This edition is published in collaboration with students at Cedar Mount Academy (CMA) in Gorton. Brought together through Dr Kerry Pimblott’s AHRC-funded project, ‘Grassroots Struggles, Global Visions: British Black Power, 1964-1985’, we have been working with these students to think about ‘hidden histories’ of Manchester. Following talks and workshops, the students at CMA have produced Continue Reading
The Story of Krystyna Skarbek, by Miles Davenport
The very first female agent that served with SOE was a Polish-Jewish Aristocrat known as Krystyna Skarbek. In addition to being the first woman to serve with the SOE, Skarbek was also the longest serving field agent, male or female, during the SOE’s existence.
Ever Since Eve: How and Why Has the Bible Been Used to Justify Women’s Oppression? By Grace Fowler
As a character in Genesis, Eve’s entire existence is explored in relation to man, whether that be as a wife or a mother. As the first woman, there is a notion that she is the mother of all humans, the pinnacle of woman.
Made In Dagenham: The Fight for Equal Pay, by Amani Bates
In 1968 there were 55,000 men employed at Ford Motor Company’s Dagenham Factory and only 187 women. These female machinists were informed that their job had been degraded to ‘unskilled’ work resulting in reduced pay. Consequently, the women went out on strike demanding, quite rightly, their grading be changed, and that they be given the appropriate pay.
The Female Malady: How have Cultural Ideas about Feminine Behaviour Shaped the Definition and Treatment of Madness in Women? By Isla Moore
For centuries, women in western Europe suffering from a long list of, sometimes vague, symptoms – including anxiety, loss of sexual desire, or too much sexual desire, insomnia and being ‘difficult’- could find themselves being labelled with the common medical diagnosis of ‘female hysteria’.