We were contacted by Claire Mackay from Dundee College who set her students an assignment using the exhibition. They were asked to pick a poster and describe what message they thought the poster was giving and if the message fitted with women in today’s society and, if not, why. We thought this was so great that we’d feature their work on our blog, so here it is! With many thanks to Jennifer, Kayleigh, Emma, Gemma, Mhairi and Ryan, Claire Mackay and librarians, Shona Donaldson and Christine Fergusson for having us.

This poster is an important part of history because; this marks women as being part of a medical field. They used herbs and had knowledge from observing other women and having the life experience to help guide other women while giving birth. In the past women were first and foremost housewives who were meant to cook, clean and look after their husband and children. Women living in the country had to be self sufficient so that meant baking all the bread and brew beer; they also had to make their families candles and soap to wash with. Women were only allowed to have medical knowledge that would benefit her family if they were very ill; otherwise they had to go to a “wise women” who would give help and advice. Therefore this is important because women were starting to be educated about different things like medical care, this started empowering women however they were still much lower than men and still had to suffer in silence and still had to suffer inequality for many more years until women stood up for themselves after world war 2.
This message still applies today because women are still part of a medical field and have now grown to have important roles in medical care such as doctors, nurses, surgeons and midwives which are high paid and respected positions. Women today have rights and responsibilities which women in the 17-18 century didn’t have like to work and to vote when the election happens; women have the same rights as men and are treated as their equals. This shows how societies attitude towards women have changed for the better.

Jennifer Sweeney and Kayleigh Fordyce

The message some what fit in with todays society, as women still care for other women. But it is also very different in many different ways, Such as women are not seen as witches and the church now does no longer frown upon women being doctors or midwifes. Society turned against “witches” because they were independant smart women who had a mind of thier own, and came up with new forms of medicine to help women in labour, an society was not used to women thinking for themseleves. There is no longer just herbal medicines for going through labour, there is now lots of different drugs you can take to ease the pain.

Emma and Gemma

 

I think this poster marks a very important moment in society as it is about what the war had gained for women. During the war the women were the ones who were left to engineer and assemble the planes and weapons. This was the first time women were allowed to work and didn’t need to stay at home all the time to do housework, cooking and caring for the children. Many women did not enjoy life as they had to stay at home all the time. Working in the war women felt they had a purpose and that they were doing something with their life that they can do well. After the war women demanded that they wanted to carry on working. They protested for this and many people gave up so much to gain this, including one’s life. If this didn’t happen then women still would have been stuck in the house to be the perfect slave wives/mothers, who would be treated as second class citizens. Therefore this poster marks a very memorable moment in history, and without this, our society would be different today and women would still be treated lower than men. This shows that women could work just as well as men and that we fought for what we believed was right, and we had the proof to back this up. In this day and age, most women work and both men and women share their responsibilities equally.

I think this message does fit in with women in today’s society as we still expect to be treated the same as men. In this society, if a man treated you lower than them there would certainly be something done about that. (E.g, woman football presenters. A male workmate was caught being sexist against a female football presenter on air and was sacked immediately.) Women are given equal rights to men, including in the workplace. So I think this message has definitely carried on in today’s society.

Mhairi Paton

This poster really stood out to me compared with the rest because it shows what women were going through to get equal rights like the vote and equal pay etc. It also shows us that women from the past have fought for woman in today’s and in some ways have made the world a far better place for them to live. That’s why the past and future of this photo links in so well. There were a lot of pictures of protests from the past which were very interesting to see, also a recent picture from the sun newspaper which shows why equality for woman’s rights still needs being fought for still. Plus this poster was appealing to us because it showed us both sides of the past and the future, and some of these rights these women fought for will last through out the future and some of the fights for rights will carry on well into the future.

