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Image credits: The Women's Library, London Metropolitan University - see image references at the end
See our collections on display in our free exhibitions "All work and low pay: the story of women and work" and " "Cycling to Suffrage: The Bicycle and Women's Rights, 1890-1914" and related events
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 (personal and organisation papers and oral histories)
Museum (objects, textiles and visual images)
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 include a wide range of resources related to women and the law from historical materials to contemporary books, pamphlets and periodicals. The collections range from the history of women's position in law to women's campaigns to change the law. Women's rights, feminist jurisprudence and sex discrimination are also included in the collections as well as women's contributions to the legal professions. The Library also holds relevant press cuttings and ephemera, organisational records and personal papers. The library also provides access to many electronic resources on law.
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 law include:
See also Sources on women and psychology and Sources on sociology and social research
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:
Hamelsdorf, Ora. Jewish women and Jewish law bibliography.Fresh Meadows, NY : Biblio Press, c1980. Reading Room 016.296 HAM
'Legal status of women' in Hannam, June, Hughes, Ann and Stafford Pauline British women's history : a bibliographical guide Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996 p84-85 Reading Room 016.30540941
Partington, Martin Welfare rights: a bibliography on law and the poor, 1970-1975 London : Pinter, 1976. Reading Room 016.34410431 PAR
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 on women and law are ALRA newsletter : campaigning for a woman's right to choose on bortion, Family Law, Individualist: monthly journal of personal rights, Lesbian employment rights, and Rights of women bulletin . Further periodical titles on the subject can be identified through the printed materials 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, on law (34), and criminal law (343). In addition to the general press cuttings we also hold scrapbooks of press cuttings on various campaigns for change aspects of the law, such as 10/7 Miss Nettleford (available on microfilm) and 10/32 Maud Isabel Crofts.
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 such as Legal Action for Women.
Zines and artist books
The Library's collections currently include more than 350 zines and 27 artist books some of which explore motherhood.
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 archives and museum catalogue or in the hard copy finding aids in the Reading Room on the shelves adjacent to the Information Desk. The following archives, including records of organisations, societies, campaigns, personal papers, letters related to women and law:
2LSW London Society for Women's Service
3AMS Association for Moral and Social Hygiene
3LNA Ladies' National Association for Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1875-1915
3NAR National Association for Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1871-1890
7BJE Papers of Betty Jerman on 'baby snatching'
7EDT Papers of Edith Tancred
7HLN Papers of Helena Normanton
7JOL Papers of Joan Lock
7LOT Papers of Louisa Twining, 1820-1912, poor law reformer
8NLS National Life Story Collection: Fawcett Collection
8SUF Oral Evidence on the Suffragette and Suffragist Movements
8WPC Women Police Collection
9/31/71 Correspondence of Sir John Young Walker MacAlister
Museum
This Collection includes badges, postcards, photographs, posters, textiles, some ceramics and other objects. 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 Library holds objects that relate to campaigning for changes in the law: suffrage, reproductive rights, equality in the workplace and women's rights. Museum objects on this topic can be located in the catalogue using terms such as law, Equal Pay, Sex Discrimination, equality, and legal. Objects can also be found in 7HLN Helena Normanton's Archive, which include dress items from her role as a barrister
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.
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: 345.02532 LEE. [E.T.] The lawes resolutions of womens rights:...London : printed by the assignment of John More, esquire, and are to be sold by John Grove, at his shop neere the Rowles in Chancery-Lane, over against the Sixe-Clerkes Office, 1632 Vault CB 346.013 EHT ; Helena Normanton 7HLN/E/11 available from Mary Evans Picture Library reference: 10123750 ; The law in relation to women /by a Lawyer. London : [s.n.], 1888 Vault pamphlet 342.0878 LAW
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