 2: M to Z, New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, pp. 1374–1386, ISBN 9781579584276.
- Purvis, June, ed. (1995). Women's history: Britain, 1850-1945: an introduction. Bristol, Pennsylvania: UCL Press. ISBN 9781857283204.
- Steinbach, Susie (November 2012). "Can we still use 'Separate Spheres'? British History 25 years after Family Fortunes". .
- See also: Davidoff, Leonore; Hall, Catherine (2013) [1987]. Family fortunes: men and women of the English middle class 1780-1850. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781135143978.
- See also: Davidoff, Leonore; Hall, Catherine (2013) [1987]. Family fortunes: men and women of the English middle class 1780-1850. London New York: Routledge.
- JSTOR 2639654.
Demographic and family history
- Gillis, John R. (1985). For better, for worse: British marriages, 1600 to the present. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195045567.
- Szreter, Simon; Fisher, Kate (2010). Sex before the sexual revolution: intimate life in England 1918-1963. Cambridge, UK New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521149327.
- Wrigley, E. A.; Schofield, Roger S. (1989). The population history of England, 1541-1871: a reconstruction. Cambridge England New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521356886.
Pre 1800
- Ashelford, Jane (1983). A visual history of costume: the sixteenth century. London New York: Batsford Drama Book Publishers. ISBN 9780896760769.
- Bailey, Joanne (December 2002). "Favoured or oppressed? Married women, property and 'coverture' in England, 1660–1800". S2CID 11354509.
- Crawford, Patricia (1993). Women and religion in England, 1500-1720. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415016964.
- D'Cruze, Shani; Jackson A., Louise (2009). Women, crime and justice in England since 1660. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137156907.
- Davidoff, Leonore; Hall, Catherine (2013) [1987]. Family fortunes: men and women of the English middle class 1780-1850. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781135143978.
- Hartley, Dorothy; Elliot, Margaret M. (1926). Life and work of the people of England: the sixteenth century: a pictorial record from contemporary source. London: B.T. Batsford. OCLC 874579264.
- Laurence, Anne (1994). Women in England, 1500-1760: a social history. New York: St. Martin's Press. .
- Leyser, Henrietta (1996). Medieval women: a social history of women in England, 450-1500. London: Phoenix Giant. ISBN 9781842126219.
- Morrill, John, ed. (2000). The Oxford illustrated history of Tudor and Stuart Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192893277. Survey essays by leading scholars; heavily illustrated.
- Seymour Bridges, Robert; et al. (1916). Shakespeare's England: an account of the life & manners of his age (2 volumes). Oxford: Clarendon. OCLC 868363006. Essays by experts on social history and customs.
- Martin, Joanna (2004). Wives and daughters: women and children in the Georgian country house. London New York: Hambledon and London. ISBN 9781852852719.
- Notestein, Wallace (1969), "The English Woman, 1580-1650", in Plumb, J. H. (ed.), Studies in social history: a tribute to G.M. Trevelyan, Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press, pp. 69–107, ISBN 9780836910636.
- Pelling, Madeleine. "Reimagining Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots: women’s historiography and domestic identities, c. 1750–1800." Women's History Review 29.7 (2020): 1085-1113 online[dead link].
- Peters, Christine (2004). Women in early modern Britain, 1450-1640. Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780333633595.
- Prior, Mary, ed. (1985). Women in English society, 1500-1800. London New York: Methuen. ISBN 9780416357103.
- Shoemaker, Robert (1998). Gender in English society, 1650-1850: the emergence of separate spheres. London New York: Longman. ISBN 9780582103160.
- Singman, Jeffrey L. (1995). Daily life in Elizabethan England. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
- Smith, Bonnie G. (1989). Changing lives: women in European history since 1700. Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Co. ISBN 9780669145618.
- Stafford, Pauline (1994), "Women and the Norman conquest", in OCLC 631749975.
- Stearns, Peter N., ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of European social history from 1350 to 2000 (6 volumes). New York: Scribner. ISBN 9780684805825. 209 essays by leading scholars in 3000 pp.; many aspects of women's history covered.
- Stenton, Doris Mary (1957). English Woman in History. London: Allen & Unwin. OCLC 540932912. From Middle Ages to 1850s.
- Stone, Lawrence (1977). The family, sex and marriage in England 1500-1800. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 9780140551679.
- Sweet, Rosemary; Lane, Penelope, eds. (2003). Women and urban life in eighteenth-century England: on the town. Aldershot, Hampshire, England Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate. ISBN 9780754607304.
- Tague, Ingrid H. (2002). Women of quality: accepting and contesting ideals of femininity in England, 1690-1760. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK Rochester, New York: Boydell Press. ISBN 9780851159072.
- Thomas, Keith (1971), "Witchcraft in England: the crime and its history", in Thomas, Keith (ed.), Religion and the decline of magic: studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth and seventeenth century England, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, pp. 435–468, OCLC 909040764.