Ryan McAuley

A lot has changed over the course of 2010. We’re in new premises, thankfully waterproof and, even in the past month’s cold weather, staying above freezing (we have Eddie in the Mitchell basement to thank for that). But the move to 15 Berkeley Street, into the old Anderston Library space at the Mitchell, was rather more abrupt than we had ever planned, and we’re not yet in the purpose-built home we’ve been working towards since moving out of 109 Trongate in 2006.

That space is now a part of the 103 Trongate visual arts complex, and 81 Parnie Street is due to be renovated by Wasps Studios. Our intention, ever since the 103 Trongate development was announced and we were kindly offered the Anderston space by the Mitchell Library management, was to do the same with this space. We – Sue in particular, as our Strategic Development Manager – have been working with Gareth Hoskins Architects to undertake feasibility studies and Stage D planning for the renovation of the Anderston Library space. The plans included raising the ceiling and adding a mezzanine, essentially increasing the floorspace by 50%, and opening up the back of the space to build a glass-fronted office space. They also looked at crucial accessibility issues, and included lift access to the main floor and the mezzanine, as well as a disabled toilet. There was also space for a small kitchen area – just as crucial to the Library, as anyone who’s spent time with us can tell you: we and our learners and visitors all need our tea!

As the planning progressed, Sue and Adele, supported by the GWL staff and volunteer team, have worked incredibly hard to raise the funds for this renovation. As a result, we’ve raised money with grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund (for the archive space and, of course, Hannah the Archivist), from the Robertson Trust, the Third Sector Fund and more.

We’ve also raised funds from you, our supporters, with the Women on the Shelf initiative as well as one-off fundraisers like our ‘Auction of Pleasures’ and the recent GWL Winter Raffle. This support has been even more gratifying than the major grants, because it confirms that the Library is as important to you as it is to us, and shows us that our ambitions for the future of the Library are built on solid foundations.

But the simple fact is that this a very difficult time to be raising money. The financial crisis – crises – of the past few years, combined with the subsequent political backlash and the way in which the current Government has chosen to respond, has left the public and voluntary sector across the country under pressure. The perception is that belts must be tightened, costs cut, regardless of how this impacts on those who are most vulnerable. For an organisation like the Library, which has never been easy to pigeonhole, it is all too easy to find oneself on the wrong lists when it comes to fundraising.

It is ironic, then, that the Library has continued to build its services and reach out to more and more women, both in Glasgow and across Scotland. It could have been possible, over the past year, for us to get bogged down in crisis after crisis, whether bailing out water from our office, or scrambling to prepare for a move into a space that even the most optimistic of us would struggle to describe as ‘fit for purpose’. There have been times when it’s felt like all we have done is fight fire after fire (thankfully, never literally). But looking back over 2010, it’s clear that we are better than that.

Despite the frequent hiatus – through flood, flitting and frost – our learning programs continue to grow. From the immensely popular launch of Jackie Kay’s Red Dust Road to the many women accessing our literacy project, from the women’s history workshops held in Wigtown, Inverness and Dundee, to the oral history project working with older migrant women in Pollokshields, to the young girls combining creative writing and all-action assault course trips in Glenburn – the Library is reaching more women than ever. We continue to work in partnership with national and local organisations, universities, colleges and community centres across Glasgow and Scotland, bringing both our experience and our aspirations for women in all walks of life.

And with the move to 15 Berkeley Street, our collection is starting to come out of the boxes we’ve had in stacks 5 high since 2006. Wendy the Librarian has been readying the shelves, and we hope to start lending books very soon. Meanwhile, Hannah has been opening up the archive for more and more researchers, turning the taped up boxes into a living, working archive once more. The collections team has grown, with more volunteers being trained, joining the volunteers who help us on the reception ‘front line’ as well as those who tutor with the ALN project. And our newly visible location in the Mitchell Library building has shown a marked increase in the number of people entering our doors – many of whom have never found GWL before (and if you haven’t yet, do come and visit us at 15 Berkeley Street!).

