Historians make mark on history
IN this centenary year of women getting the vote, a group that celebrates women’s history has, itself, made a mark on history. Two leading historians of Women’s Archive Wales were among the pioneering women named in the Welsh Government project 100 Welsh Women that celebrated the impact woman have made on the national life of Wales in the 100 years since women achieved voting rights in the Representation of the People Act 1918.
Co-founders of the Archive and pioneers in forcing women’s history on to the academic agenda, the late Dr Ursula Masson was named among the 50 dead women who had made a big impact on Welsh life; and Professor Deirdre Beddoe, president of the Archive, was named among the 50 living women currently inspiring Wales. The honours will be noted at this year’s conference of the Archive.
The Ursula Masson Memorial Lecture is held every year around International Women’s Day in her honour. Professor Beddoe is well known for her writing and broadcasting on women’s history in the 20th century, especially in world war one and world war two. She was among leading feminists chosen for interview for the British Library archive Sisterhood and After, a record of activists at the forefront of the fight for political and social equality in the 1970s/80s.
To mark the centenary, the Archive is holding a special international conference this year that will include talks on the suffrage movement in Denmark and Ireland and will run as part of the annual conference with its usual focus on women in Wales.
The conference will be held at the Swansea University School of Management Centre at the Swansea Bay Campus, Saturday and Sunday October 6/7. There is still time to book a place, contact secretary Sue Thomas at s.j.thomas@swansea. ac.uk. Men are welcome, too. The Archive, itself, is devoted to the work of women but the conference and membership of the Archive; are open to all. Jean Silvan Evans Peterston-super-Ely Vale of Glamorgan