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Image credit: The Women's Library, London Metropolitan University - see image references at the end
Key class numbers and search terms
Key references, latest academic works and acquisitions
Periodicals
Press cuttings and ephemera
Zines and artist books
Electronic resources
Archives
Museum
Identifying images
Further information
The Women's Library, founded in 1926 as the Library of the London Society for Women's Service, exists to document and explore women's lives in Britain in the past, now and in the future. Printed material, ephemera, archives, oral histories and museum objects together form The Women's Library collections. The collections cover a range of topics including women's rights, suffrage, sexuality, health, education, employment, reproductive rights, the family and the home and are the most extensive resource for women's history in the UK.
The Library holds a range of material on women and their relationship to government. This includes women involved in politics at the national and local level, as well as women involved in specific political campaigns such as the suffrage movement, the women's liberation movement and the peace movement. Women's rights and women and social policy are also well represented in the collection. The collections embrace historical materials as well as contemporary, books, pamphlets and periodicals and provide an insight into women's engagement with politics both at home and abroad. The Library also holds relevant press cuttings and campaigning literature in the ephemera collection whilst the archives include organisational and campaign records, letters and personal papers. The library also provides access to a range of electronic resources on government and politics.
Key class numbers and search terms
The printed collections of The Women's Library are arranged in the Dewey Decimal Classification and listed on London Metropolitan University's online catalogue, available in the Reading Room and via the website. Key class numbers and search terms for women and politics include:
Key references, latest academic works and acquisitions
The Library holds the following guides and bibliographies, useful for identifying further information and material on the subject:
Faure, Christine (ed.). Political and historical encyclopedia of women. London: Routledge, 2003. Reading Room 320.082ENC
Gender, citizenship and governance: a global sourcebook. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Royal Tropical Institute; Oxford, UK: Oxfam GB, 2004. Reading Room 306.2082GEN
Krichmar, Albert. The Women's Movement in the seventies: an international English language bibliography. Metuchen, N.J.: London: Scarecrow, 1977. Reading Room 016KRI
Stanwick, Kathy and Li, Christine. The political participation of women in the United States: a selected bibliography 1950-1976. Metuchen: London: Lanham, 1977. Reading Room 016.3230420973STA
Women politics and power' in Hannam, June, Hughes, Ann and Stafford Pauline. British women's history: a bibliographical guide. Manchester: Manchester University Press, c1996. p105-117. Reading Room 016.30540941BRI
The Women's Library's most recently published and newly available acquisitions
Periodicals
The Library holds a wide range of periodicals on women, including academic titles, popular magazines and campaigning newsletters. Some relevant periodical titles related to politics are Equal opportunities international, Gender and society and the NAWO e-bulletin (National Alliance of Women's Organisations). Further periodical titles on the subject can be identified through the online catalogue.
For further guidance on identifying periodicals click here.
Press cuttings and ephemera
The presscuttings collections cover the whole of the 20th century and are particularly valuable for identifying contemporary comment where retrospective online newspaper coverage is unavailable. The Library holds microfilmed cuttings, up to 1979, and they are a rich source for 20th century comment on women in government at 396.9 and the political emancipation of women at 396.11, both in Britain and overseas. Cuttings relating to individual political parties can be found at 329 whilst reports of the peace movement and international relations are at 172.4 The biographical press cuttings supplement the printed biographies collection and are a useful source of information about women in government, particularly at a local level, where information is less likely to be available in mainstream sources.
The Library's ephemera collection contains information relating to women's organisations, including leaflets, flyers, minutes of meetings, agendas and all kinds of campaign literature. It includes ephemera for the Women's Peace Network and the 300 group as well as material relating to individual political parties.
Zines and artist books
The Library's collections currently include more than 350 zines and 27 artist books some of which explore politics.
Electronic resources
Electronic resources (online journals and databases) are currently only available to London Metropolitan University staff and students, and can be accessed via the online catalogue with their institutional identification and password. London Metropolitan Academic Liaison Librarians have provided a list of relevant e-resources.
Archives
A brief guide to the archives is available on The Women's Library's website. Further details of archives available for research can be found in the archive and museum catalogue or in the hard copy catalogues available in the Reading Room on the shelves adjacent to the Information Desk. Remember that our collections have many papers relating to specific women's political movements, such as suffrage, peace and the women's liberation movement, see our Source Notes on these topics for more detail The following archives, including records of organisations, societies, campaigns, personal papers, letters, and oral histories, relate to women in politics.
5BWW Records of the Women for Westminster Bournemouth Branch, 1944-1946
5CWO Records of the Consultative Committee of Women's Organisations
5GCC Greenham Common Collection, 1982-1983
5THG Records of the 300 Group 7BSH Strachey Family Papers
7BNS Papers of Baroness Beatrice Nancy Seear
7CFD Papers of Charlotte Despard, 1844-1939, nee French, suffragist and communist
7CTH Papers of Catherine Thackray
7EAW Papers of Elizabeth Wilson and Angela [Weir] Mason
7ESP Papers of, and relating to Sylvia Pankhurst
7HBE Papers of Helen Bentwich, c.1910-c.1960
7KDC Papers of Kathleen d'Olier Courtney
7LLH Papers of Lady Lucy Houston
7MSH Papers of Mary Sheepshanks
7ROD Papers of Ross Davies
7RSJ Papers of Ruth Jones (nee Slate)
7VDG Papers of Vida Goldstein
8WAT Records of Hansard Commission 'Women at the Top' (1990 and 1996 reports)
9/02 Autograph Letter Collection: General Women's Movement
9/13 Autograph Letter Collection : Letters to and from Harriet McIlquham
9/19 Autograph Letter Collection: Keir Hardie, the Webbs and Ramsay MacDonald
10/08 Scrapbooks and albums of Mrs Ruth Homan
Museum
The museum collection comprises of postcards, photographs, posters, banners and badges. Further details of museum objects available for research can be found in the archive and museum catalogue or in the hard copy catalogues available in the Reading Room on the shelves adjacent to the Enquiry Desk.Specifically the objects relate to political campaigning - such as badges with campaign slogans or photographic portraits of politicians and activists. Search for terms such as politician, politics, equal pay and parliament. Note: a search for 'politic*' will bring up multiple entries for Women's Social & Political Union.
Identifying images
Images can be found throughout The Women's Library's collections. Many digital images are available on Flickr, Vads, the archives catalogue (click on the number in the left hand side) and Mary Evans Picture Library. Use Mary Evans Picture Library's fast service for a non-watermarked high resolution images suitable for publication. If you require an image which has not been digitised you are welcome to use our reprographic service. Normal copyright conditions will apply.
Web Archive
This collection of web sites about Women's Issues is maintained by the British Library in collaboration with the Women's Library, London Metropolitan University. The collection was established in 2005 and has regularly collected web sites since then. It includes sites of women's organisations and campaigns, research reports, government publications and statistics pertaining to women, personal sites of women, such as blogs, and women focused e-zines. Specifically relevant to Politics are sites such as Theresa May MP
Further information
The staff of The Women's Library can help you find material relating to your subject area; please don't hesitate to ask. You can contact the Information Desk staff prior to your visit via email twlinfodesk@londonmet.ac.uk, telephone 020 7320 3515, or by asking at the Information Desk in the Reading Room on the day of your visit.
Image references: What have women to do with politics. Glasgow, Scottish Women's Liberal Federation, 1899. UDC pamphlet box 453 ; Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Bill, 1928 (Estimated Electorate) London : H.M.S.O., 1928
Return to source notes
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