At the same time, it’s frustrating to still have two thirds of our collection in storage in the basement of Hillhead Library, and to have no proper disabled access (not to mention no toilet!). We know that it’s frustrating for you, as well, and we’re still working, both as an organisation and with our colleagues in Glasgow Life and Glasgow City Council, to improve the situation.

It could be tempting to batten down the hatches, to cut back on what we do, to stick to the safe paths and projects, keep our collection in boxes and never venture out of Glasgow. But it’s not in our nature to do so, and would go against the guiding principles we work by.

Glasgow Women’s Library will be 20 this year: since 1991 we have been both a voice for Scotland’s women and a place where thousands of women have found their own voice. From a wholly voluntary organisation we have grown into a 12-strong staff team, supported by many more volunteers. Our collection has grown, too: what once fit in a Garnethill shopfront now fills more than 500 metre-long boxes. The range and scope of our learning opportunities has expanded, but at their core the same principles can be found.

The Library is a home for women’s histories and, we believe, their futures. The Library is words, written and spoken, recorded and remembered. It is tangible objects that illuminate history, like the umbrella stand painted by imprisoned suffragettes, and it is the intangible ripple effect of empowering women to take control of their own lives. The Library is not easily contained, despite the constraints that have been placed on women’s voices over the years.

We don’t know what 2011 holds for us. Rather than making resolutions in the New Year, we will simply say: We are resolved. We know that it won’t be easy, but we are working towards a fully sustainable future for the Library, and for Scotland’s women.

This year the conference was entitled: ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ and the theme was LGBT youth work.

First we heard about HLF funding for youth projects through the Young Roots programme. Most of the people who turned up were supported and/or had benefited in some way from this important funder (not least myself!).

We heard from Niamh Moore and Alison Ronan about the feminist webs project. They have accumulated an archive for girls and put feminist youth work resources online.
There is a downloadable excel file listing their physical archives which are held by Manchester University.

Finn Greig spoke from Gendered Intelligence , an organisation specialising in creative and artistic work with trans young people. He encouraged us all to include ‘trans’ or other such terms in promotional literature to make events inclusive as possible.

Next the Social History of Learning Disability History research group gave a presentation. Using oral history and archives, they work closely with those with learning disability to uncover their lost histories. They pointed out that those with learning disability are often perceived by their carers to have no sexuality and in the rare cases when they are, they are presumed to be heterosexual; those that for instance, are gay and disabled, face double discrimination. They showed how important archives – such as medical case files, family photographs and maps and plans of institutions – were for participants in recovering and recording their own histories. We discussed how medical case files and other institutional records are under threat and are often destroyed or hard to track down.

In the break I picked up lists of LGBT resources held by the London Metropolitan Archives and The Women’s Library, London – useful for people doing research and wanting to find out what is held where.

Just before lunch it was my turn and I gave a short presentation about the Lesbian Archive, held here at Glasgow Women’s Library and the Lesbians in Peer Support (LIPS) project. We then had a quick session looking at objects from the Lesbian Archive handling trunk. This trunk is available to hire to various groups for a small deposit.

Lesbian Treasure Trove

We had a group discussion about some of the objects from the trunk including how plain and discreet the 1978 lesbian travel guide Gaia’s Guide was, how subscriptions to the lesbian magazine, Arena 3 were sent in a plain sealed envelope, and how things had changed, or not changed in local government since the 1985 Greater London Council’s Changing the World: A London Charter for Gay and Lesbian Rights. I also asked people what they would choose to put in a time capsule to represent something about sexuality today; responses ranged from Madonna’s conical bra, to a mortgage for a lesbian couple, from a young girl’s t-shirt with the slogan: ‘I f***ed your boyfriend’, to a gay leather bondage suit (collecting archivists take note!).