- ISBN 9780300102222.
- Ward, Jennifer (2002). Women in medieval Europe: 1200-1500. London New York: Longman. ISBN 9780582288270.
- Warnicke, Retha M. (1983). Women of the English Renaissance and Reformation. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313236112.
- Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. (2008). Women and gender in early modern Europe (3rd ed.). Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press.
Women as workers
- Abel-Smith, Brian (1960). "A history of the nursing profession in Great Britain". New York: Springer Pub. Co. )
- Bennett, Judith M. (1999). Ale, beer and brewsters in England: women's work in a changing world, 1300-1600. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Burnette, Joyce (2008). Gender, work and wages in industrial revolution Britain. Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521880633.
- Charles, Lindsey; Duffin, Lorna, eds. (1985). Women and work in pre-industrial England. London Dover, New Hampshire: Croom Helm. ISBN 9780709908562.
- Clark, Alice (1919). "The working life of women in the seventeenth century". London: Routledge.
- Earle, Peter (August 1989). "The female labour market in London in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries". JSTOR 2596437.
- Gerard, Jessica (1994). Country house life: family and servants, 1815-1914. Oxford England Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell. ISBN 9780631155669.
- Gomersall, Meg (1997). Working-class girls in nineteenth-century England: life, work, and schooling. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780333622018.
- Holloway, Gerry (2005). Women and work in Britain since 1840. London New York: Routledge.
- JSTOR 23702799.
- King, Laura. "How Men Valued Women's Work: Labour In and Outside the Home in Post-War Britain." Contemporary European History 28.4 (2019): 454–468. online
- Pinchbeck, Ivy (2014) [1930]. Women workers and the industrial revolution 1750-1850. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781138874633. Review.
- Richards, Eric (October 1974). "Women in the British economy since about 1700: an interpretation". JSTOR 24409413.
- Roberts, Elizabeth (1995). Women's work, 1840-1940. Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Soldon, Norbert C. (1978). "Women in British trade unions, 1874-1976". Dublin / Totowa, New Jersey: Gill and Macmillan / Rowman and Littlefield. )
- Steedman, Carolyn (Spring 1994). "The price of experience: women and the making of the English Working Class". .
- Verdon, Nicola (2002). Rural women workers in nineteenth-century England: gender, work and wages. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK Rochester, New York: Boydell Press. ISBN 9780851159065. Preview.
- Whittle, Jane, and Mark Hailwood. "The gender division of labour in early modern England." Economic History Review 73.1 (2020): 3-32; covers 1500 to 1700.
Since 1800
- Beck-Gernsheim, Elisabeth (2002). Reinventing the family: in search of new lifestyles. Malden, Massachusetts: Polity Press. ISBN 9780745622149.
- Beddoe, Deirdre (1989). Back to home and duty: women between the wars, 1918-1939. London San Francisco: Pandora Press. ISBN 9780044405153.
- Bingham, Adrian (2004). Gender, modernity, and the popular press in inter-war Britain. Oxford Oxford New York: Clarendon Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199272471. Covers 1919–1939.
- Bourke, Joanna (May 1994). "Housewifery in working-class England 1860-1914". JSTOR 651165.
- Bruley, Sue (1999). Women in Britain since 1900. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780312223755.
- Caine, Barbara (1997). English feminism, 1780-1980. Oxford, England New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198204343.
- Cooksley, Peter (2007). The home front: civilian life in World War Two. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus. ISBN 9780752443164.
- Cowman, Krista (2010). Women in British politics, c.1689-1979. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230545564.
- Davidoff, Leonore (1973). The best circles: Society etiquette and the season. London: Helm. OCLC 468638732.
- Davis, Angela/. Modern Motherhood: Women and Family in England, 1945–2000 (Manchester University Press, 2012), pp. 272.
- D'Cruze, Shani; Jackson, Louise A. (2009). Women, crime and justice in England since 1660. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137057204.
- Finch, Janet; Summerfield, Penny (1991), "Social reconstruction and the emergence of companionate marriage, 1945–59", in Clark, David (ed.), Marriage, domestic life, and social change: writings for Jacqueline Burgoyne, 1944-88, London New York, New York: Routledge, pp. 7–32, ISBN 9780415032469.
- Gill, Sean (1994). Women and the Church of England: from the eighteenth century to the present. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK). ISBN 9780281047680.
- Gleadle, Kathryn (2001). British women in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Palgrave. ISBN 9780333676295.
- Gorham, Deborah (2013). The Victorian girl and the feminine ideal. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 9780415623261.
- Gottlieb, Julie V., and Richard Toye. The Aftermath of Suffrage: Women, Gender, and Politics in Britain, 1918-1945 (Springer, 2013).
- Harmer, Emily (2013). Gendered election coverage: the representation of women in British newspapers, 1918-2010 (PDF) (Ph.D.). OCLC 855698029. Bibliography pp. 268–282.
