Women battling for rights and equality form the centrepiece of two happenings in Salford during September at the Working Class Movement Library.
First up is a one day Radical Women 1880-1914 Conference with a keynote address by the legendary Professor Sheila Rowbotham, one of the leading figures behind the Women's Liberation Movement during the Seventies, who now lectures at the University of Manchester.
The other keynote address is by Professor Karen Hunt, of Keele University, an expert in the gendering of politics, as the Conference covers everything from the Cabin restaurant waitress strike of 1908 to the forgotten history of domestic servants in women's suffrage; radical women and the bicycle, and suffragette Constance Lytton and the cause of prison reform.
The most interesting titles for talks are Margarethe Faas-Hardegger's anarchist analysis of women in/vs. syndicalist unions by Corrine Chambers, and Wigan's 'doughty henchwomen' run Britain's first Women's Suffrage candidate's campaign by Yvonne Eckersley. Classic stuff.
For the full programme of talks and workshops that run 9:30am-4pm click here.
Tickets are £20 (£7.50 unwaged) which includes lunch and refreshments and, although the Conference is fully booked, there are possibilities of returned tickets email trustees@wcml.org.uk for details. This event is hosted by the Working Class Movement Library but takes place at the Old Fire Station on The Crescent.
Once the Conference has whetted an appetite for all things liberationist, ten days later, on 27th September, there's a ten week course starting which takes the history of radical women back to 1790 and forward winds the fights until 1918.
The classes cover some of the key movements, events and personalities of this period, including Mary Wollstonecraft and the radical movement of the 1790s, women Luddites, women at Peterloo, women and Chartism and the long struggle for Votes for Women from 1866 to 1918. The course will include the contribution of women from Manchester and Salford, and is led by top local working class historian, Michael Herbert, author of Up Then Brave Women: Manchester's radical women 1819-1918.
"I am delighted to again be using the Working Class Movement Library as a venue for this course as it has a wealth of archives on these events" says Michael "At a time when we see a resurgence of inequality, poverty, low wages and sheer desperation we should take heart from the example of women of the past who fought for a better society for all."
And, at only £6 per lesson for ten weeks it's got to be great value for all that knowledge which, as everyone knows, is power...
Radical Women 1790-1918 Course
Starts Tuesday 27th September for ten weeks
11am-1pm
Working Class Movement Library
The Crescent
For more information contact Michael redflagwalks@gmail.com
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
(3).jpeg)
.png)
(1).JPG)