In the afternoon the author, poet and playwright, Maureen Duffy kindly and skilfully led a writing workshop. She read from her 1966 novel, Microcosm reading out a scene describing Gateways, the famous lesbian club. This was part of the Queer London 2011 writing competition. If you want to find out more about entering the competition click here

The ‘Re-writing History’ LGBT group, with support from the Terence Higgins Trust, have developed a training pack for use in schools and I picked up a couple of copies to add to the library’s resources. In the last workshop, members of this youth group led us through a thought-provoking session looking at the demands of the LGBT movement and changes that have happened in the last 50 years.

It was good to try out creative ways of engaging with and opening up discussions about the history of equality, sexuality and identity. I was left with the impression that archivists, artists, teachers, youth workers and campaigners need to work more closely together to develop learning opportunities to address inequality and homophobia. Another theme was the importance of oral history and of actively collecting and using materials.

On that note I really need to get on with cataloguing and making sure that the Lesbian Archive becomes more available…..

We cut up and decorated different words or labels others and ourselves have used to describe Virginia Woolf and tied them to pieces of fruit.These words included: ‘Waves’ ‘Introspective’ ‘The Subconscious’, ‘Public Intellectual’, ‘Woman’, ‘Letter Writer’, ‘Eclipse’, ‘Childless’, ‘Modernist-Edwardian’, ‘Stream of Consciousness’, ‘Public Speaker’, ‘Sapphist’. Some words we decided not to use. How do we define others – people like Virginia Woolf – who we only know through their writing and their portrayal in films and books?

Image of fruitbowl with words attached

Recently I re-read A Room of One’s Own (1929). In it Woolf describes not being admitted into an Oxbridge library as “ladies are only admitted to the library if accompanied by a Fellow of the College or furnished with a letter of introduction.”

This makes me think about the Advocate’s Library in Edinburgh where I worked for a short time. This was a very old law library which had really big old tomes that I had to re-shelve by climbing up a narrow wooden ladder. There was also a room with portraits of legal worthies which I was told had until only recently, women had been allowed to enter. I only went in this room once or twice and, when I did, I felt like I was trespassing. It also made me think about archives – it is still common practice for archives to be appointment only and open only to bona fide researchers who have letters of introduction.

What barriers are there for women today for accessing culture and having a space in which to think, read and write? How can women get to know other women, women’s culture, writings, ideas and history? What about lesbian history?

“For if Chloe likes Olivia and Mary Carmichael knows how to express it she will light a torch in that vast chamber where nobody has yet been.” (Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, 1929)

We have the lesbian archive here – and it’s not just the information that is in it that is important; it is the shared space in which to encounter and shed light on the books, papers, oral histories and ideas that is important.

We’re pleased to announce the sale of many issues of the feminist current affairs magazine Everywoman, at the bargain price of 40p per issue (or 10 for £2).  The Library’s collection of this publication is of such importance that we continue to house two runs – but due to space restrictions we’d like to share editions of which GWL has multiple copies.  Owning editions of Everywoman is a wonderful opportunity to help the Library preserve women’s history for future generations.  Exploring the history of British women’s magazines provides an insight into what has and has not changed for women over the years.  Everywoman remains highly current in that many of the issues addressed (such as the non-payment of child support) are ongoing inequities.

Everywoman is a radical departure from the familiar content of contemporary woman’s magazines, which act as a conduit for advertising – urging us to love our bodies alongside advertisements for plastic surgery.  The lifetime of Everywoman’s  publication shows the extent to which there was a readership for an alternative periodical.  The publication played a role in connecting women politically and socially, combating isolation ideologically and bringing together women who may be geographically remote from each other.  For many women, such publications (see also Spare Rib, Shrew or Red Rag) offered a rare space in which to discuss taboo subjects such as female sexuality.