- Harrison, Brian (1978). Separate spheres: the opposition to women's suffrage in Britain. New York: Holmes & Meier. ISBN 9780841903852.
- Hilton, Mary (2007). Women and the shaping of the nation's young: education and public doctrine in Britain, 1750-1850. Aldershot, England Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate. ISBN 9780754657903.
- Kamm, Josephine (1965). Hope deferred: Girls' education in English history. London: Methuen & Co. OCLC 776870326.
- S2CID 145429727.
- Lewis, Jane E. (1984). Women in England 1870-1950. Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books. OCLC 646888113.
- Lewis, Jane E. (1992). Women in Britain since 1945: women, family, work, and the state in the post-war years. Oxford, UK Cambridge, USA: Blackwell. ISBN 9780631169758.
- Lewis, Jane (2013). "The failure to expand childcare provision and to develop a comprehensive childcare policy in Britain during the 1960s and 1970s". .
- McCarthy, Helen. "The Rise of the Working Wife." History Today (May 2020) 70#5 pp 18–20, covers 1950 to 1960; online
- Martin, Jane; Goodman, Joyce (2004). Women and education, 1800-1980. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780333947227.
- Morris, Robert John (2005). Men, women and property in England, 1780-1870 : a social and economic history of family strategies amongst the Leeds middle classes. Cambridge, UK New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521838085.
- Noakes, Lucy (2006). Women in the British Army: war and the gentle sex, 1907-1948. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780203088326.
- )
- Oram, Alison; Turnbull, Annmarie (2013). Lesbian history sourcebook: love and sex between women in Britain from 1780 to 1970. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781306050326.
- Owen, Nicolas (2013). "Men and the 1970s British Women's Liberation Movement". S2CID 159550620.
- Paterson, Laura (2019). "'I didn't feel like my own person': paid work in women's narratives of self and working motherhood, 1950–1980". S2CID 150953503.
- ISBN 9780349116600.
- Pierce, Rachel M. (July 1963). "Marriage in the Fifties". S2CID 145668360.
- Pugh, Martin (1990), "Domesticity and the decline of feminism 1930–1950", in Smith, Harold L. (ed.), British feminism in the Twentieth Century, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, pp. 144–162, ISBN 9780870237058.
- Pugh, Martin (2000). Women and the women's movement in Britain, 1914-1999. New York, New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780312234911.
- Reynolds, K. D. (1998). Aristocratic women and political society in Victorian Britain. Oxford Oxford New York: Clarendon Press Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198207276. Preview.
- Spencer, Stephanie (2005). Gender, work and education in Britain in the 1950s. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781403938169.
- Stearns, Peter N., ed. (2001). Encyclopedia of European social history from 1350 to 2000 (6 volumes). New York: Scribner. ISBN 9780684805825. 209 essays by leading scholars in 3000 pp.; many aspects of women's history covered.
- Storey, Neil R.; Housego, Molly (2010). Women in the First World War. Oxford: Shire Publications. ISBN 9780747807520.
- Verdon, Nicola (Autumn 2010). "'The Modern Countrywoman': Farm women, domesticity and social change in interwar Britain". .
- Vicinus, Martha (1972). Suffer and be still: women in the Victorian Age. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253201683.
- ISBN 9780582404809.
- S2CID 44849396.
Scotland and Wales
- Abrams, Lynn; et al. (2006). Gender in Scottish history since 1700. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748617616.
- Beddoe, Deirdre (2000). Out of the shadows: a history of women in twentieth-century Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 9780708315910.
- Breitenbach, Esther (1992). Out of bounds: women in Scottish society 1800-1945. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ]
- Browne, Sarah (2014). The women's liberation movement in Scotland. Manchester, UK New York: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719087295. Online review.
- Ewan, Elizabeth; Innes, Sue; Reynolds, Siân, eds. (2007). The biographical dictionary of Scottish women : from the earliest times to 2004. Rose Pipes (Co-ordinating Editor). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748632930.
- Ewan, Elizabeth (March 2009). "A new trumpet? The history of women in Scotland 1300–1700". . A new field since the 1980s; favourite topics are work, family, religion, crime, and images of women; scholars are using women's letters, memoirs, poetry, and court records.
- Holcombe, Lee (1973). Victorian ladies at work: middle-class working women in England and Wales, 1850-1914. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books. ISBN 9780208013408.
- Hughes, Annmarie (2010). Gender and political identities in Scotland, 1919-1939. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748639816.
- Johnes, Martin (November 2010). "For class and nation: dominant trends in the historiography of Twentieth-Century Wales". .
- McDermid, Jane (2011). "No longer curiously rare but only just within bounds: women in Scottish history". S2CID 143113878.
- Rolph, Avril (2003), "A movement of its own: The Women's Liberation Movement in South Wales", in Graham, Helen (ed.), The feminist seventies, York: Raw Nerve Books, pp. 45–73, ISBN 9780953658558.