This March is Women’s History Month. It provides an opportunity to celebrate the significant contributions that women have made to history, society, and culture. Generations of women have pushed boundaries, broken patriarchal ideals, and generated progress. Women’s History Month is all about bringing women’s stories to the fore. It is about changing traditional narratives and celebrating hitherto overlooked women who have played major roles in shaping the world we live in today.
British Online Archives (BOA) would like to take this opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of women throughout history. Our extensive primary source collections contain material relating to 1,000 years of world history, and illuminate broad historical themes such as politics, warfare, slavery, and medicine.
Many of the sources in our collections document the role of women in society. Over the years, members of our team have explored these collections in order to produce articles on intriguing aspects of women’s history. We have compiled a list of these articles below.
From the Archive: Censorship of Lesbian Literature by Alice Broome
In this article, Alice Broome takes an in-depth look at the censorship of Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness (1928). Deemed inappropriate for public consumption, the novel was banned under the Obscene Publications Act 1857 for its depiction of a relationship between two women. Using primary sources from American Women's Club Magazine, 1925–1936; The Bystander, 1903–1940; and The Graphic, 1869–1932, Alice surveys the reception that the novel received and the backlash that followed its publication. As Alice illustrates, ensorship of Hall's novel highlights the restrictions that were placed on women’s lives, such as on what they wrote and, crucially, on who they loved. Publication of The Well of Loneliness, and its subsequent ban, remain important moments in women’s and LGBTQ+ history.
Full article: From the Archive: Censorship of Lesbian Literature
From the Archive: The Turbulent History of Women’s Football in The Illustrated London News by Alice Broome
In this article, Alice Broome tracks the development of women’s football in the UK. She does so by surveying publications that were owned by the Illustrated London News and which are hosted by BOA, namely The Sketch, 1893–1958, The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 1874–1970, and Illustrated War News, 1914–1918 & 1939.
Alice looks at the formation, in 1894, of the first formal ladies' team in the UK, the British Ladies’ Football Club (BLFC). She also takes a close look at the public reception that the team received. Alice then turns her attention to the fortunes of women’s football during the interwar years.
Alice's article showcases BOA's extensive primary source collections and how they can be used to explore the political, social, and cultural dimensions of history.
From the Archive: Women at Work Throughout the Twentieth Century by Niamh Franklin
In this article, Niamh Franklin delves into one of BOA’s primary source collections, namely Britannia and Eve, 1926–1957. Britannia and Eve (B&E) was established in 1929 and was owned by the Illustrated London News. B&E marketed itself to a predominantly female readership, especially to wealthy and rather conservative ladies.
Drawing upon B&E, Niamh analyses the changing role of women during wartime, with a particular focus on their relationship with work. Niamh’s survey of B&E examines the conflicting attitudes of women towards their new roles in the workplace, a development which was perhaps not as liberating as one might initially assume.
Full article: From the Archive: Women at Work Throughout the Twentieth Century
From the Archive: The Tobacco Industry and Advertising: Women Smoking in Interwar Britain by Nishah Malik 
In this article, Nishah Malik delves into the back catalogue of Britannia and Eve. She explores the rise in women smokers and their increased visibility in tobacco advertisements during the interwar years in Britain. Prior to the First World War (1914–1918) smoking was deemed a masculine habit. As Nishah demonstrates, the relative freedom that women gained after the First World War catalysed the blurring of gender norms with regard to smoking. Utilising advertisements from B&E, Nishah’s article takes a close look at how women’s newfound freedom in the interwar years gave them the opportunity to partake in traditionally masculine habits and how the cigarette became feminised for the first time.
From the Archive: Cycling to Equality by Katherine Waite 
Written by BOA’s Head of Publishing, Katherine Waite, this article draws upon primary source collections contained within BOA’s series British Illustrated Periodicals, 1869–1970. Katherine hones in on a rather surprising object that proved influential in relation to the women’s suffrage movement: the bicycle. Today, it is hard to imagine just how consequential and, indeed, controversial the introduction of the bicycle actually was. During the late nineteenth-century, however, it proved to be a revolutionary tool for women.
Katherine’s article explores the ways in which the bicycle transformed women’s role in society. She highlights how the bicycle subverted the traditional, patriarchal expectation that women should stay in the home, only leaving whilst accompanied by male chaperones. Katherine likewise explores the criticisms that the female cyclist faced—many conservative members of society were appalled at the impropriety of a young woman with her legs astride a bicycle. Katherine also considers the radical changes to women's fashion that occurred as a result of the rise of cycling.
Full article: From the Archive: Cycling to Equality
From the Archive: The Failures of Women in Art by Katherine Waite 
The Sketch, first published in 1893, was one of several publications that came to be owned by the Illustrated London News. Throughout 1898 The Sketch published a column titled “The Failures of Women in Art”. It highlighted and reflected upon the perceived artistic deficiencies of women in various creative fields, such as literature, music, and science. This article, written by Katherine Waite, BOA’s Head of Publishing, appraises the arguments and reasoning advanced in this column.