Similarly to Spare Rib, Everywoman shunned the glossy aesthetic of magazines like Cosmopolitan, instead replicating the style of the newsletters of the 1960s underground press, evidencing its grassroots origins.  Features from the 100^th issue include ‘The Wild Woman Within’ – an article on witchcraft and “conscious femininity”; an essay on the return of Independent Midwives to the NHS, particularly pertinent right now considering the perilous position of Independent Midwifery and the recent incarceration of an Independent Hungarian Midwife for supporting homebirths.[1]

Although a commercial magazine maintained by its readership, at its inception Everywoman was published by a women’s co-operative (owned and run by its editorial committee).  Chrissie Hynde was a lifetime supporting subscriber, and Germaine Greer and Susie Orbach were also long-term subscribers to Everywoman.  The magazine was founded in 1985 by British journalist Candy Atherton, who later became a Labour MP for Falmouth and Camborne from 1997 to 2005.  Fellow founder member and editor Barbara Rogers ‘lasted nine years [with the magazine] before a particularly nasty lockout (led by the male solicitor) put an end to it all.’ [2] Like Candy, Barbara has also been a Labour Party activist and London councillor, but is no longer a Labour Party member as Barbara felt at odds with the policies of the Blair administration.  Barbara still thinks there is space for a women’s magazine, this time weekly, and full of job ads.

Since Spare Rib shut down in the 1990s, there has been a distinct lack of feminist magazines available in Britain, in comparision to the USA, for instance, where women can choose between Bitch (http://bitchmagazine.org/), Bust (http://www.bust.com/), and Ms. (http://www.msmagazine.com/).  However, in 1997 The Guardian[3] documented the founding of six new British feminist magazines in 18 months, including KnockBack (www.knockback.co.uk), Uplift! (/www.upliftmagazine.com), Subtext (now publishing it’s last edition), and Desperate Living.  Despite still being in the early stages of development, with a limited circulation and financing, the launch of these magazines documents a passion for media-led social change amongst young British women.

We can do it…But we need your help!

Our collection of feminist periodicals is missing the following editions of Everywoman, which we’d be delighted to acquire: July 1985; December 1986; January 1987; April 1987; October 1987; January 1990; and January 1996.  We’d also love to add the following issues of Spare Rib: 1972 Issue 1; 1972 Issue 2; 1972 Issue 4; 1973 Issue 7; 1973 Issue 8; and 1973 Issue 13.

[2] Asha Centre.  2010. [online] Available from: http://www.ashacentre.org/barbara%20r.html [Accessed 2 November 2010.]

[3] The Guardian 13 July 2007 [online] Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jul/13/pressandpublishing.genderissues [Accessed 2 November 2010].

Brand new GWL Borrower's Card (Wendy's very excited!)

Watch this space to find out when you can get your hands on one!

Collection of Poems, Mrs William Patterson

This weeks Archive item of the week, are a collection of poems put together after the death of their author, Mrs William Patterson. They date from sometime before 1901, and were written in Ontario, Canada, where Mrs Patterson lived with her husband. She had moved with her husband from Fifeshire in 1846, and she began writing these poems at the age of 60, after some years living in Canada.

The poems are revealing of Mrs Patterson’s piety and Christianity. In To the Infidel, Mrs Patterson writes imploringly to atheists that they will not shake her belief in God;

Say not there is no God,
I listen not to thee,
Even in this sinful heart of mine
Should whisper so to me.
I know there is a God
That hears and answers prayer,
Who bids us seek His loving face
And cast on Him our care

These are the words of a defiant Christian, and her assurance of her own faith appears again and again throughout this small collection. She refers to Scotland in many of her poems as a land where God is eternally present. In Lines Written on a Challenge Debate, she writes:

I’ve wandered round St Andrew’s scores,
When summer days were sheen,
Stood where the martyrs’ ashes rest
Beneath the sod so green

 …

Ah, many a brave true Scottish heart
Lies underneath the sod,
Who only fought for liberty
And peace to worship God

Her poems are remarkably lyrical and expressive, and there is a clarity to her language which can be very beautiful. Her clear love and affection for her homeland never wanes throughout the collection, and she recalls her memories of Scotland with the same love and respect with which she speaks of her religion.

