Feminist Archive North

Perspectives from Feminist Archive North and Beyond

The UK’s Electrical Association for Women (EAW) was launched 100 years ago, on 12 November 1924. For more than six decades the EAW promoted women’s professional expertise in electrifying the home, and launched qualification schemes that enabled thousands of women to hold technical careers. Yorkshire was a major locus of activity, with many EAW branches inspired by the example of Laura Annie Willson: former suffragette, Halifax engineer-house builder and President of the EAW’s parent organisation, the Women’s Engineering Society (founded 1919).

Please join us at this free event to discuss Feminist Archive North’s historical collections relating to the EAW – books, journals, badges and tea-towels – and reflect with us on what the EAW’s legacy might mean for women’s roles in achieving a de-carbonised world.

Speakers: Lynette Willoughby (Former President of Women’s Engineering Society, & FAN Archive volunteer), Katie Carpenter (Lecturer in Public History, School of History, University of Leeds) and Graeme Gooday (Professor of History of Science & Technology, School of PRHS, University of Leeds).

Event details: Tuesday 12 November 12-1 (with free bookable lunch 1-2 pm). at Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery, Parkinson Court, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT.  Map location here.

Advance booking essential – please book no later than Tuesday 5 November. Booking

Our Textiles and Banners collection is one of our most used by researchers. We have recently reorganised it to make items easier to find and to see, and improved the cataloguing. The collection mainly consists of t-shirts and banners, but also includes other items such as tea towels, scarves, tote bags and placards. More items are being added regularly. You can see the collection at Textiles and Banners.

Feminist Audio Books (FAB) was set up in the 1980s to produce feminist, lesbian and woman-focused material in audio, and to act as a postal audio library for women who could not use print. FAB has been in abeyance for a number of years, and is currently in a spare bedroom. This is a waste of excellent resources which are still important today.

FAB has over 250 brilliant and important books on cassette tape that are not available commercially or from other audio libraries. They are looking to bring together a group who are interested in reviving FAB: identifying the best way to go forward, converting the current stock to digital media, and making more audio books available at low or no cost to women.

If you think you can be part of a group to move FAB forward, please email contact.feministaudio@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has taken us over two years to sort, conserve and catalogue this wonderful collection about the peace activist Helen John. In 2009 Helen donated to FAN some materials on women’s peace camps, as well as some prison correspondence. After her death in 2017 her family gave a further large donation of a range of documents and other artefacts. We have now merged these into a single collection.

Helen was a founder member of Greenham Common women’s peace camp, and later helped set up the women’s peace camp at Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, the site of an American eavesdropping base. Apart from her activism at these two camps, she took part in innumerable direct actions and was arrested many times. She also stood against Tony Blair in the 2001 general election while she was in prison.

While working on this collection we have laughed a great deal reading about the sheer audacity of these women peace activists, and have been amazed by their commitment to keep taking direct action despite setbacks. You can see the collection catalogue here.

Apart from a small collection of key feminist texts, our archive doesn’t normally hold books. However, when feminist writer Zoe Fairbairns offered us a selection of her publications, we couldn’t say no.

Zoe Fairbairns joined the Women’s Liberation Movement in 1970 and has remained involved ever since. Her writing (both fiction and non fiction) has been a key part of her activism. Here Today won the 1984 Fawcett Book prize; Benefits was shortlisted for the Hawthornden Prize for imaginative literature and the Philip K Dick award for science fiction; and in 1998 Other Names was shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association award. You can view the collection here