Katherine explores the perspectives on women that were advanced in The Sketch. Indeed, she demonstrates how they were typical of commentary at the time, which tended to endorse patriarchy. Katherine’s article also surveys the conservative backlash occasioned by progressive cultural trends in Britain, most notably the emergence of the "New Woman", the development of the female suffrage movement, and changing attitudes to gender roles throughout the latter half of the 1800s.
Full article: From the Archive: The Failures of Women in Art
From the Archive: Beauty Standards and Diet Culture in British Print Media, 1901–1966 by Nishah Malik 
In this article, Nishah Malik reflects upon the media’s role in the promotion and glorification of the relationship between physical thinness and beauty. Nishah considers the toxicity of diet culture within print media and the language used within weight loss adverts, paying particular attention to the adverts and diet advice advanced in The Tatler, 1901–1965 and London Life, 1965–1966 periodicals that were owned by the Illustrated London News and which are hosted by BOA.
Unfortunately, history has shown how the media’s relationship with diet culture and beauty can be extremely problematic, even dangerous. As Nishah demonstrates, the media have been creating and feeding off women’s insecurities for over 100 years. She likewise highlights the sexist nature of the diet and media industries.
Full article: From the Archive: Beauty Standards and Diet Culture in British Print Media, 1901–1966
From the Archive: Women's Liberation, Miniskirts and The Pill in 1960s and 70s Britain by Nishah Malik
When discussing past changes to women’s status, emphasis is typically placed upon the pivotal political and legal changes that were initiated by the success of the women’s suffrage movement throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s. Yet alongside these changes, female identities were also developing on the cultural, social, and economic planes. Significantly, women’s position in British society underwent considerable change throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
In this article, Nisha Malik draws upon primary source material contained in BOA’s primary source collection British Government Information and Propaganda, 1939–2009. Nishah surveys the broad changes that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s with respect to women’s roles in British society. As Nishah highlights, it was a period in which the breakdown of traditional patriarchal ideals gained momentum and which saw women gaining more social freedom. Nishah likewise examines the effects of the post-war “Youthquake”, the rise of the hemline, the sexual revolution, and the introduction of the contraceptive pill.
Full article: From the Archive: Women's Liberation, Miniskirts and The Pill in 1960s and 70s Britain
Princess Sophia Duleep Singh and The Important Role of Indian Women in the Suffragette Movement by Nishah Malik 
Throughout history women have made significant contributions to society. In this article, Nishah Malik reflects upon Sophia Duleep Singh’s contributions to British society. The young Indian princess was a member of the British elite, a close friend of Queen Victoria, as well as a prominent member of the suffragette movement. Nishah highlights the significance of Sophia’s contributions to the suffragette movement. Her article likewise emphasises the importance of the fact that Sophia was the first Indian suffragette, at a time when her presence in British society, as a woman of colour, would have been somewhat unwelcome. The article also surveys broader arguments and debates about immigration and Indian women’s role in shaping modern British society.
From the Archive: Women’s Liberation and the CPGB by Sean Waite
Written by Sean Waite, this article draws upon documents in one of BOA’s many fascinating primary source collections, in this case, Gender, Feminism, and the British Left, 1944–1991. Sean explores the relationship between the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the women's liberation movement. In the 1970s, the CPGB experienced heavy membership losses due to the emergence of new left-wing social movements that threatened to outflank the CPGB on a number of issues. Crucially, the women's liberation movement was one of these.
Sean’s article evidences the ways in which the CPGB had to walk the line between their theoretical commitment to progressive feminist principles and their distaste for elements of the women’s liberation movement, which they regarded as frivolous and unruly.
Full article: From the Archive: Women’s Liberation and the CPGB
The Deterioration of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan by Emily Renton
Written by Emily Renton, this article explores the history of the women's rights movement in Afghanistan. Prior to the 1970s, the women's rights movement in Afghanistan appeared to be succeeding—schools for girls had been established, and women had also gained the right to vote and to work. This state of affairs did not last long, however. Emily’s article explores the deterioration of women's rights in Afghanistan following the USSR-backed Saur Revolution of April 1978.
Full article: The Deterioration of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan
Women and War: Challenging the Archetype of Passive Women Throughout the Troubles by Martha Bird
Today, there are millions of women living in the midst of, and engaging in, military conflicts. Yet, traditionally, women have been associated with pacificism and are deemed to gravitate, instinctively, towards passive, pastoral roles. Martha Bird’s article challenges these assumptions. Focusing on women's experiences of “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland, a conflict that broke out in the late 1960s, and which was to some extent resolved via the brokering of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement in April 1998, Martha evidences how women were not just nurses, or mothers, or the symbols of national unity during “the Troubles”. Instead, as Martha demonstrates, women were active subjects who played influential roles in the conflict, frequently as combatants.
Full article: Women and War: Challenging the Archetype of Passive Women Throughout the Troubles