It is however in her more personal poems about her relationship with Scotland, that we see her true sense of loss at having left her home. In reading these particular poems, you get a sense of the otherness and isolation which she feels living in a foreign land. It is in these poems, rather than her religious offerings, that the true scale of her ability comes out. Her poems are certainly of their time, and reflect an understanding of the romantic tradition which they undoubtedly owe a lot to. This post will end with a poem by Mrs Patterson, in the collection, called Flowers From Home, which certainly reflects her romanticised view of Scotland and her profound sense of alienation in Canada.

Flowers from Home

They are only some little flowers,
Brought here by a stranger’s hand,
From the far off garden bowers
Of my dear old father-land;
Only some little flowers,
But what a delight to me,
For they bring to mind our Eastern clime
And our home by the sunny sea

Only some little flowers,
But the tears will fill my eyes
As I look on the blossoms I used to love,
With a great and glad surprise
Ah! Darling little flowers,
You are aliens here like me,
But you will not pine for our Eastern clime
Nor our home by the sunny sea. 

India and the Report of the Joint Select Committee , written by the Duchess of Atholl (M.P), and J.C French (Member of the Indian Legislative Assembly, 1929-1932).

Katherine Steward-Murray, also know as the Duchess of Atholl, is a British political figure. She became Scotland’s first elected female MP, and the first female Conservative minister in 1924. During her political career, she courted much political controversy as she began to take an interest in ‘international’ campaigns, most notably the problems facing the transfer of power in the Indian empire, and the controversial issue of African female circumcision.

This pamphlet from the GWL archive, written by the Duchess of Atholl, investigates the state of India, and the problems with governing such a large culturally and ethnically diverse ‘empire’. It looks at the size of the country itself and the relative size of the populations of peoples within India, as well as the religious tensions present within the country.

She was not content with her party’s intentions to establish Indian self-rule, as she was certain that this would cause civil unrest and eventually war, and it is this which is at the heart of her arguments in this pamphlet.

Under the proposed Constitution there must be a Hindu majority in the All India Federal Assembly, for the Hindus outnumbered the Mahomedans [Muslims], both in British India and in the States, by more than three to one. But in the north-west of India there is a great block of Mahomedans… Will these men tamely submit rule?… It is this Hindu- Mohamedan  question which brought us into India, has kept us there until now, and must continue keep us there in the interests of peace…  (p 22, India, and the Report of the Joint Select Committee)

Despite it’s justification of continued British colonial involvement in India, the pamphlet does raise important points about how Indian self-government should work, and outwardly criticises the policy of the British government. The pamphlet points out that the establishment of parliamentary government in India should not be the result of an ‘overnight’ transfer of power, but should come about through a process of change and adjustment. She argues that “prudence” is necessary when you make political and economic changes to a country as large and diverse as India. The establishment of an Act, such as the India Act, is not adequate enough to bring peaceful and lawful governance.

Her opposition to her own party’s attitude towards Indian self rule contributed to her being sidelined in British politics, and in 1935 after the India Act was passed, she resigned for several months. The act itself was for the most part disliked in Britain and in India, as it did not go far enough in giving Indian’s governance of their own country, and was perceived by colonialists as not protecting British interests.

The impact of the Duchess of Atholl in British politics should not be underestimated. Throughout her career as a politician she consistently campaigned on issues which she felt were being ignored by British parliamentary politics, and was a pioneering female political figure. This pamphlet, despite upholding imperialism, exemplifies this desire to broaden contemporary political debate, and her unwillingness to tow the party line.

For further information on the Duchess of Atholl, you can consult the Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women, and online biographies.

We’ve also kindly received nineteen paintings from artist, Claire Galloway (see pictured). It is really exciting to receive these artworks and archives and I’d like to say a big thank you to all those who’ve donated them. Without people’s kind donations the library would not exist. Now I’ve just got to get on and catalogue them….

healing (protection) by Claire Galloway, 2000